A very taxing situation

“You must pay taxes. But there’s no law that says you gotta leave a tip.” - Morgan Stanley

When it comes to property taxes, don’t follow my example. Hopefully, though, you can at least learn from my mistakes.

For several years, I’ve been paying more property taxes on my residence than I should have. A lot more. And my chances of getting those overpayments refunded are slightly less than a snowball’s chance in Hades.

But now I’m at least doing something about it. And if you’ve been hoodwinked like I was, then there’s something you can do to fix your property taxes, too.

In 2005, the Nevada State Legislature passed Assembly Bill 489, a law that limits annual property tax increases on an owner’s primary residence to no more than 3 percent. All other properties, such as rental properties and commercial properties, are subject to annual tax increases of up to 8 percent. Problem is, the burden is on you to let the government know if any given property you own is your primary residence. Otherwise, they seem more than willing to assume it’s not your primary residence and ignore the annual 3 percent cap.

You have an initial opportunity to declare your eligibility for the 3 percent primary residence cap any time you purchase residential property. At that point, the Clark County Assessor’s Office mails you a Tax Cap Abatement Notice. You can submit your claim for the 3 percent tax cap by signing and returning the bottom portion of that notice to the assessor’s office either by mail, online, or in person. But if you fail to do that, don’t be surprised if the county assumes that property is not your primary residence and assigns it the annual 8 percent increase cap instead.

The same thing happens any time a change in the record owner of your existing residential property occurs, such as when you transfer your property into or out of a trust or an LLC, for instance. You’ll get a similar abatement notice, but if you assume it’s junk mail and throw it away rather than returning it, you’ll get the annual 8 percent cap instead of the much smaller 3 percent cap.

Putting the burden of claiming the 3 percent cap on us as the taxpayers seems a bit unfair. So does the fact that we can’t get a refund for prior overpayments once we finally realize our ignorance and oversights. These are definitely traps for the unwary. But that’s the way it appears to work. So, our state legislators need to hear about it if it makes us mad enough.

Until the law changes, though, about the only viable recourse available to each of us is to correct our designated tax cap if it’s wrong. Fortunately, there’s a way. First, find out if you’re designation is incorrect. You can easily do that by calling to ask the county assessor’s office at (702) 455-3882. Or by visiting the county treasurer’s webpage at https://trweb.co.clark.nv.us, then typing in the address of your primary residence and looking to see if your tax cap percentage is 8 percent or 3 percent. If it’s 8 percent, then you need to have it reduced to 3 percent by filling out and submitting the appropriate forms.

When Leslie recently caught the mistake and called, the lady who answered at the assessor’s office was very friendly and helpful. It may take several weeks for the correction to register in the county’s computer systems, but hopefully our problem is solved going forward.

However, even if you get your tax cap fixed once, the 3 percent primary residence designation doesn’t necessarily last forever. It can change back to 8 percent if you move to a new primary residence, refinance your residential mortgage, or otherwise change the ownership of your existing residence by transferring title into or out of a trust, for instance. So be vigilant and beware if one of those changes happens to you. And instead of tossing your annual property tax bill into File 13, take a quick peek every year just to make sure your primary residence still has the 3 percent cap designation.

I hate to even think about how much Leslie and I could have saved over the last 20 years if we had been paying attention and then been conscientious about electing the 3 percent cap. When we recently discovered the problem, I hoped it only dated back to our 2020 residential refi. But it appears to have been going on much longer than that, possibly even back to 2002 when we originally purchased our current home.

Of course, I’m not going to cry over spilt milk. Well, maybe just a little. Indulge my whining for just a minute.

In 2023, our property tax increase was in the neighborhood of 6.73 percent. And this year it was around 5.95 percent. So, just in the last three years we could have saved almost $650. Over the last 23 years, who knows what our total savings might have been?

I know, I know … I need to call the Wambulance and cry to somebody who cares.

There is a bright side, though. It could have been much worse. Most our annual increases in recent years were less than 4 percent. And some even below 2 percent after the market took a dive as a result of Covid. But those smallest increases resulted from lower property values, not from our tax cap. The many other years when the increases were above 3 percent were when we paid way too much and lost our hard-earned money unnecessarily.

So, please don’t make the same mistakes I made. Don’t wait in ignorance for 15 or 20 years before you get wise and have your tax cap corrected. In fact, don’t wait at all. Do it today!

Then use the savings to buy your significant other that new diamond ring or Tesla they’ve had their eye on lately.

Take it from me, you’ll be much happier. And so will your favorite jeweler.