It rarely takes into account certain allocations such as de-commitments which nevertheless benefit from a considerable reduction coefficient of 0.33. The taxpayer’s goal will therefore be to reduce the weighted area as much as possible by using the appropriate coefficients.

Reduce the Price per Square Meter

The price per square meter is therefore the second factor of the VLC. It is allocated on a discretionary basis by the administration, taking as a reference a room of a comparable type. Each municipality voted a report on which appears a list of these reference premises. Each is awarded a price per m 2. These reference premises are classified by type of activity. The minutes also indicate their surface.

When evaluating the property tax, the administration chooses a reference room on this report, which is supposed to be comparable to that of the taxpayer. However, not only is the taxpayer not informed of the choice of administration, but once again, the assessment is not revised by the administration a posteriori. For the California business property taxes this goes essential.

Thus, when the activity carried out in the room changes, the reference room initially chosen to set the price per square meter is not updated. It is therefore very common for the property tax to be assessed by reference to premises which no longer has anything to do with the activity carried out.

It is also frequent that the reference building was chosen lightly, because the minutes of the municipality do not include enough premises to find one that is comparable in a relevant way. The minutes voted by the municipalities are themselves rarely updated. So it is common that certain contemporary activities are not listed. This necessarily results in a rather fanciful choice of local reference by the administration.

The optimization, in this case, will consist in asking that the good be valued by reference to a standard room of the minutes which is appropriate (same activity, comparable surface and sector) and whose price per m 2 is obviously lower.

In the event of failure resulting from the brevity or anachronism of the minutes, the jurisprudence of the Council of State authorizes the selection of a reference location for the minutes of a neighboring municipality and the like.

The Condition and Situation of the Building

There is a third lever for optimization. The administration applies coefficients of surplus or loss (generally of surplus value) which can vary from – 20% to + 20%, to take into account the state of maintenance of the building and the local situation.

These criteria are evanescent and it happens that the administration applies them without this being justified. As with assignments, she does not review them. This is how a building, which saw a 20% increase 20 years ago because it was brand new, will continue to have this increase today when heavy work is needed or the neighborhood is become poorly served or even poorly attended. These coefficients of gain or loss can therefore be contested if necessary.

Conclusion

When an owner doubts the correct assessment of the property tax relating to his property, or when the latter has undergone significant changes (activity, assignment, state, situation), it is advisable to ask the property tax center, the file assessment of the tax and the (full) report of the reference premises of the municipality.

The evaluation sheet makes it possible to find out the weighted surface area retained by the administration (weighting coefficients) and the number of the standard room allocated to fix the price per square meter.

The minutes of the municipality allow for its knowledge of the characteristics of the typical room (surface, activity) and to determine if it is truly comparable to the property concerned by the property tax. It also allows you to find out about other reference premises available in the municipality.