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Hillsborough Property Tax Notices To Hit Mail Next Week

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By MIKE SALINERO

The Tampa Tribune

Published: August 15, 2008

TAMPA - Starting Monday, the Hillsborough County Property Appraiser's Office will begin mailing out 506,000 property tax notices.

Known as Truth in Millage, or TRIM, notices, the mailings will go out Monday through Friday in batches of about 100,000 a day. Millage is the property tax rate that is applied to a home's assessed value to come up with a tax total.

Impatient property owners who don't want to wait for the notices to arrive in the mail can see them at www.hcpafl.org.

The notices include the property's market value, also known as just value, and assessed value. For property owners who disagree with their tax total, the TRIM notice gives the date and time of meetings of the value adjustment board, where tax assessments can be appealed.

"But before they do that, they should really try an informal administrative review with us," said Warren Weathers, deputy chief property appraiser.

"If they have a problem we don't know about, we can sometimes solve it administratively."

The notices also break down how much of the assessment goes to each of the taxing authorities in the county.

This year, the appraiser's office will include an additional letter explaining changes in tax rates from the January passage of Amendment 1, which roughly doubled the $25,000 homestead exemption. The new exemption does not apply to school board taxes so it will not reduce the total tax bill by as much as the homeowner's original homestead exemption.

Those expecting big drops in their assessed value because of the sinking real estate market should keep in mind that this year's tax assessments are based on property sales made in 2007.

"Those who will have read that property values are down 20 percent, yes, next year we will use sales in 2008," Weathers said. "If this trend continues through 2008, we should see more of a decrease in 2009."

Reporter Mike Salinero can be reached at (813) 259-8303 or msalinero@tampatrib.com.

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