The responsibilities of the Assessor’s Office include keeping information about all properties current. Ownership changes, property sales, property data, tax maps and other property information are constantly being updated so that anyone needing this information may acquire it and be confident that it is accurate.
The Assessor’s Office is also responsible, under the direction of the Board of Selectmen, for keeping assessments current with market value. State law requires assessments to be proportionate, each year, and that at least once in every five years, bring assessments to full market value.
Legislation resulting from the ‘Sirrell’ v. Portsmouth decision (State School Tax) has dramatically changed the assessing environment around the State. Specifically, three State agencies now have a direct impact on how and when assessing is performed, with the Department of Revenue Administration performing an oversight role to ensure compliance to State standards.
A major part of the new legislation has been to establish 5-year ‘assessment reviews’ by the Department of Revenue Administration (DRA). 2006 was Plaistow’s ‘assessment review’ year. The report addressed all facets of the assessing office from assessment equity to the way in which we address requests for abatements, veterans credits and many other assessment functions. The DRA measured our performance against standards developed by the Assessing Standards Board (ASB) and the Equalization Standards Board (ESB). The report found that the Town met or exceeded all standards and requirements.
In preparation for this ‘assessment review’ the assessing office reviewed and ‘recertified’ all exemptions, credits, current use lands for compliance to current standards. This required us to ask taxpayers for their assistance in producing documentation. We thank all taxpayers who assisted us in his endeavor for their patience and cooperation. Our next ‘certification’ year is in 2012.
We also reviewed all current use files, veterans’ credit files, elderly exemption files and other tax exempt properties such as churches and Town owned properties. We were required to re-certify all these classifications at no little inconvenience to some taxpayers. We appreciate the assistance and patience of all those taxpayers who were required to re-certify this year.
Assessment Updates:
Over the past 5 years, Plaistow has experienced 3 assessment updates. These updates are performed to bring all assessments to market value in accordance with State Standards. Plaistow performs these updates in order to prevent the drastic shifts in value and taxes experienced during a typical ‘full revaluation’ by making incremental changes over a 5-year period. All Towns are now required to bring assessments to current market value at least once in every five years. Plaistow’s policy is to perform these more often in order to soften the impact to individual taxpayers.
It is important that taxpayers understand that increasing assessments does not generate additional revenues to the Town. In the same manner, decreasing assessments will not result in less revenue to the Town. This is because the Town must raise the revenues approved by the taxpayers, neither more nor less. If the overall assessments are higher than the previous year, the tax rate will be less, and if the overall assessments are lower than the previous year, the tax rate will be higher. In each case the same amount of overall revenue will be raised to cover essential municipal services approved by the taxpayers during Town Meetings or deliberative sessions (one for the Town, and another for the School District).
Assessments for all properties are determined by the analysis of sales of generally similar properties over the past year. Market value as of April 1st 2007 determined the assessed value for each property for this most recent tax bill.
The real estate market has softened significantly from the dramatic increases in value experienced during the 2002-2005 period. As a result, changes in assessed value for the 2006 and 2007 assessment updates were comparatively moderate. (assessment updates were not performed for 2003 & 2004).
While no assessment update was scheduled for 2007, the Selectmen were committed to responding to dramatic changes in the real estate market if required. In 2007 there were indications that some property types were losing market value and some commercial sectors were increasing in value. Accordingly, the Selectmen authorized a partial update of values to those property sectors that were falling out of line with their assessments.
Beyond these changes, the assessments remained the same in 2007 as they were in 2006. Currently the market appears to be softening for residential properties in general. If this trend continues a recommendation will be made to the Selectmen in the summer of 2008 to allow an update of values consistent with the emerging market of 2008. Taxpayers will be informed ahead of time of any pending changes to their 2008 assessments.
This past year the administration embarked upon a project to centralize our municipal data and to put it into a format that can be accessed by the public. While these projects are highly technical, and take time to fully develop, we expect that we will have assessing and mapping data online for this year. When ready, links will be posted to the Town website @ http://plaistownh.virtualtownhall.net.
We encourage all taxpayers to review the data on file for their property when you have the opportunity. If any questions or discrepancies are noted, please bring them to the attention of the assessment office personnel. We remain open to any and all observations as to how we may better serve you.
The assessing Department also helps people with the following exemptions:
Elderly Exemption
To qualify, applicant must:
§ be 65 years of age or older on or before April 1st in the year they’re applying.
§ be a New Hampshire resident for at least 3 years prior to April 1st.
§ total household income cannot exceed $35,000 if single, or $50,000 if married.
§ all sources of income are included.
§ total assets cannot exceed $80,000. Assets do not include the value of the house or up to 2 acres of land that the house sits on. Everything else would be included.
If qualified, the exemption is as follows:
§ ages 65 to 74 - $110,000 is subtracted from the assessment and taxes are paid on the remainder.
§ ages 75 to 79 - $150,000 is subtracted from the assessment and taxes are paid on the remainder.
§ ages 80 and over - $190,000 is subtracted from the assessment and taxes are paid on the remainder.
Totally and Permanently Disabled
To qualify, applicant must:
§ be a New Hampshire resident for at least 5 years prior to April 1st
§ be totally and permanently disabled and collecting Social Security.
§ total household income cannot exceed $35,000 if single, or $50,000 if married.
§ all sources of income are included.
§ total assets cannot exceed $80,000. Assets do not include the value of the house or up to 2 acres of land that the house sits on. Everything else would be included.
If qualified, the exemption is as follows:
§ $150,000 is subtracted from the assessment and taxes are paid on the remainder.
Blind Exemption
To qualify, applicant must:
§ be a New Hampshire resident for at least 1 year prior to April 1st in the year exemption is claimed.
§ be legally blind as determined by the administrator of blind services and provide a letter stating such.
If qualified, the exemption is as follows:
§ $15,000 will be deducted from the assessment and taxes will be paid on the remainder.
Veteran’s Tax Credit:
To qualify, applicant must:
§ be a New Hampshire resident for at least 1 year prior to April 1st in the year exemption is claimed.
§ have served at least 90 consecutive days of active duty during a wartime period and honorably discharged. A copy of paperwork showing date of entry and date of discharge must be supplied at time of application.
If applying for service connected total disability tax credit, disability must be 100% total and permanent, must be service-connected and a letter from the veteran’s administration must be supplied at time of application.
If qualified, the exemption is as follows:
§ $200 will be deducted from the taxes for a standard veteran credit and $2,000 for a veteran with a service connected total and permanent disability.
Veteran Spouse or Widow:
To qualify, applicant must:
§ Demonstrate that the spouse or deceased veteran met all requirements for Veterans Tax Credit (referenced above), and,
§ Has not remarried.
§ The surviving spouse of any veteran killed or died while on active duty, as listed in RSA 72:28, providing that the spouse or widow has not remarried.
The State of New Hampshire has a program to rebate a portion of the state-wide property tax for qualifying elderly residents. Information is available at Town Hall.
Respectfully submitted,
Wil Corcoran
Assessor’s Agent
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