If you own property in Minnesota, you should have recently received a truth-in-taxation form showing the assessed value of your property for taxes payable in 2024. If you think your property has been overvalued, you may have options to reduce it.
What is the Truth-in-Taxation Form?
The purpose of the truth-in-taxation notice is to enhance public participation in Minnesota’s property tax system. More specifically, the goal is to improve government accountability by focusing taxpayers on the relationship between budget decisions and property taxes. Each form includes information about the meetings of county commissioners, city councils, and school boards. But these meetings focus on the budgeting process—they are not an opportunity to challenge individual value assessments.
What should you do if you think the value of your property is too high?
Indications Your Property Might Be Overvalued
Here is a quick checklist of common factors that may indicate your property is overvalued:
- Your estimated market value spiked dramatically compared to the previous year.
- Your property experienced significant depreciation.
- Properties similar to yours recently sold for less than the estimated market value listed on your form.
- You have a recent appraisal report that is less than the value on your truth-in-taxation form.
- A unique feature of your property makes it less marketable.
- The property was specially built for your business’s particular use.
- To raise capital, your business executed a sale-leaseback and the new value mirrors the sale price.
- You completed a 1031-exchange and the new value tracks the 1031 sale price.
Steps to Challenge the Value Unfortunately, the meetings provided on the truth-in-taxation form are not opportunities to change your property’s estimated market value. Although your local assessor may be available to talk at these meetings, by statute, they are unable to make any changes to the value. Instead, you must file a tax petition in court. The deadline to file a petition for the taxes payable in 2024 is April 30, 2024. A free consultation with one of our property tax attorneys could help to determine whether your property may have been overvalued. Our attorneys are experienced navigators of Minnesota’s property tax system and Tax Court, and we are here to help with your property tax questions.