District Advisor Newsletter
Property Valuation & Review - Vermont Department of Taxes
Town
Meeting 2021 Resources
With COVID-19
continuing to affect the way we conduct local government in Vermont, Vermont League of Cities and Towns is working to provide up-to-the-minute guidance for emerging legislation. Resources and guidance concerning
Act
162
- Australian ballot, Informational Hearings and Town Meeting can be found at
https://www.vlct.org/news/town-meeting-2021-resources.
Link
to Recordings of January Classes
On-Demand
Webinars and Training Materials from our two recent Teams sessions are now available online at
https://tax.vermont.gov/municipal-officials/certification-education-programs/materials.
Currently
available are:
This
webinar provides an opportunity to learn how to read sales reports and final computation sheet and what it means for your town.
This
webinar provides an opportunity to learn how to validate your sales accurately and in a thorough manner. The proper research and validation of sales are paramount to accurate results since this directly effects the Town’s tax rate, Common Level of Appraisal
(CLA) and reappraisal status.
Veterans
Exemptions – Change in file-to-town dates for 2021
On Monday,
February 1, the first Eligible Veterans List for Vermont Disabled Veterans was emailed to towns as well as posted on Listserv (Comp-60). This was the first of two emails from the Vermont Office of Veterans Affairs (VOVA) office. You will be receiving
the second file after May 1. Please review the file of eligible veterans along with the included instructions and contact VOVA with your questions.
Final
411
This is friendly
reminder that your final electronic 411 was due January 15th to the state. If you have not submitted the file electronically through NEMRC,
please submit ASAP. The electronic submission is fine, we do not need a paper copy.
What’s on the calendar for
February?
Closing your 2020
Grand list - Certification of No Appeals – February 2, 2021
Statute provides
the first Tuesday of February as the date the listers and select board certify the previous year’s grand list as the valid, legal grand list for the town or city. If you have older grand lists in your vault that were never closed with this form, you can also
close them now. You do not have to have been listers or selectboard at the time, as all you are attesting is that there are no outstanding appeals affecting that year’s grand list.
32
VSA 4155
Certificate and attestation
When
no statutory appeal as provided by law from the appraisal of the listers and no suit to recover taxes paid under protest is pending on the first Tuesday of February following such lodgment, the select board and listers of a town or the mayor and assessors
of a city shall endorse a certificate to that effect upon the grand list and the same shall be attested by the town or city clerk with the date of such attestation.
32
VSA 4156
After appeal and suit determined
When
such appeal or suit is then pending, such certificate shall be made as soon as such appeal or suit has been finally determined.
32
VSA 4157
Effect of such certification
From
the date of endorsing such certificate upon the grand list as aforesaid to the effect that no such appeal or suit is pending, when offered in evidence in any court in this state, such list shall be received as legal grand list of such town or city and its
validity shall not be put in issue by any party to any action in any hearing or trial in any court.
https://tax.vermont.gov/sites/tax/files/documents/PVR-4155.pdf
Tax Season 2021
The 2021 filing
season opens on February 12, 2021, when the IRS and the Vermont Department of Taxes will begin accepting tax returns. The 2021 filing due date is April 15 for the Vermont personal income tax return, an extension to file the Vermont personal income tax return,
as well as the Homestead Declaration (no extension 2021), Property Tax Credit Claim, and Renter Rebate Claim.
Filing Season
Updates for 2021 can be found at https://tax.vermont.gov/filing-season-updates.
Homestead Declarations
and related topic links can be found at https://tax.vermont.gov/property-owners/real-estate-transaction-taxes/for-tax-professionals
Current year Lister Certificates for Housesite
Value will be available soon:
Tax forms will be available February
8 and can be found at
https://tax.vermont.gov/tax-forms-and-publications/individuals
Please
do not substitute Tax Year 2019 forms to file for tax year 2020.
Helpful handouts and an online FAQ for your residents -
Homestead Downloads
During the month of February listers will receive an email from the department
letting them know their first file is ready for download. Please remember to
These fact sheets, as well as instructions provided on the NEMRC website, are
provided as a refresher for you on the Homestead process:
The
Vermont Homestead Declaration
Form
HS-122 Download Instructions Fact Sheet
http://www.nemrc.com/support/grandList/
For a more in-depth look at the homestead process
including instructions, guidelines, and scenarios please refer to your listers handbook:
Guide
for Vermont Listers and Assessors,
Chapter XIV pages 59 – 68.
myVTax -
Sales are now available!
Sales to date for the 2021 study are now available in your myVTax. The
initial release included sales from April 1, 2020 to date, with additional sales being added to your myVTax file as they are recorded by your town clerk.
Now is the time to reach out to your district advisor with any questions
on myVTax procedure, what constitutes an invalid sale and the practice of sending sales validation letters to the buyer and seller that request they provide specifics of the sale.
For
the most current instruction please review the materials from our January 14th webinar located at
https://tax.vermont.gov/municipal-officials/certification-education-programs/materials
If you have informed PVR that you
intend to complete a reappraisal for the 2021 GL (and have filed the necessary paperwork (RA-308)
to be recognized as a reappraisal town with PVR), when you go into myVTax to validate your sales you will not be able to complete the entire validation process. You will be able to view the most recent year of sales (4/1/20- present) and complete most of the
validation process, however you will only be able to “Save and finish later” using the button at the bottom of the page. You will not be able to SUBMIT sales at this time. The reason for this is with reappraisal towns the study uses the new reappraised listed
value on all sales in order to accurately reflect your reappraisal.
Once you have completed your reappraisal
and submitted a new 411 to PVR with your form RA-310 after grievance (https://tax.vermont.gov/sites/tax/files/documents/RA-310.pdf),
you will be able to go back into your myVTax account and replace the listed values with your new reappraised values and at that time will be able to submit the sales. The prior two years of sales will also be available to you at that time for validation as
well as to replace the listed values with the new reappraisal values.
Exemptions
are legal reductions applied to property valuations that reduce or eliminate the grand list value (therefore the amount of taxes due) to qualifying parcels. Both the listed value and the exemption amount must be included in the
grand list along with the statutory authority for the exemption,
32
VSA 4152 (4), (6),
and the method of appraisal used (insurance or assessment). They must also be coded so as to provide a report of the exemptions that becomes part of the abstract of the grand list (411) and is also reported to the Division of Property Valuation and Review
(PVR).
It
is important to remember that parcels are not exempt solely by ownership, usage is also a consideration. An exempt parcel may be taxable in part if a portion of the improvements are used or rented for profit. For example, a church rents out its parsonage.
In this situation the parsonage, as well as associated improvements would be listed on the grand list as taxable, nonhomestead property. Having the entity fill out the
PVR-317
will help listers review the exempt request and make an educated decision.
Three
types of exemptions that may be applied to parcels in your grand list are Statutory, Voted and Special. Each of these are confined by parameters set by law and in the case of voted exemptions are decided by the town’s residents and may be granted or rescinded
by the town’s electorate in the March elections.
1.
Statutory Exemptions - Properties exempt by statute (churches, town owned property,
etc.)
The
bulk of these exempts can be found in 32
VSA 3802
and 32
VSA 3832.These
two statutes, along with case law, provide the basis for the majority of the parcels that are statutorily exempt on the grand list.
Listers
make the initial determination of which parcels are eligible for this exemption, and their decisions may ultimately be appealed to the Supreme Court. The Secretary of State’s Office reports that most listers take a hard line on marginal properties, which they
feel is appropriate. The court has held, “Any exemption from property taxation provided by statute is to be strictly construed in favor of the taxing authority as against those who seek its benefits. Any doubts that may arise as to the application of a particular
tax statute should be interpreted against the exemption.” Stowe Preparatory School, Inc. v. Town of Stowe, 124 Vt. 393 (1964).
The
Vermont Supreme Court recently held that (1) the Board of Civil Authority (BCA) has authority to rule on questions of tax-exempt status, and (2) the taxpayer must exhaust its administrative remedies by grieving to the listers and BCA prior to bringing a motion
for declaratory judgment in superior court. Vermont College of Fine Arts v. City of Montpelier.
2.
Local Agreements (exemptions)—Properties exempt by vote (grange halls, properties owned by fraternal organizations, farm buildings that have
been voted exempt, stabilization agreements etc.). These are typically exempted for ten years with the first vote and for five-year periods with subsequent articles/ votes. Fire/ Ambulance/ Rescue are considered ‘grandfathered’ and the education taxes foregone
are born by the taxpayers statewide; this is not the case with other voted exemptions where the town’s taxpayers typically, dependent on the article’s wording, bear the education taxes for the exempted property. More details on local Agreements may be found
on pages 56-58 of the Listers
Handbook.
32
VSA 3840
3.
Special Exemptions - properties that are exempt from education taxes but not from municipal taxes. More details on Special exemptions may be
found on pages 58/59 of the Listers
Handbook
Some
examples include:
Business
Personal Property
Business
personal property (BPP) was historically taxed on the municipal grand list. Many towns voted BPP (machinery & equipment as well as inventory) exempt with Act 60. Note that cable television lines (including wires, poles, insulators, anchors and guy wires),
the head ends, and house drops are included in the education grand list in the PP-Cable TV category, however, if previously voted exempt, this should not be included in your municipal grand list.
The disabled
veteran exemption is a hybrid exemption: the first 10,000 is exempt per 32 VSA 3802 (11). Towns have the option to expand this exemption up to an additional 30,000, bringing the total amount that can be applied of up to $40,000. Since this additional amount
is locally voted, the towns people, as a whole, are responsible for the education taxes on this voted exempt amount.
Listers do
not determine veteran exemption eligibility, rather they are provided a list of eligible veterans (and their survivors) from the Vermont Office of Veterans Affairs in May of each year. It is important that the listers work with VOVA to update any changes that
may have occurred over the course of the year (for example the eligible veteran is deceased or has sold their property). More information can be found at
https://veterans.vermont.gov/
The
first of two Veterans lists for 2021 was emailed earlier this week. If you have not received the file, please reach out to
[log in to unmask]
to be added to the list.
___
Now is a
great time to review ALL of your exempt properties and make sure they are correct. You should have documentation on all exempt parcels in your town. Some of the documentation will be as simple as the statute reference and some will be consisting of much more
information as to why and how the property fits statute.
The
Listers
Handbook
(pages 51-59) provides a wealth of guidance on the nature and application of exemptions. The Vermont Association of Listers and Assessors VALA) also maintain an online library of relevant case law at
https://valavt.org/case-library/
.
Current Use
If
you need assistance, you may call the main PVR line, 802-828-5860 and select option 2 or email
[log in to unmask].
Additionally, you may email Elizabeth
Hunt
(Supervisor) or reach out to your towns Current Use specialist at
|
Towns
A-F |
(802)
828-6633 |
|
|
Towns
G-R |
(802)
828-6637 |
|
|
Towns
S-W |
(802)
828-6636 |
2021 per acre values
The Current Use Advisory Board has set the Use Values* for the 2021 Tax Year
as follows:
*Use Values are the amount per acre the
taxpayer will pay taxes on for land enrolled in the current use program (adjusted for the town’s CLA)
myVTax – LUCT Requests
Please make
it a habit to check your myVTax account for LUC that need to be processed.
These requests should be returned to PVR within 30 days of the request per
32
VSA 3757(c),
so please log in and address these as soon as possible. The
following are the basics for the LUCT process:
Assessing officials
must do the following:
If
land subject to LUCT is more than one piece of land, and the pieces are not contiguous to one another, these pieces of land should be considered as separate parcels. These parcels are valued independently of each other and valued independently of all other
land owned by the property owner or previously excluded for this purpose.
For more information as well as detailed instruction on the process visit
https://tax.vermont.gov/municipal-officials/listers-and-assessors/assessing-property/current-use-fmv
Education
NEMRC
NEMRC
is offering recorded webinars that you may access through their website. You will be asked to create an account so that you may login and select the video you would like to view. You can get started here:
NEMRC Video Library
KnowledgeWave - February offerings
KnowledgeWave
brings Microsoft Office and professional development webinars each month as part of the
KnowledgeWave
Learning Site
training package. They are free for you and for all KnowledgeWave members.
If you have yet to enroll in this educational platform provided
by PVR or if you wish to enroll additional town officials please send their first name, last name, town, and their unique email address to
[log in to unmask],
they will be added to the learning site. A town may enroll up to ten (10) individual emails for town officials.
PVR On-Demand Webinars and Training Materials
Following this link,
https://tax.vermont.gov/municipal-officials/certification-education-programs/materials
will allow you to watch both recorded webinars and access training materials from our trainings.
For a full
list of training offered at no charge to current Vermont municipal assessment officials please visit
https://tax.vermont.gov/municipal-officials/certification-education-programs/state-sponsored
Grant Funding/ Reimbursement for Travel
PVR classes continue to be of no charge to listers.
PVR sponsorship of select NEMRC webinars and VALA hosted IAAO classes also continues. However, please be aware the VALA
registration fees for these IAAO courses is not reimbursable through the PVR grant. Grant money is available for
pre-approved mileage and lodging expenses (distances apply). A fillable pdf, 2020/2021 grant application can be found at
https://tax.vermont.gov/sites/tax/files/documents/Grant%20Agreement.pdf
Additionally, if
municipal listers and assessors
are independently taking non-PVR sponsored, assessment related courses, including those taken online,
these course fees
may be reimbursed through the grant application process. This grant funding
may also apply to related travel expenses to assessment trainings (including mileage above 50 miles one way and lodging for multiple day classes). Applications for grants
must be preapproved prior to attending the training. To apply, follow the Course Funding link below. If you need assistance with this process, please contact (802) 828-6887. More information about course funding and our grant program is available
at https://tax.vermont.gov/municipal-officials/certification-education-programs/tuition-information
Grant Education Funding for Listers and assessors (Municipal Reimbursement)
Fact Sheet https://tax.vermont.gov/sites/tax/files/documents/FS-1184.pdf
Help Desk & DA Contact
Information
PVR GENERAL HELP LINE (802)
828-5860 / OPTION 3
CURRENT USE (802)
828-5860 / OPTION 2
IT HELP DESK (802)
828-6844
District
Advisors & their territories interactive map
|
Barb Schlesinger |
(802) 369-9081 |
Nancy Merrill |
(802)
522-0199 |
|
Christie
Wright |
(802)
855-3897 |
Teri Gildersleeve |
(802)
855-3917 |
|
Cy Bailey |
(802)
233-3841 |
Theresa Gile |
(802)
522-7425 |
|
Deanna Robitaille |
(802)
323-3411 |
Nancy Anderson Edu/DA assist |
(802) 279-9938 |
|
Nahoami Shannon
Maternity leave |
|
Please leave a message for your district advisor.
However, if you need immediate assistance and are unable to wait for a return call please call (802) 828-5860, select option #3 and ask to speak to another district advisor that is available.
Online Resources
Covid-19 Information
https://accd.vermont.gov/news/update-new-work-safe-additions-be-smart-stay-safe-order
·
VT Department of Health https://www.healthvermont.gov/response/coronavirus-covid-19
·
Agency of Commerce & Community Development (scroll to ‘Municipalities’
and ‘Real
Estate’)
https://accd.vermont.gov/covid-19/business/stay-home-stay-safe-sector-specific-guidance
Lister & Municipal Basics
Property Assessment - Grand Lists
|
|
||
Exemptions
|
|
||
Appeals
Barb Schlesinger |
District Advisor
Property Valuation and Review Division | Vermont Department of Taxes
[log in to unmask]
| 802-369-9081
CONFIDENTIALITY NOTICE:
This email may contain confidential information belonging to the Vermont Department of Taxes. The information is intended only for use of the individual or entity addressee. If you are not the intended recipient, you are prohibited from any disclosure,
copying, distribution or the taking of any action in reliance on the contents of this information and any such action would subject you to civil and/or criminal prosecution under state and Federal confidentiality laws. If you received this email in error,
immediately notify us at 802-369-9081 or [log in to unmask] for further instructions.