Property Taxes - York County (Fort Mill, Tega Cay: second mortgage, estate, showing)

[MilesBFree]

Hi,

Our property taxes (York County - we live in Lakeshore in Tega Cay) seem way out of line with what others we have talked to are paying.

I filled out the form to have them reduced from 6% to 4% (see link below) but that only reduced the tax from obscene to merely ridiculous.

Our tax bill shows the house as valued at about $370,000. 6% of that was about $22,200. That was our old tax bill!!! Every year!!!

Now after filling out the form to get the taxes reduced to 4%, the bill is still about $14,800 per year.

Are they taxing me properly, or are taxes that off-the-meter down here? Did I really screw up by not researching this before I moved? (sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach...) I am used to taxes being in the mil range, not percent range. (Mil being 1/1000, percent being 1/100. This is an order of magnitude greater.)

I talked to a few neighbors with very similar new construction in Tega Cay, and they said this is way out of line with what they pay.

Can anyone confirm if the taxes are this bad, or if not recommend where to start to get to the bottom of this, if they are taxing me incorrectly?

Thanks!

[MilesBFree]

Forgot to include the link I mentioned.

The form I referred to is a legal residence form. It lowers the tax rate from 6% to 4%.

Some links:

http://www.yorkcountygov.com/assessor/How%20to%20Estimate%20Real%20Estate%20Taxes.pdf (broken link)

http://www.yorkcountygov.com/assessor/4_application.pdf (broken link)

If you do not know your tax map (parcel) #, you can look it up here:

:: GIS Online Mapping and Property Search ::

Lakeshore is school district 4, I think.

There is also a homestead exemption exemption available to those over 65:

:: Homestead Exemptions :: (broken link)

[MilesBFree]

OK, I found a link the the millage rates for York County:

http://www.yorkcountygov.com/assesso...ECHART2006.pdf

This indicates that the rate should be 345 mil, or 0.345%. That is more what I was expecting. That was for 2006, but still nowhere close to the 6% they were formerly charging me. The 6% number was more like a second mortgage payment.

Can anyone enlighten me as to what the "right answer" is?
And how I phrase the question to the York County people?

[lovethecarolinas]

Originally Posted by MilesBFree

Hi,

Our property taxes (York County - we live in Lakeshore in Tega Cay) seem way out of line with what others we have talked to are paying.

I filled out the form to have them reduced from 6% to 4% (see link below) but that only reduced the tax from obscene to merely ridiculous.

Our tax bill shows the house as valued at about $370,000. 6% of that was about $22,200. That was our old tax bill!!! Every year!!!

Now after filling out the form to get the taxes reduced to 4%, the bill is still about $14,800 per year.

Are they taxing me properly, or are taxes that off-the-meter down here? Did I really screw up by not researching this before I moved? (sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach...) I am used to taxes being in the mil range, not percent range. (Mil being 1/1000, percent being 1/100. This is an order of magnitude greater.)

I talked to a few neighbors with very similar new construction in Tega Cay, and they said this is way out of line with what they pay.

Can anyone confirm if the taxes are this bad, or if not recommend where to start to get to the bottom of this, if they are taxing me incorrectly?

Thanks!

Egads!!! NO!....if in fact your property tax bill that you rec'd was for $14,800...that is WAY OFF BASE!!! You are correct that the property taxes are in the mil range. While this is only an apx. property tax figure your bill should only be in the $3,000 range. If I were you I'd be making that call to the tax accessor no later than yesterday!!

:: Tax Assessor :: (broken link)

[lovethecarolinas]

Originally Posted by MilesBFree

OK, I found a link the the millage rates for York County:

http://www.yorkcountygov.com/assesso...ECHART2006.pdf


This indicates that the rate should be 345 mil, or 0.345%. That is more what I was expecting. That was for 2006, but still nowhere close to the 6% they were formerly charging me. The 6% number was more like a second mortgage payment.

Can anyone enlighten me as to what the "right answer" is?
And how I phrase the question to the York County people?

The millage link you are showing is/for was for 2006....our taxes were decreased in 2007...so the figure will actually be lower. If I can find the link here in a second I will post it.

Okay...here is the link for 2007:

[url]http://www.yorkcountygov.com/assessor/MILLAGECHART2007.pdf[/url


Here is a really good link on how to figure your taxes (I don't have a clue to who this realtor is....so I am not promoting them at all)....that I have found very helpful:
http://www.tegacayrealestate.com/tax.htm

[MilesBFree]

Thanks! following the links you posted, it looks like they are assessing us at a straight 4% now. They appear to not be factoring in the millage rates.

So the old calculation was:

assessed value x 4%

The correct method is:

assessed value x 4% x millage rate

So our tax should be something like:

$370,000 x 4% x 0.193 = $2,856

Confirmed by this:

http://www.yorkcountygov.com/assessor/How%20to%20Estimate%20Real%20Estate%20Taxes.pdf (broken link)

I am calling them now...

[MilesBFree]

OK, the people at the York County assessor's office are hostile. Makes me wonder if they had some sort of computer glitch and have been getting a lot of irate calls. The first woman practically attacked me, then since I persisted in trying to get to the bottom of the matter, said that she would have to get me to her supervisor, which at least she did.

Her supervisor was only slightly less antagonistic than the first woman. It sounds like they have fixed whatever the old issue was, and my tax bill is more like $3,800 now. She was unwilling to explain why it was to have been over $20,000 before, but I decided to just let it go since the $3,800 number is more what I was expecting.

The first woman was insisting that the millage rate was .267 for Tega Cay, but the second person agreed that the .193 number from the millage rates link above is correct.

Assessed value is lot plus building, or in our case about $125,000 for the lot, and $370,000 for the building house), for a total of $495,000. So the calculation is:

$495,000 x 4% x 0.193 = $3,821

That is a lot more reasonable.

When I filled out the 6% --> 4% form, they sent me a refund check for around $7,000 for the overpayment based on their screwy calculation last year (and consider this - that was only for a partial tax year!!!). I think when they processed that form, they caught the error and fixed it, but they are now unwilling to admit that there ever was a problem. However, at 6%, the tax bill should have been about $5,732. The refund should have been about $1,900, not $7,000. That tells me there actually WAS a problem... (The $7,000 refund is correct based on the amount of tax I actually paid.)

I guess I am happy that all's well that ends well. But if I were you, I would look at your York County bills and tax notices VERY closely.

[scamutz]

Wow, that's still not very low...I was under the impression that SC taxes were going to be cheap having just moved up from FL. I was paying 18 Mills in Tampa, FL - so my taxes will actually be going up! amazing.

[lovethecarolinas]

Originally Posted by scamutz

Wow, that's still not very low...I was under the impression that SC taxes were going to be cheap having just moved up from FL. I was paying 18 Mills in Tampa, FL - so my taxes will actually be going up! amazing.

Like anything else...it's all relative...apparently someone that is coming from FL..it might seem high...talk to someone that came from Long Island and they will tell you it's a deal?

[MilesBFree]

It probably depends on which county - Fort Mill might be a little high-ish, but the schools are good, which is where a chunk of it goes. Some counties are lower, but don't have the reputation for the schools.

Coming from a major city, $3,800 is cheap