How levies can affect your taxes: Taxes affect all our lives. And levies are the way many taxing districts choose to raise the money to support the services their taxpayers demand. Let's take a brief look at how levies operate. First, let's define the basic terms:
Mill: A unit of measure, 1/1,000 milligram, milliliter, millimeter, etc. When talking about taxes, a mill is $1.00 in taxes for every $1,000 of assessed value.
Assessed Value: In Ohio, the assessed value of real estate is 35% of the property's estimated market value.
Market Value: The sale price of real estate as agreed upon between a willing buyer and a willing seller, with neither being under any duress to either buy or sell.
Who sets the real estate market value? The County Auditor has the responsibility for determining the market value of all real estate in the county. The County Auditor then calculates the assessed value for each property.
How is market value determined?
The County Auditor uses real estate sales in the county, specific property characteristics, and statistical analysis to arrive at the market value for every
property in the county. The market value is determined as of January 1st of the year of the assessment.
What happens when a tax levy is passed by the voters?
Every levy ballot must contain language showing the year the levy commences (begins). For example, "...commencing tax year 2001"; taxpayers within the district where the levy's been approved will begin paying what they owe on the tax levy in the year of collection. The amount of millage they will pay ($1.00/$1,000 of assessed value of their real estate's value) is based on the amount of money the levy must collect.
Every six (6) years the County Auditor does a field inspection of all the real estate in the county, called a revaluation.
If ordered to by the Department of Tax Equalization, the Auditor also performs an update of property values three (3) years after the six-year revaluation.
Carroll County's valuation cycle is:
Also, if a new house is built, or improvements, such as a deck, garage, porch or building addition is made to a property, the property's market value could increase annually until the improvement is completed.
Assuming the market value of your home, which is your primary residence, is $100,000, your tax bill for a "1 mill" levy is calculated as shown below.
Sample of the effect of a 1.00 mill tax on a $100,000 home's tax bill: | |
$100,000 | Market value of your home |
$35,000 | Assessed value of your home (35% of $100,000) |
$35.00 | Gross taxes of 1.00 mill ($1.00/$$1,000 assessed value) |
- $3.50 | *State of Ohio 10% Rollback |
-$0.88 | *State pays an additional 2.5% as an exemption for the primary residence |
$30.62 | Net taxes for 1.00 mill levy |
| * If the levy is a new or replacement levy after 2013, the 10% and 2.5% rollbacks do not apply since the State of Ohio will no longer give the rebate for these levies. | |
A replacement levy allows the taxing district to change an existing levy. Possible reasons for a replacement levy are:
The State of Ohio pays each subdivision (school, township, village, count board or district) for the portion of the taxes that are either "rolled back" or exempted.
The rollback reduces the property taxes due by approximately 10%.
The Owner-Occupancy reduces the property taxes due by approximately 2.5%, only if it is the person's primary residence.
As of November 2013, any levy that is not a renewal will no longer be subject to these rollbacks. The state has lifted these rollbacks for all new and replacement levies.
However, if a person is either totally disabled or elderly (and meets the income and eligibility requirements), there could also be an additional tax exemption on the property.