Property taxes Miami Florida

[Fradel Barber]

Does anyone know how to calculate taxes on a sfh purchase in Miami dade?

I went to the county property assessor website and the amount came out to more than 3 times what the current owners are paying!

Is this accurate? And if so is there any way around this to keep the taxes closer to what the current owners are paying?

[Nat C.]

Miami-Dade County has one of the highest median property taxes in the United States but rents are also extremely high which does help offset the expenses.

The County uses a complicated formula to determine the property tax owed on individual properties, thus it's not possible to condense it into a simplified tax rate. Every owners property taxes depend on a variety of factors however it's ultimately at the discretion of the individual property appraiser who assesses your property, so it can vary significantly.

I assume the current owners are receiving the Homestead Exception, which you won't receive if you are buying as an investment property. Even if it was currently a rental property, the assessed value resets when there is a change of ownership so you can never assume the tax rate will stay the same when you are buying. 

Yes, you can appeal the property tax amount. Every year, the Tax Assessor mails out a Notice of Proposed Property Taxes to property owners after they have assessed and determined a property tax amount. This happens around August and you have several months to appeal it. It can't be an arbitrary argument, like you just feel the amount is too high. You would need to have a proper argument, such as incorrect facts in their assessment. 

What is the amount you think you will be paying and what are the property details? I just paid around 25k in property taxes for Dade alone.