...from the Assessor, Paul Smith

Allegan County has published a detailed pamphlet entitled

Understanding Proposal A in a Declining Market

To download a PDF of this information, click here.

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 for more information.

The State Treasury has issued the inflation rate used to calculate your 2010 Taxable Value. Your Taxable Value—not including any new construction—will decrease by 0.3%. Remember that taxes are based on Taxable Value, not the State Equalized Value (SEV). In some areas of the township we have dropped the SEV down lower that the current taxable value and in that case the SEV will become the new Taxable value.

Your SEV is based on sales that occurred between 10/01/2008 and 9/30/2009 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 drop an average of 5.61% this year with some areas experiencing a double digit declines in value.

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. Also, please be aware that if you have moved from your principal residence and it is on the market, you can continue to get the PRE Exemption for up to three years by filing a Conditional Rescind form. You need to file this form each year you wish to claim the exemption.

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/Government/EQ/PRDsearch.asp?pt=Living (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.