...from the Assessor, Paul Smith
For the current tax rate table, click
here.
Many residents have asked
about paying taxes online using credit cards or electronic
check or by phone using those methods. This is now
available through the services of Official Payments. There
is a fee for this service. Go to the Online Tax Payments
page of this website for more information.
The
State Treasury has issued the inflation rate used to
calculate your 2008 Taxable Value. Your Taxable Value—not
including any new construction—will increase by 2.3%.
Remember that taxes are based on Taxable Value, not
the State Equalized Value (SEV).
Your
SEV is based on sales during the previous two years in your
area. The sale prices of the sold homes are compared with
the assessed value and a ratio is developed to bring the
assessed value in line with the sale prices. This ratio is
then applied to all homes in a particular area. Since we are
comparing past sales, our estimates are usually low.
Overall, data indicates that residential property will go up
an average of 3.4% this year with some areas actually
experiencing a decline in value. We have had many sales
along the lake, and these lakefront and lake- view property
values have gone up significantly.
The
Principal Residence Exemption will reduce your property
taxes by about 40%. Please be sure that if you qualify for
this exemption (your home is your principal residence) that
you are receiving the exemption. We find a few people every
year that qualify, but who are not taking advantage of this
tax break. The Principal Residence Exemption form is
available on our forms page
I often field questions regarding tax
dollars and where the money is spent. (Please refer to the
pie chart below.) As you can see, most of the taxes
collected (65%) go to fund the schools (including the Ottawa
Intermediate School District). The two mills for Fire,
Roads, & Drains have been in place since the mid-1960s and
are renewed every two years by a vote of the residents.
Township Operating revenue goes toward
wages (other than the fire department), insurance, police,
park and cemetery maintenance, building maintenance,
utilities, legal fees, and the other expenses associated
with running a township.
For information and tax forms, follow the links provided:
http://www.allegancounty.org/taxmaps/ (for Allegan
County parcel map)
http://www.allegancounty.org (Allegan County
assessing and tax records)
http://www.irs.gov/
http://www.michigan.gov/treasury (for forms)
The "Homestead Property Tax Exemption" is now known as
the "Homeowner's Principal Residence Exemption." To
download a copy, please see our forms
page.
We will continue to add information to this page. Please
visit again soon.
