RECIPE FOR SUCCESS:Assessing the assessor’s office

If you are fortunate enough to own a boat in Newport Beach, you may have recently received your property tax bill from the Orange County Tax Collector. But before that final bill arrives, the county assessor’s office determines the value placed on the boat for taxation, and that has many boat owners questioning just how they arrive at those “values.”

Original sales tax is included in a boat’s “value.” Boaters are being taxed on sales tax they’ve already paid. According to the State Board of Equalizations Assessor’s Handbook online, it’s legal. So if you purchased a boat in Los Angeles where the sales tax is higher, would the boat be worth more? The office says yes. Boats devalue with age, but some boat owners say each year their tax bill value remains the same.

The Assessor’s Handbook gives direction on this. “In the case of older pleasure boats, the cost approach is generally not used due to the availability of nationally published value guides that provide annual market values.” But is the Orange County assessor’s office taking the time to use those value guides or are they just waiting for folks to appeal the values and then make the adjustments? You can appeal your bill only after you’ve paid your taxes. The process is time consuming and confusing, but if you present valid sales comps, they say they will alter the amount in a refund.

As a new boat owner, I received a tax bill that included penalties from a previous year’s bill, a bill I never received. When I called the office, they acknowledged no previous bill was ever sent to me, but state law says you must pay your taxes, and not receiving a tax bill does not exempt you.

According to the Orange County assessor’s Website, “The Assessor Department receives boat registration and documentation information from the Department of Motor Vehicles, the U. S. Coast Guard, and marinas operating within the county. They also perform annual on-site inspections of all marinas and moorings in the county.” That’s how they know you have a boat and create an assessed tax bill. So why didn’t I get a bill? They say they didn’t know I had a boat even though it was properly registered with DMV and the Coast Guard at time of purchase. Clearly, in my case, no one followed the procedures outlined on the Website. Did I just fall through the cracks? Maybe not.

Apparently this office has had problems. A recent Los Angeles Times article reported the hadn’t billed taxes for three years when there was a change in management of the slips in Dana Point. To correct their mistake, they wanted about $800,000 in back fees from boaters. The Board of Supervisors voted not to charge the public for this error.

So who’s assessing the office? Maybe the county and the Board of Supervisors should start paying closer attention to this office. They seem to be having some trouble with their recipe for success. Boaters need to scrutinize their bills and ask questions.