Property Taxes

Fiscal Year 2019-2020

Explaining the Tax Bill and Calculating your Property Taxes in the City of Pompano Beach

Property owners in the City of Pompano Beach (the “City”) should have received a "Truth in Millage" (TRIM) Notice by mid-August and will receive their tax bill by November 1st. These two documents are important as a taxpayer and what information is included in them as well.

The Trim Notice: What is it and what information does it provide for taxpayers?

The TRIM law passed by the Florida Legislature in 1980, is designed to inform property owners of their rights as taxpayers. To protect the rights of taxpayers, the TRIM Notice is mailed to all property owners each year in mid-August compares current year and prior year proposed market value and assessed value of each property; tax-saving exemptions, if any; and the tax amounts and special fees proposed by each of your various taxing authorities (City of Pompano Beach, Broward Public Schools, Broward County Commission, South Florida Water Management, etc.); as well as, the locations and dates of the public hearings where you can voice your views on the proposed rates and fees. Each taxing authority is required to hold two hearings before they set the tax rates. Usually, for the City of Pompano Beach, both hearings are held each year in September, as the City must legally adopt a budget for the upcoming fiscal year (October 1st-September 30th) by October 1st of each year.

Taxpayers may attend the City’s public budget hearings listed on the TRIM Notice in order to communicate any questions or concerns to the City Commission.The City is one of the seven other taxing authorities listed in your tax bill, thus if Taxpayers are having any questions about the assessed value of their property as reported on their TRIM notice or tax bill they should contact the Broward County Property Appraiser (BCPA) and discuss the matter with a Deputy Appraiser.

If BCPA is not able to quickly resolve the matter, the property owner must file a petition with the Value Adjustment Board (VAB) by the mid-September filing deadline. The same process applies if an exemption is missing from your property.

The tax bill also includes the non-ad valorem fire assessment fees that the City assesses to provide for the eligible fire operations costs. It is called a non-ad valorem assessment because it is on the property tax bill but is not based upon property value. Although you cannot appeal the non-ad valorem assessment, the law provides that the City must hold noticed public hearings before fixing these annual rates. The first hearing is set forth in the TRIM Notice of proposed taxes.

Every November 1st, Broward County Revenue Collection Division mails the tax bill to all property owners in Pompano Beach. If the property owner has an escrow account with a mortgage company, the bill is mailed directly to the mortgage company and the owner is sent a courtesy copy. After you receive your tax bill in November, you have until November 30th, to pay without any penalties. In addition, Broward County Revenue Collection Division has an installment plan for taxpayers.

Who sets your taxes and which are the taxing authorities listed in your tax bill?

The total amount indicated in your tax bill depends on two factors: the assessed value of your property, which is the BCPA’s responsibility, and the tax rate, otherwise known as the millage rate, expressed as dollars per thousand, for each taxing authority that levy property taxes within the boundaries of the City. The chart illustrates all the taxing authorities on your tax bill, the City of Pompano Beach is highlighted in green. For every $1 you pay in property taxes, $0.253 goes to the City’s General Fund for its maintenance and operations, $0.022 pays for debt and principal of the first series G.O. bonds (as explained below) and $0.024 pays for the Emergency Medical Special District (EMS) operations. The remainder of the $1 goes to other taxing authorities as shown in the pie chart.

It is important to understand that each taxing authority may set one or more millage rates, for instance, the Broward County Commission has set two millage rates, one for their operations and one for their debt service millage rate. The City until fiscal year (FY) 2019 had set two millage rates: one related to the General Fund operations and the other related to the EMS operations. In FY 2019, the voters approved by majority vote to pass three General Obligation (G.O) Bonds to finance twenty five (25) street and bridges, parks and public safety capital improvement projects throughout the City. The first bonds were sold on October 2, 2018, to finance the design and construction of all “Phase I” G.O. Bond projects. In order to finance the construction cost of “Phase II” projects, the City will be selling the remaining G.O. Bonds by the fall of 2021.

Calculating your property taxes

Now that you have a better understanding of the taxing authorities and the potential factors that might impact your tax bill, let’s calculate your property taxes looking at a residential property example, as shown below:

This is in a snapshot of property information of illustrative purposes. The sum of each of the tax rates as set forth by each taxing authority is multiplied by the property’s assessed value and equals the amount of taxes you are responsible for paying. Overall, the property owner will pay $616.25 in property taxes for 2019 to include the fire assessment residential non-valorem fee ($220).

The City’s portion of the tax bill

At a glance, in the chart above, you will notice that the Building/Improvement value has increased from 2018 to 2019 therefore, the Assessed/SOH Value has also increased. However, the assessed value is significantly less due to this property owner qualifying for several exemptions: homestead exemption $25,000x2 (in this case the property is homesteaded 100% or $50,000), the widower exemption $500, and the senior exemption $26,270.

Looking in more in depth at the illustrative tax bill, you will notice that the taxable value for the City’s (“Municipal”) portion (highlighted in green below) is zero, due to applying all the qualifying exemptions mentioned above. Therefore, the property owner in this case won’t pay property taxes to the City of Pompano Beach. However, the $220 fire assessment fee is not exempt.

If the property owner was eligible only for the homestead exemption, the property owner would have paid to the City of Pompano only $164.18.

Cumulative Millage Rates*Taxable Value/100=Property Taxes or 6.1326*26,770/1000=$164.18 (rounded).

In conclusion, the City hopes that the information provided in this article will assist our taxpayers in having a better understanding of the tax assessment process as well as, provide insight on understanding the tax bill, factors and all the taxing authorities that play a role in your annual property taxes. In addition, taxpayers can always contact the City of Pompano Beach and the BCPA with any questions they might have on the tax bill. Finally, to obtain a copy of your tax bill, please contact the Revenue Collection Division or search your tax bill and the payment history electronically on the Revenue Collection Division website.

The City of Pompano Beach Community Shuttle article in Tradewinds Magazine Vol. 19, #2.