Real Estate Tax FAQs
- Why do land values change at different rates from building values?
- Who verifies that the assessing model used by the Town and the resulting property values are accurate?
- How do I contest my assessed value if I think it's too high?
- Why should I let the Town Assessing Department in my house for an inspection?
- How are Real Estate taxes calculated?
- Why can the town raise my taxes by more than the 2½% limit prescribed by Proposition 2½?
Nevertheless, as a Belmont property owner, you have the right to "contest" your property valuation (assessment) by filing a written and signed application for the additional review of your own local tax assessment.
Abatement applications are available in the Assessors' Office at Belmont Town Hall during the month of January and online. Filing for abatement is an option only during the 30 days after the Town has mailed your Third (Fiscal) Quarter tax bill, which property owners normally receive in early January.
If you think your property's assessed value is "incorrect" you must specify your preferred valuation method or rationale and your differing opinion of value in a timely-filed abatement application. The Belmont Board of Assessors will have three (3) months (approximately 90 days) to review your abatement application. Following its review, the Board of Assessors will send out written notification of its action within ten (10) days.
Filing for local abatement does not alter your obligation to pay your tax bill. Each tax bill payment must be received timely by the Belmont Collector of Taxes in order to protect your further rights to appeal.
Your abatement review obligations: You must correctly and timely file your application. Thereafter, regardless of the rationale of your application, you must allow a Town employee full access to all areas of the interior and exterior of your property during weekday business hours during the week or weeks offered.
Assessors database is "frozen" prior to January tax bill mailing: The fiscal year FY 2020 valuation of all Belmont property was determined by the Assessors Office last fall; subsequently our overall valuation methodology and our assessed values were approved by the Massachusetts Department of Revenue (MA DOR). Thereafter, the approved assessment database for FY 2020 was "frozen" by our software vendor and during January 2020, the data for each property was displayed on its website. The other public faces of our frozen FY 2020 database are 1) property record cards available at our front counter and the online database 2) on our webpage and 3) in summary form as the 200 page GBC-bound "Street Listing" booklet, available online and at our front counter.
Coupled with "freezing" the FY 2020 database, we open the new FY 2019 database. In that new file, we increase or decrease individual property values as driven by newly input data (abatement reviews, permit inspections, etc.) throughout the year. The resulting assessed value during the active year - at any given time - is the confluence of contributing market factors concerning ownership, use and changing land and building factors. For 12 months, the new FY 2021 database is a"work-in-progress" file and is not a public record. Later in the calendar year, our work on this file is concluded; it is then reviewed and approved by the MA DOR after which time it becomes public record.
At Town Meeting each year, a budget is voted on by Town Meeting Members taking into account the limits of Proposition 2 ½, and how much money will be needed to meet all appropriations and other expenses. The difference between the amount approved and the money received from other revenue sources (i.e., state aid, local receipts and available funds) must be raised by property taxation.
Valuation assessments are developed independently from the budget and are used only in the last step of the budgeting process to distribute the Tax Levy. Changing property values do not affect the overall Tax Levy, but it may result in the redistribution of the tax levy burden among all taxable properties in town.