Page 17 - Lifestyles in Palm Beach Gardens - February '22

Lifestyles in Palm Beach Gardens, Page 17
Tax Talk

Dear Friends, The Value Adjustment Board is an independent entity
Well, the new year has which includes elected officials and citizen members
gotten off to a challenging who approve special magistrates to preside in a public
start here in the Tax hearing format. Joseph Abruzzo, clerk of the Circuit
Collector’s Office as we Court and Comptroller’s Office serves as the clerk of the
are managing through the VAB; processing all petitions, scheduling hearings and
latest COVID-19 surge. maintaining all records.
Like many other offices and Each August, Palm Beach County’s taxpayers are
businesses, this latest surge notified of their property’s assessed and market value
has resulted in numerous 1. Browse the types of service that we offer to determine by the Property Appraiser’s Office. At that time, the
staff being out in order to what appointment you need. property owner can file a petition with the VAB if they
rest and get healthy. My 2. Check our latest guidelines on how appointments work feel the assessment, classification or exemption status
staff is working diligently to process the influx of work to prepare for your visit to one of our locations. for their property is incorrect. Regardless of the outcome
we are receiving as a result of being in the middle of 3. Make your appointment by selecting the service you or pending status of the petition, the required portion of
tax season. Rest assured, that our focus is to process need along with the location, date, and time. the property taxes are due by April 1 to the tax collector
the volumes of work as quickly as possible and that our Reminder: Our appointment system can only schedule to avoid penalties, as per Florida Statute 194.014. This
staff is safe and healthy. I, along with our entire team, appointments up to 60 days in advance. If no appointments new resource sheet will assist clients who have had their
greatly appreciate your patience as we work through these are available for the requested transaction, please continue VAB petition administratively granted during this time.
challenges. to check back periodically for appointments to become An overview of the petition process is available on the
Notwithstanding these challenges, I am thrilled available. Are you ready to schedule your appointment? Visit clerk’s website at www.mypalmbeachclerk.com including
that in February, our new service center in the city of www.pbctax.com/appointments to make your appointment! an online portal for filing.
Westlake, will open for business! This new state-of-the-
art, 23,735-square-foot service center will replace the New Resource Available For Charitable Giving
current facility in Royal Palm Beach and serve the western
communities of our county. I look forward to welcoming VAB Petitioners In our December newsletter, we talked about the
clients to this new location! generosity and giving spirit of our employees. This
Sincerely, The Tax Collector’s Office is committed to working holiday season, they “knocked our socks off” in a holiday
Anne M. Gannon, with our partner agencies to best serve the residents of sock drive for one of our charity partners, Living Hungry.
Constitutional Tax Collector, Palm Beach County. We’ve teamed up with the office of Employees were challenged to donate 1,000 pairs of
Serving Palm Beach County Dorothy Jacks, property appraiser, on a fact sheet called
“What to Expect After Your Value Adjustment Board
Making An Appointment Is (VAB) Petition is Administratively Granted,” which will
be provided to clients involved with the petition process.
Easy As 1, 2, 3

The tax collector offers many services such as driver’s
license, motor vehicle, vessel, property tax, tourist
development tax, business tax, and more. There is a good
chance that at some point you will need to visit one of our
six service centers within the next year for one or more of
the services listed above. We want to make this process
as client friendly as possible by breaking it down to three
easy steps: Tax Talk on page 18