Minnesota Property Tax Appeal and Abatement

Challenging Overvaluation

As Benjamin Franklin once said, “There is nothing certain in life except death and taxes.” While this may be the case, you could potentially save money on your property taxes by obtaining a property tax appeal appraisal. Most counties determine your property tax burden based on an ad valorem assessment of the real property’s value.  Every fall, many property owners cringe when they receive their property tax assessment for the new year hoping that it doesn’t go up too much. 

Your tax bill is determined by two components:

• The tax rate which is sometimes referred to as the tax capacity rate and
• The assessed valuation.

While there is little anyone can do about the former, the assessed valuation is where there is a possibility that it can be appealed or challenged. 

Assessed Valuation

If you believe that your real property has been overvalued by the local assessor, a real estate appraisal completed by an experienced and credible appraiser will be more persuasive than any other evidence that you can provide on your own. Having an appraisal that demonstrates a discrepancy in value is the best and most defensible way to appeal your assessed market value. We have aided in the reduction of property taxes by appraisals on a wide variety of property types.

Many law firms advertise their services for property tax appeal and abatement; however, in the end, they enlist us appraisers to conduct the valuation. While we cannot advocate as your agent in the tax appeal proceeding, we will attend the tax appeal fully prepared to defend our value opinion and the methodologies that we employed to arrive at that value conclusion. You or an attorney will have to act in the agent’s capacity during the appeal.