Some people might see a company that challenges its taxes in a bad light. They might think the business owner is looking for ways to avoid contributing their financial dues, while happily taking advantage of all the services taxpayer money gets them.
In most cases, however, challenging your property taxes is just good business sense in the same way that you might question a supplier’s or commercial landlord’s price rise. Making a business profitable can be tough, and you cannot afford to throw money away needlessly by paying money on excessive taxes. That’s a big difference from trying to evade your share of taxes.
But aren’t the local property tax office calculations correct?
Not always. Sometimes they are off by a large percentage because the tax assessor vastly overestimated the value of your property. Maybe they did not realize the market value of your area has gone down, or perhaps they are not taking into account individual factors that make your humble premises worth much less than their more grandiose neighbors.
The law expects you to pay commercial property tax, but it also gives you the right to appeal if you think your bill is incorrect. The technical term for appealing your taxes is abatement. Consider the right to apply to have the authorities review your bill as part of the service you are paying tax for.
You still, however, need external legal help to file a commercial property tax appeal in the correct manner in order to give your business the best chance to pay only what you should and not a cent more.