Tax Equalization Board set to meet in August

As residents of Northampton County have received current assessments on their property, and as those assessed values have dropped dramatically, the Board of Supervisors made the move to set the date for the Board of Equalization to finish deliberations on real estate assessments for August 31, 2016. What that means is that, even as the assessments have dropped, the County still needs to be able to collect the same amount of tax revenue as it had in previous cycles.

Note: tax equalization is the percentage of the fair market value of a property at which that property is assessed for property tax. It is computed by dividing the total assessed value of the property with its market value and multiplying the result with 100. Thus, an equalization rate of 100 means the property’s assessed value is the same as its market value. An equalization rate of more/less than 100 means that the property ‘s assessed value is greater/less than its market value. Equalization rate is often calculated when an authority is attempting to maintain equalization.