SPONSOR: Caton
This bill requires the physical inspection of a property required to increase the assessed valuation of a parcel of real property by more than 15% since the last assessment to be completed prior to July 1 of the reassessment year.
The bill provides that, if the common level of assessment, as defined in the bill, in a subclass is lower than the individual level of assessment, as defined in the bill, of any parcel in that subclass, the individual level of assessment for the parcel must be reduced to the common level of assessment. This reduction will be made upon an appeal by the property owner.
This bill requires an assessor to provide any third-party documents or reports that were relied upon in the computation of a property's assessed value to the property owner.
The bill requires assessors to notify a property owner about the method and basis of computation of value for any property that gets an increase in assessed value.
If a property owner prevails in an appeal because an assessor fails to provide evidence of a physical inspection, the assessor's increased assessed valuation will be void in its entirety and the previous assessed valuation will be applied.
This bill allows a person who just acquired a real property during an even-numbered year to appeal the assessed value to the State Tax Commission. If the appeal is successful, the State Tax Commission has the authority to lower the property's assessed value.
Currently, in charter counties and the City of St. Louis, taxpayers may be reimbursed appraisal costs, attorneys fees, and court costs incurred during an appeal to the State Tax Commission if the taxpayer is successful in the appeal. This bill requires such reimbursements. The bill also increases the maximum amount of fees to be reimbursed from $1,000 to $5,000 for residential property appeals, and from $4,000 to $5,000 for utility, industrial railroad, or other subclass three property appeals.
This bill requires refunds to be issued to taxpayers within 30 days of the date of a determination that the taxpayer is entitled to one. If the Collector fails to issue the refund within 30 days, the taxpayer will be entitled to interest on the refund at a rate established by the Director of Revenue.
This bill is similar to SB 786 and SB 787 (2025).
Statutes affected: