Home Page: News
Selected News -- Archive of Past News
Taxes & Tips Conover Town Treasurer James M. Hedberg Property Taxes The following information, is the cycle by which property taxes are generated from its conception to death (payment): 1- Persons over the past year, purchase and sell property all over the state but only the sales in Conover play an important part in determining the property tax value and ultimately the tax amount 2- the Wisconsin Dept. of Revenue averages these sales and come up with an average assessment ratio. The ratio should be 100% or 1.00. Example: John Doe has 350’ of frontage and 3.6 acres on a Conover Lake. The assessment on this property is 190,000 Land, 147,500 Home for a total value of $337,500.00. They have wanted to sell and move to Arizona for years and now that the kids are grown, they have it for sale. Bill Gates comes along and is making big bucks in the city and wants a place for his kids and grandchildren to summer and for him to retire. Without asking first, the price listed, he offers $390,000.00. The deal closes. The assessed value is lower than the market value. That makes the assessment ratio less than 100% and tells the Dept. of Revenue and the Town that we have to raise the property assessment values. 3- In the fall of the year, the Town receives the ratio from the Wisconsin Department of Revenue because it must be shown on the tax bill, The Tax listing Office in the Vilas County Courthouse plugs this percentage into the computer and that lists out the Estimated Fair Market Value in the upper right corner of the bill. You are taxed on assessed value though – not fair market. 4- Beginning in October of each year, the taxing entities conduct workshops and hearings on budgets for the following year. The entities are: State, County, Town, School District and Vocational/Technical District. When the budgets are set and approved by the “people,” the amount for all five (5) entities are divided by the value of the district to get the mill rate. The mill rate is the factor that is multiplied by the assessed value to get the Gross Tax Amount. 5- The mill rate is a dollar amount for each $1,000 of assessed value that you have. There are credits applied against the rate along with a Lottery Credit for persons who are residents and reside on the property listed as their primary residence. 6- All of this information is provided to the County and the tax bills are printed. The rule-of-thumb for mailing of the bills is usually before the 15th of December of each year. 7- The Clerk/Treasurer must strip every bill, file the copies, insert attachments and stuff into envelopes, seal, stamp and mail. This process when working alone (no assistant or deputy clerk) takes more than a couple of days. 8- Also in the mailing, the Clerk will enclose an application for a dog license. Dog licenses are $8.00 or if spayed or neutered, just $3.00. 9- Full or 1st installment of the taxes are due and payable to the Clerk/Treasurer of the Town of Conover and are due not later than January 31st or post marked not later than January 31st. Any payment received after that date must be sent to the Vilas County Treasurer. If no payment was mailed to the Conover Treasurer, you are DELINQUENT. Delinquent payments and 2nd Installment of property taxes are mailed to the Vilas County Treasurer. 10- It is the responsibility of the property owner to notify the taxing authority of any changes in mailing address. Failure to do so will prevent or delay receipt of the tax bill and you will be liable for all penalty and interest payments. 11- An Informational Insert has been sent with tax bills for many years which indicate processes and procedures for tax payment along with other important messages. It is the taxpayer’s responsibility to read the insert because it was important enough to include to every property owner. 12- Mailing address is again indicated on the insert along with Office Hours for persons to pay taxes in person. Tax season is very busy and tense for the person who has to process these payments so a phone call asking for data that was already supplied to them is not appreciated. 13- The Assessment Roll is available for persons to look at in the office of the clerk just prior to the Board of Review and immediately after it. The Board of Review is a hearing board that takes into consideration facts that are presented that affects the value of property. For full information regarding the requirements and procedures for the Board of Review, please contact the Town Office or contact the Wisconsin Department of Revenue @ www.dor.state.wi.us of Bureau of Assessment Practices, Box 8933, Madison WI 53708-8933 or to discuss your assessment, James Moravec – Moravec Appraisal and Assessing Inc. – 500 US HIghway 45 S – Eagle River WI 54521 or call 715-479-8889. 14- The Board of Review requires filing of a formal Objection Form.