Protesters still required to pay taxes

Property owners who have reviews and appeals still pending with the state Department of Revenue are required to pay their taxes under protest by the Nov. 30 deadline.

“If you have filed a review (AB26)/appeal and haven’t gotten a decision on it, you will need to protest your taxes when you pay them,” Flathead County Treasurer Adele Krantz said. “When you pay your taxes, include the protest form with the payment.

“On this form, you will need to state why you are protesting your taxes. You will also need to determine the amount of tax dollars paid under protest,” Krantz said. “You may not protest the entire amount, only the portion you feel you may recover if the appeal finds in your favor.”

The protest form can be downloaded from the county’s Web site at flathead.mt.gov. Forms also are available at the County Treasurer’s Office.

Payment of taxes under protest simply sets the designated money aside in the protest fund until the appeal already in progress has been resolved by the Tax Appeal Board, the Department of Revenue or the courts, Krantz said. If the decision is in favor of the taxpayer, the Treasurer’s Office will send a refund to the taxpayer.

Unprecedented numbers of Montanans requested informal reviews of their property tax assessments this year.

Statewide, owners of 26,250 parcels of residential, agricultural, commercial and forest property have sought informal reviews. This is an increase of 17,850 requests from the 8,400 filed in 2003.

Twenty-nine percent of those reviews — more than 7,500 — were filed by residents of Flathead County.

Montana Department of Revenue Director Dan Bucks said paying taxes under protest is required by law to protect property owners’ interests in securing a tax reduction if their assessment reviews or appeals are successful. Counties will not issue refunds and accrued interest even with successful appeals of property assessments, if property owners did not pay their taxes under protest.

For more information, contact the Flathead County Treasurer’s office at 758-5680 or stop by the office at 935 First Ave. W., Kalispell.

For more tax information and downloadable forms, go to http://flathead.mt.gov/property_tax/index.php.

To contact the Department of Revenue, call 758-5700 or stop by the office at 100 Financial Drive, Kalispell.