Basic Land And Property Unit

[Janne Desir]

BasicLand and Property Unit (BLPU) is defined in BS7666 part 2 as an area of land in uniform property rights or, in the absence of such ownership evidence or where required for administration purposes, inferred from physical features, occupation or use. Each BLPU has a Unique Property Reference Number (UPRN), a spatial reference and one or more Land and Property Identifiers (LPI).

Property taxes are a primary source of funding for local government units, including counties, cities and towns, townships, libraries and other special districts including fire districts and solid waste districts. Property taxes are administered and collected by local government officials. These funds are used to pay for a variety of services including welfare; police and fire; new construction and maintenance of buildings; local infrastructure like highways, roads and streets; and the operations, including salaries, of the local units of government.

Property taxes are an ad valorem tax, meaning that they are allocated to each taxpayer proportionately according to the value of the taxpayer's property. The statewide average revenue distribution for each property tax dollar is as follows:

The property tax process is also known as the property tax assessment and billing cycle. This cycle begins with the development of each property's assessed value by the county assessor. The assessor then transfers the data on each property's value to the county auditor. The auditor, after applying deductions, exemptions, and other valuation adjustments, sends these values (known as the certified net assessed values) to the Department of Local Government Finance. After thorough review, the Department converts these values to property tax rates by dividing each local unit's approved budget amounts by the assessed value for each unit. The Department forwards these rates back to the county, where the auditor and treasurer work together to calculate, generate and mail tax bills to each taxpayer. Learn more about the assessment to budget process.

The Department's website offers a variety of resources to educate and inform taxpayers on this process. The site also features search tools to provide taxpayers with sales disclosure and assessment information on properties statewide. This information can be used in the appeals process or to allow taxpayers to better understand how assessors determine a property's assessed value.

The tax assessment and billing cycle begins with the assessor's valuation of your property. Just like other states, in Indiana properties are valued using mass appraisal techniques. With mass appraisal, your property is looked at in conjunction with other properties in your area. Assessors consider age, grade, and condition. Finally, in a process known as annual adjustment, or "trending", each year real property sales data is used to determine if the value of properties in your area should change to match the market value found in the sales of recent properties.

(Prior to 2002, property was reassessed every 5 to 10 years. That left taxpayers with a large change in their assessments between reassessments, which often led to sudden increases in property tax bills.)

The Department plays several roles related to property valuation and assessment. The primary role of the Department is an oversight role. After the assessor has placed values on all properties in a county, the assessor submits to the Department an assessment to sales "ratio study" for review and approval. The ratio study is basically a comparison between sales and assessed values in the county to ensure that market values are being used to determine assessed values. The Department uses several statistical tests to determine whether assessed values are in line with property sales in the area. Tests are also run to ensure that the assessments are fair and treat all property owners equally. Once these tests are passed, the assessment work in the county is approved.

You will receive notice of your property's value in one of two ways: the county assessor may send you a notice of assessment, known as a Form 11. Otherwise, the assessed value of your property can be found on your tax bill. This document is known as the TS-1 tax comparison statement.

If you feel your assessment does not reflect the market value-in-use of your property, you may appeal your assessment. To file an appeal, you must contact your local assessor by June 15 of the year that you receive a Form 11. If no Form 11 is mailed, the filing date it June 15 of the following year. Indiana law does not require taxpayers to submit an appraisal in order to appeal an assessment.

Property taxes represent a property owner's portion of the local government's budgeted spending for the current year. Increases or decreases depend upon a local government's fiscal management, the assessed valuation of a property and/or local tax rates, which are based on the budget proposals submitted by local government taxing entities that provide services to each community. Local spending is the reason for property tax rate increases - or decreases - depending on local fiscal management.

Essentially, the Department ensures that the proposed spending of the local government unit does not exceed the unit's property tax paycheck. If the proposed spending does exceed the unit's anticipated property tax paycheck, the unit of government is required to revise its budget to bring it in line with the paycheck. In this way, the Department works in a way that is similar to a bank. The bank will tell its client how much money is available in an account, but not how to spend the money. It is the same relationship between a local unit of government and the Department.

A taxing unit is an individual unit of government with the authority to levy property tax. Examples include township, cities and towns, counties, fire service, school corporations and libraries. All of the combined taxing units that provide services to a common geographical area compose a taxing district. Below is an example of a county (in this case Ohio) displayed with its taxing districts:

A tax rate is the percentage used to determine how much a property taxpayer will pay per one hundred dollars of net assessed value. A tax levy is the amount, specific in dollars, that a taxing unit (city, town, township, etc.) may raise each year in property tax dollars. In other words, the levy is the cap on the amount of property tax dollars a local government is allowed by law to collect.

To illustrate this, we can refer back to the Ohio County example. Each unit has its own tax rate. The sum of these rates for each district equals the total tax rate. For District 01, the breakdown is as follows:

A more basic way of understanding the relationship between the levy, net assessed value and the tax rate is in terms of a gift purchased by a group of people. If five people are going to pitch in money to buy a gift, and the total cost of the gift is $100, each person will have to pay $20. If the number of people willing to pitch in on the gift suddenly drops to four people, each person will pay $25. If the four people decide to purchase a different gift for only $80, then the amount each person pays is still the same. If the cost of the gift increases to $125, and the number of people pitching in drops to four, each person will have to pay $31.25. This is the same relationship that exists between certified net assessed value (the people), the property tax levy (the cost of the gift), and the tax rate (the amount each person pays).

The first step in becoming involved in the local budgeting process is to gather information. The Department has assembled the educational tools found on this website that can help you begin to understand the intricacies of local government financing and the budget process in general. In addition, taxpayers can also find county by county detail on property tax related matters, including how many property tax dollars are being collected and used in each county.

Public local budget hearings are usually scheduled in September and October to comply with a statutory deadline for all taxing units to adopt budgets by November 1 of each year. After the political subdivision formulates its estimated budget and its proposed tax rate and tax levy, each political subdivision will give notice to the taxpayers stating the time and place set for the public hearing to discuss the estimated budget and tax levy. This notice is published twice with the first publication at least ten (10) days before the date fixed for the public hearing. This is an opportunity for the public to comment on the political subdivision's budget, tax rate and tax levy. If ten (10) or more taxpayers object to a budget, tax rate or tax levy of a political subdivision, they may file an objection petition with the proper officers of the political subdivision not more than seven (7) days after the public hearing. If an objection petition is filed, the political subdivision shall adopt with its budget a finding concerning the objections in the petition and any testimony presented at the adoption hearing. (November 1 is the statutory deadline for a political subdivision to adopt a budget, tax rate and tax levy.)

In concept, the calculation of a tax bill is fairly simple - multiply the assessed value of your property after deductions by your local tax rate and that is your gross tax liability. There are, however, many other steps that can make the process more complicated.

As an example, let's say your primary residence in Cass Township, Ohio County is valued by the assessor's office at $200,000. This is known as your gross assessed value. However, you may be eligible to receive deductions on your property that would reduce your tax liability. Since this is your primary residence, you may be eligible to receive the Homestead Standard Deduction (the lesser of $45,000 or 60% of the gross assessed value) and Supplemental Homestead Deduction (35% of the remainder value up to $600,000; 25% of the remainder value exceeding $600,000). For example purposes, assume that the entire value of this property is attributable to a homestead - a dwelling, one garage and up to one acre of real estate.

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