Assessing Department

Departments

Atlas Township Assessor

This Assessor’s Office is responsible for the inventory and valuation of all taxable property within Atlas Township. The Township Assessor is Bill Thompson. He is in the office 9:00 am – 5:00 pm Mondays. Please feel free to call him and leave a message or email him. He may be reached by calling 810-636-2548. ext 307, or by email: bthompson@atlastownship.org .Most calls and emails will be answered on Monday or within 7 business days.

Assessment Appeals

Notice of Assessments are mailed mid to end of February each year. This is an opportunity for property owners to review Assessed/Taxable value changes, Principal Residence and Qualified Agricultural Exemption percentages, Property Classification, estimated increase in taxes and whether the property transferred ownership. In the event you do not agree with the information it is suggested that you call and discuss your Notice of Assessment. After your discussion, you may schedule an appointment with the March Board of Review. The Board of Review consist of three township residents who hear assessment appeals and render a decision based on the information provided by the owner of record. Meeting dates, times and location are posted on the notice.

July and December Board of Review meets to address Qualified Errors, Poverty Exemptions and Disabled Veteran Exemptions (see forms below). The July and December Boards do not hear valuation appeals.

Michigan Tax Tribunal

If a property owner is not satisfied with the decision of the Board of Review, they may appeal the decision to the Michigan Tax Tribunal at www.michigan.gov/taxtrib.

Legal Description Discrepancies

Issues with Legal Descriptions should be emailed to Bill. Please include the documents you are referencing, clearly identify the error and what you believe the corrected legal should be.

Property Reviews

The State of Michigan requires local assessing departments to review 20% of the parcel count annually. The assessing department will visit your property, identify themselves, and review all buildings, porches, decks, etc. In the event no one is home a business card will be left at the door.

Property Taxes & Estimator

Estimating property taxes is a common question. For long time property owners your taxes will increase incrementally as long as your assessment is increasing.

New property owners looking to get an estimate on what your taxes will be, please click on the link below. Take your purchase price and divide it by two. This number will represent your estimated SEV. Enter the SEV in the box in Line 1 and provide answers to the remaining questions to get your estimated annual taxes .https://teas-sure.state.mi.us/ptestimator/ptestimator.asp

Uncapping

By statute, an assessor must uncap a property’s taxable value in the year following the transfer of ownership. The assessor shall set the taxable value equal to property’s state equalized value the year following the transfer of ownership. See MCL 211.27a(3). This process may increase your property taxes dramatically.