About the Office of the Property Assessor
What does a Property Assessor Do?
The Loudon County Assessor of Property
is a Tennessee constitutionally elected official who serves
at the pleasure of the Loudon County citizens for a
four-year term of office. It is the Assessor's
responsibility to discover, list, classify, and value all
property within the county for tax purposes.
Taxable property is divided into two
classes: real property and personal property.
Real property includes land and all buildings, structures,
and improvements to the land. Personal property is
machinery, equipment, fixtures, furniture, and other items
that are movable in nature. Despite what the name implies,
“personal property” does not denote to property held for
private, non-commercial use. Only business and industry pay
taxes on personal property in Tennessee.
The Assessor's job is multi-faceted
and involves the performance of the following major duties:
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To ensure
that all real property that legally should be on the county
assessment roll is properly listed, classified and valued,
it must first be located and identified. The process of
discovery is continuous, as it seeks to capture all new
construction, additions, and demolitions, as well as changes
to land use and configuration. To accomplish this,
assessment personnel track building permits, property sales,
zoning changes, and a host of other sources for information
about property status. In addition, all sectors of the
county -- urban, suburban, and rural -- are visually
inspected on a routine basis.
Discovery of
personal property is accomplished by identifying new
businesses operating in the county and through audits of
personal property schedules. All businesses are required to
submit or update schedules listing all personal property by
March 1 of each year. Failure to return a schedule may
result in a “forced” filing by the assessor, using data
gleaned from similar businesses across the state.
2007 Tangible Personal Property Schedule (Requires Adobe
Reader)
There are more than 1,630 accounts on the
personal property tax rolls of Loudon County, representing
more than $100 million in assessed value and $1.84 million
in annual tax revenue. Utilities and other public service
properties are assessed by the State of Tennessee
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After
locating property, assessing personnel must accurately
record and list that property and all of its characteristics
to properly assign a value. All structures and extra
features are measured, and amenities that affect market
value such as bathrooms, interior and exterior trim, floor
finish, roofing type, etc. are noted for quantity and
quality. After all the data on a property has been
collected, the information is compared to all similar
properties in the county using a computer-assisted mass
appraisal system. Maintained by the state of Tennessee on
behalf of each county, the Computer Assisted Assessment
System (CAAS) contains the property characteristics of all
land and buildings in the county.
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Along with assigning a value to property,
the Assessor also establishes the classification or “use
category” for each property. This determines the assessment
level that will be used in taxation for that property.
Tennessee law establishes the following assessment levels
for different property classes:
The rules governing the tax appraisal
process in Tennessee are based upon the same principles and
procedures that are used throughout the appraisal
profession. There are three basic approaches to the
valuation of real property:
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The market approach involves
comparison of a property to other properties with
similar characteristics that have recently been sold.
Residential property is appraised primarily using the
market approach.
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The cost approach involves
estimating the replacement cost of a structure, and
adjusting that estimate to account for depreciation.
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The income approach is an
analysis of a property's value based on its capacity to
generate revenue for the owner.
The goal of the Assessor is to estimate
fair market value for all property in the county. Fair
market value is defined as how much a property would sell
for, in an open market, under normal conditions. To
determine market values, the assessor must be familiar with
all aspects of the local real estate market, such as: what
different types of properties are selling for, local
construction and repair costs, normal operating expenses,
typical rents, and current financing charges for borrowing
money to build or buy property.
State law requires the Assessor to
produce an annual tax roll listing all property that is
subject to ad valorem (according to value) taxation.
Value is not a static measure and, in fact, the value of any
object or property changes continuously based on market
forces. To ensure that appraised values remain fair and
equitable, all properties in Loudon County are re-appraised
every four years. This is an ongoing process, which begins
immediately after the previous re-appraisal is completed.
Each year, about one-third of the
county’s 30,000+ properties are visually inspected so that
by the fourth year, all property data has been updated and
ready for the county-wide re-appraisal. (Loudon County’s
next reappraisal year is 2009.)
Each year, the assessor is required to
create and maintain an assessment roll detailing all county
property, its owner, and its value. This roll, with
preliminary, or tentative assessments, is made available for
public inspection in May. Property owners whose property has
changed in value are notified by mail in April of those
changes and are given an opportunity to appeal any values
they feel are inconsistent with the fair market value of
their property. The
County Board of Equalization, after hearing owners’
appeals and ordering any changes they feel are warranted,
makes the assessment roll final for that year. The Assessor
of Property then turns the roll over to local taxing
authorities.
The Office of the Assessor is open from
8:00 to 4:30, M-F for walk-ins and phone calls. Providing
fast and courteous public information to assist taxpayers
and the general public with questions regarding property
ownership, assessment, and recent property sales is a core
function of this office.
The Assessor’s office handles thousands
of requests annually from current or prospective property
owners, as well as from the real estate, legal, and banking
communities.
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Common misconceptions
Now that you have a better idea of what
the Assessor of Property does, here are a few things that
the Assessor does not do:
- set the tax
rate
- generate or
send out tax bills
- collect
taxes
Tax rates for Loudon County and each
municipality are set each year by the respective legislative
bodies (county commission and city councils). The amount of
revenue needed is based on the budgets passed to fund
programs and services. (Click
here to see where your county property tax dollars go.)
The County Trustee uses the tax rate and
the assessment roll produced by the Assessor to create and
send out tax bills to all county property owners. The
Trustee is also responsible for collecting property taxes.
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What it all means to
you.
Equitable assessments assure that
property owners pay their fair share – and only their fair
share -- of the costs of government services, such as
schools and libraries, police and fire protection, road
construction and maintenance, water, sanitation, and other
basic public services. To this end, the Assessor of Property
is responsible to the taxpayers of Loudon County to ensure
that all property is valued in accordance with state laws,
that no property escapes the assessment process or is
under-assessed, and that no property owner receives
preferential treatment.
To obtain assessment information for a
parcel in Loudon County, visit:
www.//assessment.state.tn.us/
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