L.A. County Takes on Speeding Up Property Tax Corrections and Reimbursements

With the federal and state deadlines for filing and paying taxes approaching in three days, Los Angeles County is also renewing its focus on taxes, with a special focus on enhancing its property tax correction and reimbursement processes.

This week, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors unanimously approved a motion introduced by Supervisor Kathryn Barger and co-authored by Supervisor Holly J. Mitchell that gives several County departments 90 days to find proposed solutions to quicken the County’s resolution of tax disputes and reimbursements for overpayments, and recommendations to streamline the Assessment Appeals Board process to ensure more efficient case resolution.

The motion notes that, in 2023, the Los Angeles County Assessor recorded approximately $25 billion collected from real estate, business, boats and aircraft property taxes. In 2020–at the height of the pandemic–the County’s independent Assessment Appeals Board (AAB), which is dedicated to settling valuation disputes between taxpayers and the Assessor’s Office, had nearly 34,000 open appeals. That backlog of disputes has since been reduced, but there are still many delayed appeals in process.

“We are living in a tough economic climate and my heart goes out to residents who have submitted property tax appeals or are awaiting corrections but haven’t received resolution in a timely manner from our County,” said Supervisor Kathryn Barger. “Every penny counts and I want our County to remain focused on quickening the pace of processing appeals and issuing corrections and refunds where possible.”

“Streamlining the assessment appeals and property tax corrections helps prevent inaccuracies and confusion from going through multi-departments,” Supervisor Holly J. Mitchell stated. “This is about providing a more efficient and equitable process that benefits both property owners and vital County public services.”

In addition to requesting recommendations to improve property tax corrections and refunds, the motion directs several County departments to assess the status of pending AAB cases and performance data, such as average time to resolve appeals and issue refunds.