Hot Topic: The Taxpayer and the Property Tax

The local Assessor inspects your home and records its characteristics. They're recorded on a property record card. The characteristics are assigned prices and added up, then adjusted for depreciation, condition and neighborhood factors. An assessment notice is sent to the property owner. Meanwhile, local governments are setting tax rates during their budget process, and the legislature is making decisions about property tax relief. The County Treasurer sends out a tax bill.

Property record card? Assessment notice? Tax bill? They're all part of the Indiana property tax system. And they're all hard to understand. The assessment process recorded on the property record card includes items like "AC 1S", "PHYS", and "EFF YEAR". Most property owners never see their property record cards, and if they do, the meaning of all these abreviations will not necessarily be clear. The assessment notice reports the results of these measurements without saying where they came from. And the tax bill shows a series of dollar figures and percentages, which, when combined in just the right way, produces the tax owed.

In 2005, Indiana local governments collected between $5 and $6 billion in property taxes.  If you own a home or a business, most likely some of that money will come from you.  You, or your bank, will receive a tax bill from the County Treasurer.  The bill will show a lot of numbers.  Most importantly, it shows how much you owe.  The Treasurer will be wanting your payments in two installments, paid in May and November. 

All the local units of government in which you live will share this money.  The county government will get some, the township will get a little, and the school corporation will usually get a lot.  If you live in a city or town, a library district, or another special district (for transportation or fire protection, or other purposes), these units will get some of your money too.  Even the state government gets a small part.

It's complicated, but it's not rocket science. With a little explanation, property owners and taxpayers can understand these documents. Together, they reveal a lot about how Indiana's property taxes work. And they show a lot about the property tax issues that Indiana faces.

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