It's never happened before! The appeal period for 2022 has officially reopened. That means we can help you appeal both 2022 and 2023 tax assessments.
And what THAT means is that you may have an opportunity to get a refund for taxes you've already paid!
On this episode of the podcast, FFRA's tax appeal maven Nicole Hauptmann Amick explains the details of this unprecedented event, discusses a little about how the tax appeals process works and whether you should seek a reassessment.
The deadline is 3/31/23 so schedule a FREE consultation now by using our contact form.
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Please rise, court is now in session.
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I strenuously object. A legal podcast brought to you by the Pittsburgh Law from a Flaherty
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Farto is now in session.
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Rise and shine campers and don't forget your booties because it's cold out there today.
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Happy slightly after Groundhog's Day to everyone here.
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We're here for a quick episode, but an episode that has been promised and kind of looming
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over the horizon for the last couple months at least, we finally have the actual news
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to break.
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Ladies and gentlemen, can I please have your attention?
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I've just been handed an urgent news story and I need all of you to stop what you're
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doing and listen.
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Which is that the 2022 tax appeal season has been reopened and joining us to speak quickly
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about this is the Queen herself.
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Hot off of literally hundreds of free consultations for Allegheny County property tax appeals
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and nevertheless finding the time to join us here today, it is Nicole Houtman-Amyk.
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Good morning. And you're right. This has been quite an onslaught of people wondering what
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is going on since this news broke about a week ago.
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Listen, we're gonna save people some money. It's no wonder then that the phone and the
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website consults and everything else have been ringing off the hook and everyone trying
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to figure out, Nicole, what's this mean for me?
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So as you said, the appeal period for 2022 has reopened. So right now it's live on the
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county website. We can appeal both 2022 and 2023 tax assessments. And some people are
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a little confused about what that means, but it's basically giving you an opportunity to
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get refunds for taxes you've already overpaid, which is something that has never happened
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before. So I'm kind of walking through that process and who it makes sense to file appeals
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for, but definitely we're in unprecedented times right now.
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It's a write off for them. How is it a write off? They just write it off. You don't even
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know what a write off is.
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No, what are your thoughts on the on the current situation here?
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Yeah, I think you nailed it. I think it's not only novel that the 2022 is open, which
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means we can appeal taxes we already paid. That's never how it works. But more importantly,
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or as important is the ratio. Nicole, I mean, we've never seen a ratio this low. At least
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I haven't your thoughts.
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With 2022 is kind of a weird exercise right now because we can appeal those taxes, but
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we still have this litigation looming where we don't know the ratio for that year. So
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it's kind of an odd exercise, as I said, to appeal taxes where the ratio could conceivably
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change. From the 81.1 that it was previously, then the order of court lowered it to 63.5.
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That has been challenged. So what I'm doing as a matter of preserving rights for our clients
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is appealing both 2022 and 2023 because then no matter what happens with the litigation
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later this year, we're protected for both of those tax years.
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Nicole, am I correct that the appeal pending, which may change a ratio, only applies to
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2022? The 2023 ratio is set. That is not under appeal, correct?
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That's correct.
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And what are people saying the odds are of that ratio changing? I mean, being raised.
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If it's at 63.5% right now, which is low, what's the odds? What are people thinking?
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So that pending litigation that's again pending at the Commonwealth Court, there has been
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filings that have asked for an expedited scheduling of that. So we have some answers on that sooner
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than later, but I don't know. I don't know that anyone knows. Obviously with court decisions,
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I don't want to try to predict the future, but I think we're going to be somewhere in
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that range of 63.5 to 81.1. That's why, again, I'm filing both of those appeals because then
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if for some reason it does go back up to 81.1, I have some options. And I think it's better
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to file both of those appeals at this time without knowing for sure what's going to happen
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with 2022.
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Well, I'll note, Nicole, that you have stepped on what was going to be a new benchmark segment,
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which is going to be to just answer the five questions, which of course would then be three
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questions. It's a whole Monty Python thing. But the last question I was going to ask was,
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would I appeal both years? It sounds there like the safe play. It might not matter, but
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the safe play here is yes.
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Absolutely. Again, if you're an owner that's filing an appeal that it makes sense to file
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an appeal for, you can always withdraw an appeal later. So it's better right now to
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file both of those appeals. If something weird happens, we have options then. But if you
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miss the appeal deadline, then you don't have those options. So I'm as a matter of course,
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right now filing appeals for both 2022 and 2023.
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So as far as what was going to be my first question, which is who should appeal? I think
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the obvious first candidates here are people who just had their taxes increased by way
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of tax appeal, specifically in 2022. If your taxes went up based on an appeal that concluded
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in 2022 and now that year has reopened with potentially a new ratio, you should appeal
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during this window, correct?
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I wouldn't say that as 100% yes, just because every situation is different. A lot of the
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cases that I settled last year, we knew this was happening. So this was taken into account.
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And I've talked to a lot of past clients over the past few days that bought in 2018, 2019.
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The market's a lot different than it was then. And if we resolve their case for a favorable
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settlement at that time, it might not make sense to file an appeal, especially because
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I do think that school districts will be using this opportunity to argue for increases where
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they can. So I'm trying to be conservative about how I'm looking at that. But certainly
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every case, especially those that have been resolved recently, it warrants taking a second
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look at it.
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Now, let me flag a second group. And again, I think that's smart and fair and safe to
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say, hey, look, not everyone, not every case, not every time. You get involved in litigation
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here and you could end up in a situation where your taxes go up. So you do want to be judicious
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about about how you proceed. But there are also people who purchased properties in 2021,
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2022, maybe even early in 2023, who have not been appealed because the school district
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did not think your sale price was high enough to merit an appeal. Those people should also
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now be looking, well, hey, they didn't appeal me. Maybe I should be the one appealing. Correct?
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Absolutely. Again, with the market being as high as it has been in the past couple of
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years, I've seen some crazy purchase prices out there. So it's hard to, again, provide
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a blanket answer on that. But absolutely. It's a situation where especially if you just
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bought a property, it's a quick take a look at it. Let's see if it makes sense to file
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an appeal. And again, we can always withdraw those later if something changes. So something
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I'm taking a lot of looks at the past couple of days here.
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So other than those two camps, and I think these are guideposts for who should give an
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extra close look, everyone should should look or at least think about it. But who other
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than the two categories we just talked about are people who should really take an extra
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close look to see if now is the right time to save some money on their taxes?
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I mean, I would say anybody. Commercial properties with office buildings, restaurants, you know,
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people that have been hit with COVID that haven't recovered yet. I've looked at all
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different cases in the past week, people that bought their property in 1960. Again, it's
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a matter of looking at what the current market value is and looking at, you know, what current
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sales would suggest as a fair market value for the property. But it's worth taking a
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look at it because again, the ratios have never been this low. So now is the time if
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you think your property taxes are too high, now is the time to check to see if they are
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too high. And I think in almost any situation, it makes sense to at least take a look at
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that.
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I'll throw in to Nicole. I mean, I think you nailed it with commercial properties and you
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know, whether or not there's vacancies or the effects of COVID-19, but also high, high
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end areas like Swickly Heights, Fox Chapel, homes that are assessed at one five, 1.8 million.
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I mean, there's such a gray area on what the value of those homes really are, that if you
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can lower the market value at all and apply the new ratio, it can save a lot of taxes.
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I feel like commercial properties and high end homes are prime for appeals.
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All right. Well, I know how busy you are, Nicole. Busy, busy, busy. So I think for today,
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that's all we got. That's all we need. Let's get you back saving people money and let's
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get the rest of us back to the rest of our days.
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Thanks guys. Talk to you soon.
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And so ends this actually brief episode of I strenuously object. Tell your friends about
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the podcasts, rate, subscribe, review us. If you have any questions for our mailing it
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in segment or any feedback to the pod, email us at iobject at pghfirm.com or on Instagram.
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That's I strenuously object podcast and use the extra time that we've saved you with our
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actual brevity today to go to our website. That's pghfirm.com for a free case review
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to see if you can save money on your property taxes. Again, pghfirm.com for a free review
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of your property tax appeal case until next time, some parting advice.
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You got to check your mirrors. Just the side of your eye. Side of your eye. Don't drive
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angry. Don't drive angry.
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Noah are we adjourned? We are adjourned.