Santa Clara County Assessor Larry Stone today announced the
introduction of the online Supplemental Tax Estimator, a tool
designed to help new and prospective homeowners better understand
the amount of property taxes they can expect to pay following their
home purchase.
Santa Clara County Assessor Larry Stone today announced the introduction of the online Supplemental Tax Estimator, a tool designed to help new and prospective homeowners better understand the amount of property taxes they can expect to pay following their home purchase.
“It’s very frustrating,” Stone said. “You buy a home, think your property taxes were taken care of during escrow or as part of the monthly mortgage payments, only to receive a supplemental assessment followed by a supplemental tax bill.”
Stone said he hopes the new tool, which can be accessed at www.sccassessor.org/ste, will help taxpayers estimate their supplemental taxes before they complete the purchase transaction and help them to prepare for the resultant supplemental tax bill before it arrives in the mail.
Realtors typically provide prospective homeowners with an estimate of their taxes for future years by multiplying the purchase price by an estimated tax rate. However these estimates usually don’t reflect the new property owner’s responsibility for the supplemental assessment that will result from their purchase, Stone said.
The new supplemental estimator will help both realtors and prospective homeowners, and enable taxpayers to calculate their estimated taxes based upon their anticipated purchase price and month of acquisition.
In addition, it shows the mathematics assisting taxpayers to better understand how supplemental assessments and taxes are calculated by the Assessor and the Tax Collector. However, this is only an estimate. The property owner must wait for the supplemental tax bill and pay the actual taxes by the due dates.