Decatur's tax office answers frequently asked questions

 

We've prepared answers to the most frequently asked questions we hear in the Revenue Division.  This information is also posted on the City's website at www.decaturga.com/taxfaq.  Please take a look and let us know if we left something out!

 

How do I check property taxes? You can pull City tax records, print a bill or receipt, or make a tax payment with a 2.2% plus 30¢ third-party processing fee online at www.decaturgatax.com.

When are taxes due?
We bill in two, unequal installments per year. Payment is due on June 1 and December 20.

How do I know if a property is inside Decatur’s city limits or is located in unincorporated DeKalb County?
There are thousands of properties with Decatur mailing addresses that are actually located outside of Decatur’s city limits in unincorporated DeKalb County. Properties in unincorporated DeKalb County do not receive services from the City of Decatur and are not subject to city taxes. About 99 percent of residences in Decatur’s city limits have a ZIP code of 30030, and about 90 percent of properties in Decatur have 3-digit street numbers. If you have a ZIP code other than 30030, or a 4-digit street number, there’s a fair chance that you’re not actually in the city. You can look at a map here, or search for the property on the DeKalb County tax commissioner’s website to confirm whether you are within city limits. If the property is in tax district 4, it’s in unincorporated DeKalb County. Tax district 92 is Decatur.

How long should it take for my tax payment to post? That will depend partly on where your payment was mailed. In general, even for in-person payments, please allow 7-10 business days before your payment is applied to your account. We honor postmarks, so don’t worry about additional interest accruing if you mailed your payment in on time.

Where is my refund? If an overpayment is made on your property, we refund the entity that made the last payment that resulted in the credit. For example, if you paid, then your mortgage company paid, we would refund the mortgage company. Issuing refunds may take three to four weeks after your original check cleared the bank before we mail out your refund check.

How do I appeal my property value? Through the DeKalb County tax assessors office. All properties in Decatur are assessed by the county. The city has no assessor, appraiser, influence, expertise, or authority over assessments. We receive values from the county and are bound by those values for tax purposes.

I appealed my taxes with DeKalb. Now what? We bill you using an 85% temporary value. Your city tax payment remains due while your appeal is being processed by DeKalb. Upon the conclusion of your appeal, you may end up owing us the remaining 15%. In other words, you could end up owing money even after winning an appeal.

Do I have homestead exemption?
Look at the exemptions column of your tax bill. You have the basic homestead exemption if a figure of $20,000 in the exemptions column on three rows of your bill. If you have all zeroes in the exemptions column, you do not have the basic homestead exemption.

If you’re not sure what age-based homestead exemptions you have, please call 404-370-4100 or visit City Hall for help. More information about homestead exemptions in Decatur can be found here.

To apply for the basic homestead exemption online, click here.

Will the second installment property tax bill be the same amount as the first installment? No.

How much will my next tax bill be? For a first installment tax bill, we will have your tax bill calculated by April 1. For a 2nd installment, we’ll know by October 20. We cannot provide any official numbers earlier than that because your taxable value or the millage rates could change.

Can I pay the full year’s taxes up front? No. We do not know how much your second installment tax bill will be each year until October 20.

Why did my tax bill go up? Individual circumstances will vary. Generally speaking, 1st installment tax bills are higher than 2nd installments because we bill for sanitation and stormwater fees during 1st installments only. Our millage rates have been fairly consistent over the last few years, so any other dramatic changes in your bill are probably due to a change in your assessed value from DeKalb County. Please check with DeKalb if you don’t understand why your assessed value has increased. To see an example of how we calculate bills, visit our general information page.

If Decatur only bills for sanitation and stormwater during the 1st installment, why are these fees showing up on my 2nd installment bill? Aren’t you double-charging me? No. The 2nd installment bill is always a re-statement of the entire bill for the year, including all taxes, fees, and payments made over the course of the year. The sanitation and stormwater charges are re-printed on your 2nd installment bill so that you know what the total year’s charges and payments have been, but you’re only being charged for these fees once per year.

Why are taxes in Decatur higher than DeKalb? The City of Decatur is known for high-quality services to its residents. DeKalb County property taxes for residents within the City of Decatur are lower than City taxes because the City provides more services to residents than the county does. Also, about 60 percent of your tax bill goes toward the city school system.

What if I never got a bill and my taxes are past due? We mail paper bills to every property owner twice a year. If we get mail returned, we research it and re-mail your bill either to the property address or alternate addresses that we find. We acknowledge that unusual circumstances may cause you not to receive a bill, but failure to receive a bill does not relieve you of your obligation to pay. Taxes are always due on June 1 and Dec. 20. If you haven’t received your paper bill, you can access it online at www.decaturgatax.com. We also offer a grace period with each billing. If taxes remain unpaid after the grace period we add 10 percent penalty and 1 percent interest per month. Ultimately, it is your responsibility as a property owner to ensure your taxes are paid.

What if I received a business personal property tax bill, but I’ve closed my business or sold the property?
Taxes must be paid for the full year regardless of any change in the residency of the taxpayer or disposition of the property that occurred after Jan. 1. The taxes cannot be pro-rated or waived even if your business has closed midway through the year.

Do you accept memo bills? No. We no longer accept payments with summary bills or statements that are created in-house by law firms or banks. All payments made by check must include the remittance coupon provided with the paper bill (or e-bill from decaturgatax.com) to ensure timely and accurate posting of your payment. Checks must include the property ID and the tax year for which the payment is being made.

I provided a new mailing address to your office. Why isn’t it showing on your website?
Please allow a few days after you’ve notified us of changes in ownership or mailing addresses to be updated. Also, please be aware that our ownership and mailing information is overridden each time we receive updated data from DeKalb County. DeKalb County maintains the official legal records including property recording, deeds, and tax digests. If you don’t notify the county of your updated information, the county’s old information will eventually override the information you’ve given us.

Where do I mail my tax payment? City of Decatur
P.O. Box 945650
Atlanta, GA 30394-5650

What types of payment do you accept?
You can pay with a check by mail or in person, cash in person, or by credit card online.

If you are paying off a tax lien or replacing a bounced check, we accept only cash or cashier’s check.

Why am I charged a processing fee to pay by credit card? The City uses a third party payment processor for credit card payments. This fee is charged by the processor. You can pay by check or cash with no extra charge.

What is the penalty if I pay late? A 10 percent penalty and 1 percent interest monthly are applied to any unpaid balances. Additional collection fees will apply if your account remains delinquent.

Who do I contact about my tax assessment, my appeal, my water bill, my landlord, my marriage license, or the public defender’s office?
DeKalb County at 404-371-2000.

 

 

Kennesaw hikes taxes 700 percent on blighted properties

Kennesaw approved a “blight tax” in April aimed at properties that are uninhabitable, unsafe, or have repeated illegal activity. The logic behind the property tax increase is that it costs the city more to perform services such as public safety and code enforcement at blighted properties. The Marietta Daily Journal reports:

KENNESAW — No residents spoke either for or against a proposed blight tax by the city of Kennesaw at two public hearings, resulting in an unanimous approval of the program Monday night. The program establishes a procedure to identify blighted structures and sets an increased rate of property tax at seven times the normal millage rate. The increase would be applied to the next tax bill cycle, which begins Oct. 1 of each year. After the vote, City Manager Steve Kennedy said Kennesaw residents understand the city should have an additional tool to address unsightly concerns, even though no actual properties were pinpointed during the council discussions as fitting the description “blighted.”

It's an interesting idea although the potential tax rate seems very steep, and may open the door to legal challenges if the ordinance is ever enforced.  11 Alive reports that Kennesaw’s new ordinance is “patterned after similar ordinances in other local governments in Georgia.”…

Part of HB 755 gets mixed reviews from tax officials

When a property is under appeal in Georgia, the property owner is generally billed for property taxes at 85 percent of the current year value. Last year, legislation was enacted that allowed the taxpayer to pay based on the 100 percent value if they preferred. House Bill 755, which was signed into law by Gov. Deal last month, includes further adjustments to the temporary value statute used for billing properties under appeal, with six different possible scenarios for determining the correct temporary value to use for billing based on the value of the property, whether or not improvements have been made to the property, and whether or not the property has been homesteaded.

Non-homestead properties valued at less than $2 million and homesteaded properties with no new improvements made to the property would pay 1) the 85 percent value or 2) the most recent final, settled value, whichever is less. 3) Homestead properties with new improvements would be billed at 85 percent. Non-homestead properties with proposed values greater than $2 million could pay 4) 85 percent of the proposed value, 5) 100 percent of the current year value, or 6) “the difference between the 85 percent tax bill based on the current year's valuation and the tax bill based on the valuation from the last year for which taxes were finally determined to be due on the property in conjunction with the amount of the tax bill based on valuation from the last year for which taxes were finally determined to be due on the property.”

When these different scenarios in the legislation were presented to the Georgia Association of Tax Officials at their annual conference in Athens last month, the response was unenthusiastic. During her presentation of legislative updates, Vicki Lambert, director of the Local Government Services Division (overseeing property and ad valorem taxation) of the Georgia Department of Revenue, said that the 6th possible calculation (referencing the difference between the values over two years) is too confusing to understand or explain.

Some county tax officials indicated that they would continue using 85 percent as their standard temporary value for most properties under appeal, but that they would include language on the bill or other printed materials describing the different possible values.

For the City of Decatur, we would base our bills on whatever value DeKalb County informs us is the temporary value—whether that is the 85 percent value or some other temporary amount dictated by law—and then adjust it by the same factor that we use to increase DeKalb’s 40 percent assessment to City’s 50 percent assessment (ie, 50 percent of the 85 percent value, or 50 percent of whichever value applies by law).

There are probably valid reasons for carving out all these different possible temporary values under the law, but it is a challenge to implement and communicate this clearly to taxpayers under appeal. Appealing your property value is already complicated enough without having multiple possible methods for calculating an accurate temporary value.

Decatur presents tips for maximizing revenues at national conference

Each attorney practicing law in Decatur is responsible for paying a $425 annual occupation tax to the City. Historically, our collection rate for this group has been low, and in 2012 we began taking steps to improve collections.

Over a one year period we were able to boost tax compliance for this group from 69 percent up to an 86 percent. We used performance measurements to identify the opportunity for growth and implemented process improvements to get there. After that experience we described our efforts in a case study submitted to the Alliance for Innovation, and the topic was selected for presentation during their Transforming Local Government 2014 conference in Denver, Colorado.

I had the pleasure of making the presentation in April along with communications chief Linda Harris, city manager Peggy Merriss, and revenue supervisor Shaun Shabazz. After presenting our experiences Linda conducted an interactive session called “The Dog Ate My Tax Bill” to help attendees brainstorm different ways to overcome nonpayment of taxes or other revenues.

It was a lot of fun, and as Peggy noted afterward, those who attended our session were very engaged. Thanks to her, Linda, Shaun, our city attorney Bryan Downs, and the folks at TLG including Brandi Allen who all helped make it a success!

Our case study doesn’t seem to be available yet on the conference archive, but here’s the PowerPoint I presented. This is useful information for local governments and businesses that are trying to collect on difficult accounts:

5 ideas to overcome delinquent payments without offending your customers

5 days until key tax deadline passes

Although property tax payments were due in Decatur on June 2, the City has offered a grace period until June 16 during which no penalties or interest will be applied to unpaid accounts. That grace period expires on Monday.

A 10 percent penalty and 1 percent interest per month will be applied to amounts that remain unpaid after June 16.

Over the last few years we’ve observed that about 80 percent of taxes are paid by the initial deadline in early June, with another 15 percent of property owners taking advantage of the two-week grace period.

City shares tax info during annexation meeting

City staff [from left, Andrea Arnold, Russ Madison, and Shaun Shabazz] discuss taxes and homestead exemptions with Parkwood resident during recent Q&A session

School and City staff from all departments including Administrative Services and the Revenue Division discussed property taxes and homestead exemptions with residents from Parkwood neighborhood during a Jun. 5 meeting at City Hall.

Although Parkwood’s annexation will become effective July 1, 2014, residents in the area will receive their normal tax bill in the fall from DeKalb County and no tax bill from Decatur in 2014.  Property taxes are always based on the status of the property as of January 1, and as of that date the homes were still in unincorporated DeKalb.

Parkwood residents will receive their first tax bill from Decatur in April 2015 during our 1^st installment 2015 billing.  We do not send individual bills to mortgage companies, so property owners should forward the bills to their lenders if paying taxes out of escrow.

I prepared a table showing how taxes may look over the next 18 months for these homeowners based on a few different property values in the neighborhood.  These estimates assume current millage rates, fees, steady property values, and a basic homestead exemption with the City and County.

100% County value	DeKalb 2014 bill	Decatur 1st install 2015 bill	Decatur 2nd install 2015 bill	DeKalb 2015 bill
$230,000	$3,000	$2,145	$1,835	$350
$350,000	$4,580	$3,160	$2,855	$550
$450,800	$5,890	$4,015	$3,705	$725

For a more precise estimate, tax calculators are available on this blog and at www.decaturga.com under “What’s New,” then “Annexation.”

Homestead exemptions are applied for separately with the County and the City.  Exemptions only have to be applied for once, and they renew automatically as long as there are no changes in ownership.  The Parkwood residents should apply for their exemption with the City prior to Mar. 15. 2015.  Our office will send a letter to the neighborhood explaining how Decatur’s exemptions work.

The last item that these new residents may need to know from our office is that any individuals with a home-based business would need to obtain a business license from the City pro-rated this year for $110, and $195 annually after that.

Quick note about DeKalb’s assessment notices

The assessment notices that DeKalb County recently sent to property owners say “City Exemptions May Not be Included in this Estimate” at the bottom of the notice. This doesn’t mean that you don’t have a homestead exemption with the City of Decatur. What it means is that DeKalb does not factor in what City exemptions you have when preparing the estimate.

If you’re not sure whether you have your homestead exemption with the City, you can look at your 2014 1st installment tax bill. If you have the basic homestead exemption, your savings from that exemption will be printed just above the tear-off line of the remittance coupon. Also, look at the exemptions column of your tax bill. You have the basic homestead exemption if a figure of $20,000 appears in the exemptions column on three rows of your bill. If you have all zeroes in the exemptions column, you do not have the basic homestead exemption.

You can also call our office at 404-370-4100 to confirm what exemptions you have.

Property tax payment deadline today

Property tax payments for Decatur's first installment of 2014 are due today. We honor postmarks, so as long as you get your payment in the mail today, no penalties or interest will apply. Payments are also accepted by credit card online with a convenience fee charged by our third party payment processor.

Commercial sanitation payments are also due today in order to maintain service.

New law takes aim at tax digests with big appeals

On Tuesday, Gov. Deal signed House Bill 755, a piece of legislation labeled somewhat misleadingly as a forest land market value bill.

HB 755 addresses several issues beyond forest land, including property values and taxation of all real property in Georgia. The law: 1) specifies what portion of taxes are due in cases of pending superior court litigation, 2) prohibits the approval of county tax digests by the commissioner of the state Department of Revenue when more than 5 percent of the assessed value in the digest is under appeal or arbitration, and 3) makes revisions to refunds and interest schedules in cases of over- and under-payment due to settled appeals.

The provision on digest approval essentially revives language (which had a lower threshold amount of 3 percent) that was purged from state law in 2010.

The governor also signed HB 954 on Tuesday which affects a narrower range of values for properties with rent controls or that are eligible for income tax credits.

Legislative update on property tax assessments

Of the half dozen bills affecting property taxes that were still being considered by the Georgia General Assembly during the final days of its 2014 legislative session, only one bill ended up passing both chambers.

House Bill 954 adds some criteria to the calculation of fair market value by tax assessors; specifically, "Rent limitations, operational requirements, and any other restrictions imposed upon the property in connection with the property being eligible for any income tax credits" would be factored into assessments going forward.

The legislation would probably only affect the assessment of certain multi-family dwellings such as rent-controlled or government-subsidized housing units.  The original House bill was slightly amended by the state Senate before final passage to clarify that such property shall not be considered as comparable for assessments and appeals.  (My interpretation of that amendment is that, for example, the owner of a non-rent controlled apartment complex can't use the value of a rent-controlled apartment complex as a comparable property to justify an appeal.)

The bill still needs to be signed by Gov. Deal before it becomes law.  Even if he approves it, I would expect little if any change to Decatur's total tax digest value from this extremely narrow measure.

Decatur property tax bills online

Decatur's property tax bills for the first installment of 2014 are now online at www.decaturgatax.com. We mailed paper bills last week. If you did not receive your bill in the mail, you can access it online, or call us at 404-370-4100 for us to resend your bill.

Payments can also be made online with a convenience fee equalling 30 cents plus 2.2 percent of the total charges. Payments are processed by PayPal, but you do not have to have a PayPal account to pay online. PayPal will give you the option to select "Don’t have a PayPal account?"  Then you can enter your information and pay by Visa, Mastercard, Discover, or American Express. 

Property tax records in Decatur are available online going back to 2009.

If you prefer to mail in your payment, please use the return envelope we enclosed with your bill and include the tear-off remittance coupon with your check. Or just stop by City Hall--we'd like to see you!