Dykema Real Estate and Tax Alert: 2020 Tax Appeal Season Is Upon Us, and Deadlines Are Quickly Approaching

Deadline to File Appeal With the Michigan Tax Tribunal Is Quickly Approaching

The deadline for filing petitions for new 2020 tax appeals with the Michigan Tax Tribunal is May 31, 2020. The Tax Tribunal has indicated that it may seek either legislation to amend the jurisdictional statute or an Executive Order from the Governor of Michigan, to extend the filing deadline in conjunction with the Governor’s “stay home, stay safe” order, declaration of state of emergency and state of disaster, as set forth in Executive Order 2020-59, but to date, no such extension has been authorized. At Dykema, we are prepared to file client’s tax appeals as soon as they are received prior to the May 31, 2020, deadline.

Dykema Is Pleased to Introduce Property Tax Attorney Margaret E. (“Peggy”) Graham to Assist Its Clients in Illinois

Peggy’s practice concentrates on real estate tax issues involving exemptions, incentives and assessments. Throughout her career, she has helped commercial, industrial, not-for-profit, religious and residential clients successfully resolve issues across all areas of real estate tax law. In particular, Peggy has a history of reducing excessive real estate assessments to fair and equitable values for her wide variety of clients and property types.

The 2020 Cook County tax appeal process has begun as of May 2020. If you have property in Cook County (we also appeal assessments for property located outside Cook County) now is the time to contact one of our attorneys. We are happy to assist with analyzing your assessment (no fee for this preliminary work), preparing your appeal, meeting filing requirements and deadlines, and obtaining the best possible tax relief with a fair and equitable assessment.

Flexible Fee Arrangements

As a service to our clients who own or lease industrial or commercial real property and industrial personal property, we offer the service of appealing your property tax assessments without charging on an hourly basis. We undertake property tax assessment appeal cases on a contingent fee arrangement based on the net tax savings for the tax years under appeal. Net tax savings is defined as the sum of the tax reduction or refunds realized plus interest and penalties accrued thereon or attributable thereto, less any expenses incurred in connection with the appeal. The only items that will be billed during the pendency of the case are out-of-pocket expenses for such items as filing fees, copying charges and mileage, the amount of which is subtracted to determine the net tax savings.

By providing our legal services to you on a contingent fee basis, we can reduce your overhead without affecting your cash flow. If our efforts do not result in a reduction or a refund of your taxes, we do not receive a fee.

Prior to accepting a case, we will review the matter at no charge to you. If we believe the case is meritorious for an appeal under our criteria, we will send you a retainer letter outlining the terms of our engagement under a contingency basis.

Taxpayers will need to have ready the following information: a brief description of the property in question (including the square footage), its present use, copies of the 2020 tax assessment notice, 2020 personal property statements (for personal property appeals), 2018-2019 tax bills, and any appraisal reports or insurance policies that indicate the value of the property.

We have a very successful track record in obtaining tax refunds/reductions for our clients. To get started, please contact any of the following Dykema attorneys:

Carl Rashid, Jr., at 313-568-5422 or crashid@dykema.com
Douglas J. Fryer at 248-203-0767 or dfryer@dykema.com  
Margaret E. Graham at 312-627-2138 or mgraham@dykema.com 
Todd C. Schebor at 313-568-6672 or tschebor@dykema.com

For more information on Dykema's Real Estate practice, please visit www.dykema.com/realestate.

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