Abatements

Tax-Property Section 8-419 allows the Supervisor of Assessments along with the cooperation of local officials, to decrease or abate an assessment after the date of finality even though it has not been appealed.  This may be done to correct an erroneous assessment, correct an improper assessment or to prevent injustice.

Whether to take action under Tax-Property Section 8-419 is discretionary on the part of the appropriate officials.  Therefore, this decision cannot be further appealed.

Refunds

Tax-Property Section 14-904 and Section 14-905 allow taxpayers to claim refunds.  The grounds for refunds are limited to mathematical errors, errors in the property description or other clerical errors made by the taxing authority or assessing authority, and not because of an error of valuation.  Going forward, if a qualifying error is discovered, the property record should be corrected and a notice should be sent reflecting the change for the next taxable year. Tax-Property Section 14-915 allows taxpayers to secure refunds if a written claim is submitted on or before three years from the date that the property tax was paid.

Relationship Between Abatements and Refunds

It is the Department’s policy to decrease or abate the underlying assessment when a refund is appropriate.  Likewise, a decrease or abatement under Section 8-419 typically triggers a refund. If an owner requests an abatement for previous years, the request should be granted in accordance with Tax-Property Article 8-419 and submitted to the proper county official or in Baltimore City, the city solicitor.

Sections 8-419 and 14-915, when read together, indicate that a taxpayer’s ability to be granted decrease or abatement relief retroactively is only as good as their eligibility to secure a refund, which is capped at three years from the date that the property tax was paid. 

The normal procedure for determining the number of past taxable years to abate is three years from the initial contact that indicated that the property was valued incorrectly.  Additionally, to maintain uniformity of treatment and to avoid penalizing the owner for early payment of the property tax, we assume that all payments are made on September 30.  Therefore, if the initial complaint is within October 1 and Dec 31, then going back 3 more years will capture the current year plus 3 more years.   If the initial contact is within January 1 and June 30, then going back 3 years will capture the current year plus 2 prior years.

Increase or Decrease

Tax-Property Section 8-104 requires the Supervisor of Assessments to revalue (increase or decrease) within the three year cycle if an error in calculation or measurement of real property caused the value to be erroneous.

Tax Property Section 2-216 allows the Supervisor to correct annually the value (increase or decrease) of any improperly valued property.  The Supervisor only with the approval of the State Supervisor can increase a property under appeal above the original assessment.

Appeals

Tax-Property Section 1-402 prohibits the increase of an assessment due to information ascertained at an appeal hearing on residential property during the current three year cycle.

Escaped Property

Tax-Property Sections 8-417 and 14-1103 allow the Supervisor to value “escaped property” for the current and three previous taxable years.​

Notification

Correcting an error prior to February 1 for reassessment requires an in-cycle “Corrected Notice”.  The out-of-cycle “Correction of Error” notice is required for all other error corrections.