Description
Clayton County Chief Appraiser Emitte George and Communications Administrator Valerie L. Fuller highlight the important reminders about the Notice of Annual Assessment, steps property owners should take before the July 14, 2025, deadline to file for an appeal, what the steps are in the appeals process, and the formula that determines the percentage of taxes you pay in this edition of the Clayton connected podcast in Clayton County…where the world lands and opportunities take off!
Transcript
Valerie Fuller (Intro):
You’re tuned in to the Clayton Connected Podcast in Clayton County, where the world lands and opportunities take off.
Valerie:
Hello, and thank you for joining us. I am Valerie Fuller, Communications Administrator for the Office of Communications in Clayton County, Georgia, where the world lands and opportunities take off. Today in the Clayton Connected Podcast Studio, we have our Chief Appraiser for the Clayton County Tax Assessor’s Office, Mr. Emmett George. Welcome!
Emitte George:
Thank you. Thank you.
Valerie:
We don’t get to see you too often around these parts so we’re going to have to welcome you back real soon.
Emitte:
Yeah. Like I said it’s not the primary thing to be in the spotlight.
Valerie:
Well, you’re in the spotlight today. And the reason why is because the Tax Assessor’s Office is responsible for sending out the annual notice of assessments. So, what is the annual notice of assessments and why is this so important annually.
Emitte:
So, the annual notice of assessments is something that is done by law every year. We are required to send it out to every parcel. And basically, what it does is it establishes every parcel’s value for the year. The notice of assessment allows for all our citizens, if they choose to disagree with the value, to appeal that value every year. So, you have a 45 day window from the date that it is mailed out. We sent them out this year on May 30th, and so that means July 14th this year is your last day to appeal.
Valerie:
So really important when we talk about the appeal process, we’re going to talk about that in a minute. But the initial notice is very important. That’s by law, right? You have to have it out by a certain time. And you have a certain window that’s open to the general public for all the residents to be able to be able to file an appeal. So that notice is very important.
Emitte:
Yes. So, at the moment, the notice is mailed, not when you receive it. The moment it’s postmarked, which this year was the 30th of May, the law says you have 45 days from that day to file an appeal.
Valerie:
So now we’ve gotten the assessment notice as a resident. And I know you get this question. Every single year people open their mail. They see this annual notice of assessments. And what they perceive or what the county has assessed their home values at, so what’s the appeal process like? What actually happens in the appeal process? What, what’s the first step?
Emitte:
So, the first step is filing the appeal. We have on our website. And there is an insert with all notices that gives you specific instructions on actually how to file an appeal. There’s a link on our website. You can come into the office; we’ve got the paperwork right there. You can fill out a form and mail it or fax it into our office. Or you can simply just write a letter as long as it’s got your parcel reference, as far as your parcel ID or an address, contact information, and you sign it and you just basically state you wish to appeal, we can accept that as an appeal. So, once you file that appeal, then you have done your part. The next step of the appeal is actually on the office for the appraisers to review and to look over if there is something that can be done for resolution purposes, they will reach out.
Valerie:
Okay. So, in the appeal process, you said there were three different ways that residents can appeal. So, now you’re saying that they’ve gone through this actually submitting, whether they’ve done it in person or whether they’ve done it via email or online, there is an electronic form that you can fill out or complete at claytoncountyga.gov, correct?
Emitte:
Yes.
Valerie:
So now we’ve gotten past the submission of the actual appeal, whether it’s in person, via mail or via the online electronic form. What’s the next step?
Emitte:
So, the as the appeals come in, they get dispersed out to your contact, your staff contact. We have seven residential appraisers, three commercial appraisers, three personal property appraisers. And so you have a staff contact on that form. When you got your assessment notice it does give you your staff contact. That person is actually getting your appeal form. They’ll review any information you put on there. They’re going ahead and starting to review the sales of that particular neighborhood and working toward seeing what kind of resolution could happen. It could be as simple as they call you up and say, we see your appeal. It’s, you know, we can do this based on, you know, whatever the values of the neighborhood are doing. Both sides agree. We have what’s called a value agreement. And if so, that basically ends the process right there. There are times where we review things, data was wrong or some other information was made from in light of what the owner sent in. We may do a change of value letter, and actually, you get a second notice that has a 30-day window to appeal, that we produced a value. And you have another opportunity to appeal that reduction based on the information. If you, if there isn’t some kind of resolution that can be done in my office, the next step for most residential is the Board of Equalization, which is actually done through the Clerk of Superior Courts Office.
Valerie:
Okay. So, this year’s notice, in particular, did not contain what we call a total of estimated taxes, only the estimated rollback millage rates established by each taxing district. Explain that.
Emitte:
So, laws have changed a little bit this year and most people have been familiar with some portions of hearing about a House Bill 581. 581 had a lot of different things. Most people knew about it as far as a potential offering of tax exemption for homesteaded properties, but it also carried some different laws for the tax assessor side. And one thing was they changed the notice of assessments to only show the millage rate or the estimated millage rate for that year. It does not add up the estimated taxes based on that. It’s still somewhat simple math and we can go into that a little bit, but this is something that House Bill 581 did that just eliminated that requirement. And that while it is a little bit confusing, it is somewhat now throwing everything back to what the assessment notice should be, which is about the values.
Valerie:
Really important note. Many people do not know how to, how you actually come up with the assessment that comes out in the notice. You know, and what they actually pay in taxes. Let’s share with the general public or the residents, of Clayton County. What is the formula and how is it determined?
Emitte:
So I’m gonna share a couple different things. So, first of all, to come up with a millage rate, let’s start with that. There is a simple formula that is basically the total assessed value of the properties. And when I say assessed value assessed means 40% in the state of Georgia. So, your taxed on 40% and also total assessed values for Clayton County. That total is taken and then it is the budget, which comes from finance, is also taken. And you take the total assessed values divided by the budget and that will come up with a millage rate each year, a tax rate basically.
Valerie:
When you say divided by the budget, what exactly does that mean?
Emitte:
So, each year all departments and anything that the county is functioning with financing or funding is each year, and we just actually completed the budget process here in Clayton County. But any of that, all the budget that is totaled out. So, whatever it needs to operate for the year is the total budget for the county. And that is, like I said, developed through departmental discussions with Finance during the year.
Valerie:
And the board actually votes on the final budget for the FY 26, year.
Emitte:
Right. They have final approval of that. And then later on, they will also have final approval for final millage rates for the year.
Valerie:
And we have not reached that to date. And that’s why we’re not sharing a number specific to date. But we thought it was really important that the residents understand exactly what the formula is, regardless of the number, so that they can understand how that number, that final number is actually developed.
Emitte:
So, if you wanted to work on an estimate of taxes based on what you see on your assessment notice, you would take the total final assessed value. So, when I say that it’s that would be your 40% value minus any homestead exemptions you have.
Valerie:
Correct.
Emitte:
And then times the estimated millage rate that is on there. And when I say millage rate the first part of that is milli, which means one 1000. So last year, I’ll just use last year’s numbers just to give an example. Last year’s millage rate was 15.266. And so if you want to take the millage part of that or the milli part, and you would move your decimal three to the left, so that would be 0.015266 times your total final assessed value. And that will give you that particular. So in that case, I was using the county’s final millage rate from last year. The school board also has their millage rate.
Emitte (continued):
Fire fund has their millage rate. And so any of those; and of course, if you live in a municipality or any city, you would they would have a millage rate. But that’s the simple calculation of taking your 40% value times the 1/1000 version of the millage rate.
Valerie:
And all of that encompasses and makes up what they’d actually pay in actual taxes.
Emitte:
So, you would have a line item that, let’s just say that that number equated to $1,000 for county. And then it might be, $1500 for school board, say, 4 or 500 for fire so on and so forth. All that totality would be what you would owe at the end of the year.
Valerie:
And these are all just examples, because we’re not giving out actual numbers yet, because we know that the board has yet to vote.
Emitte:
Right. We have not finished the appeal process and going through the digest submission so that Finance can develop a final millage rate to for the board to approve.
Valerie:
Absolutely. And if you have any questions, of course, we want to remind you that you can access claytoncountyga.gov or the Tax Assessors Office, where you can also find all of this information online. You can also find out about your homestead exemptions, right?
Emitte:
Yes. While the homestead exemptions are maintained through the Tax Commissioner’s Office, you have access on either one of our sites. When you’re pulling up your property information to see the homestead, your status.
Valerie:
And why is the homestead exemption important to the residents?
Emitte:
So, homestead is given to your primary residence. So if you have multiple homes, you only get it on the homestead ID property; the one you truly live in. But it is a tax credit. It’s a $10,000, in Clayton County, your standard homestead exemption is $10,000. That $10,000 comes off your 40% value, not your 100% value. So it can mean hundreds of dollars in difference in taxes.
Valerie:
Valerie:
If you have other questions, you can contact the Tax Assessor’s Office at (770) 477-3285. Also, you also mentioned that in the annual notice of assessment that there is a contact person that’s listed on the letter that they actually receive.
Emitte:
Yes. You can ask, you know, you can ask the front desk for ask and ask for that person. Or you can just go through the call tree that we have and get to your appraiser for that, for your area. But it does list on the notice about two thirds the way down on the top section, who your staff contact is.
Valerie:
And then, one other question. You mentioned House Bill 808. What is House Bill 808 and how does it, what does it encompass? What does it include?
Emitte:
So House Bill 808 was kind of widely considered a clean-up bill for House Bill 581. There was still a few open ended items or some non-clarity on 581. So House Bill 581 for basically, the most part what it does allow is if you did not make the April 1st deadline to file for your homestead for this year, and you qualify for a homestead for this year, in prior years, you would have to wait till next year if you missed that deadline. Now, if you actually file an appeal during our deadline. So now through July 14th and you click on one of your reasons, you have six different reasons to actually appeal property. Most of them are value, but you have an exemption one. And if you click on that then we can forward that down to the Tax Commissioner. They can review. And as long as you qualified to have it for this year, they can grant that. And so that’s been a little bit different this year that there’s actually, like an extension sort of for filing for homestead. And that’s what 808 did for our side of the house. Most of the time it also capped the acreage on a homestead exemption, which is already at five acres, but the original 581 did not cap the acreage. And now 808 put the five acres back on.
Valerie:
Absolutely. So, one of the most important things we want to stress throughout this whole process is that there is a deadline. And this is if you disagree with the value, don’t hesitate to either in person, via mail or online through claytoncountyga.gov on the tax assessor’s page to file for an appeal, correct?
Emitte:
Correct. And definitely, the July 14th is not something that has flexibility. State law says it ends on the 14th when we have established it starting on the 30th. So, coming in you forgot things like that that we get every year. It just doesn’t you know, we just don’t have any leeway on that. These are state laws but I will let everyone know if you come in the office is open til five. So we are there til, you know, to make sure we’re able to do that. The portal is actually open till 11:59. And if you’re going to mail it in make sure it is postmarked by the US Post office. Not a Pitney Bowes, by the US Postal Service, it is postmarked by the 14th and we will accept it when we get it. So as long as you meet those parameters, then we can accept those. But yeah, that is the hard and fast on that.
Thank you so much, ladies and gentlemen. Chief Appraiser for Clayton County, Emmett George in the Clayton Connected Podcast Studio. Thank you for joining us. We look forward to having you back again real soon.
Emitte:
Yes, ma’am. Thank you.
Valerie (outro):
I’m your hostess Valerie Fuller. Thank you for listening to the Clayton Connected Podcast. In Clayton County, Georgia, where the world lands and opportunities take off.