Fees For Services

Our Tax Protest program is designed to provide clients with the support they need in an equitable and cost-effective manner, on a Step-By-Step basis. Some clients only need to determine if the assessed value is reasonable and if it is feasible to pursue an appeal. Others need the complete assistance of an experienced appraiser to manage their appeal from start to finish. Some protests are resolved quickly, while others require submission of appeals through the three protest stages to achieve a reasonable solution. Here's a brief summary of the process:

Feasibility Tax Report: Pack Appraisal will prepare a market analysis and provide you with a value range and estimated tax savings to help you determine the feasibility of pursuing an appeal. This must be paid for with a fixed fee, as outlined below.

Tax Protest Report:
After you have received the Feasibility Tax Report, if you believe your property is over-valued and further appeal is feasible, you may pursue the protest process with a Tax Protest Report. Two payment options are available, a Fixed Fee, or a Contingent Fee.

Fixed Fee: Fees vary by the actual value assigned by the Assessors office, and are summarized below

Contingent Fee: 40% of the 2-year tax savings generated through the appeals process. We only get paid if we are successful in achieving a reduction in value for your property. We will represent you through the remainder of the tax protest process. No additional payment of fixed fees will be required.

The following table reflects our fee schedule for orders placed by May 15, 2011. Price increases for any of our services may be applied to orders placed after this date due to the severe time constraints involved in submitting appeals by the June 1, 2011 deadline.

Fee Schedule for Property Tax Protest Services

IMPROVED Residential Property

VACANT Land Residential Property

Many of our clients achieve successful results at this initial "stage 1" appeal to the Assessors office. Others are required to pursue their appeal through the County Board of Equalization (CBOE) hearings or Binding Arbitration to achieve a successful reduction. Eagle County Tax Appeal will represent you during these hearings.

We will deliver you a copy of the Feasibility Tax Report when it is completed.  If the data suggests it is feasible to pursue an appeal, the appeal will be filed with the Eagle County Assessors office.  You will be provided a copy of the report and will be given the option at that time to select the Contingent Fee payment plan or the Fixed Fee payment plan.  The default path is Contingent Fee payment, so if you desire the Fixed Fee payment plan, you must notify us of that intent in writing prior to the Assessors issuance of a “Notice of Determination”, which is their initial response to the appeal.

If you select the contingent fee payment plan, we will represent you through the appeals process for no additional fixed fee payment on your behalf. You only pay a contingent fee if we are successful gaining a reduction in the assessor's valuation. The contingent fee payment is 40 percent of the tax savings achieved for the two-year period.

If you select the Fixed Fee plan, an additional fee is required to prepare and submit a formalized Tax Protest Report to the Assessors office.  Once the Assessor responds with the Notice of Determination, you will have the option of ending your appeal, continuing on to further hearings under the Fixed Fee plan, or changing to the Contingent Fee plan.  Once the Contingent Fee plan is selected, it is not possible to switch back to a fixed fee plan.

These prices are valid through Friday, May 15, 2011. Price increases for any of our services may be applied for orders placed after this date due to the severe time constraints involved in preparing and submitting protests by the June 1, 2011 deadline.

Please note that at this time we are only servicing residential properties, including vacant building lots, single family homes, duplex/triplex, condominiums, & townhomes. We are not currently providing services on commercial, industrial, or agricultural properties.

More on our Fee Structure...

You will notice that the Fixed Fees for our services are based on a sliding scale. Fixed fees vary depending on the actual value assigned to each individual property by the Eagle County Assessor's office. Properties with lower values are charged a smaller fee than those properties with higher values. This is due to the following reasons:

1. Properties with higher values are generally more complex than properties with lower values. Variations between locations and site/view characteristics are more diverse and difficult to analyze. Improvement characteristics vary significantly from property to property, and other variations among properties require additional time to analyze. Greater diversity in the marketplace requires additional time to prepare the appraisal and tax protest.

2. We feel we have an obligation to service the needs of all property owners, regardless of their economic situation. Yet, the owner of a higher valued property will achieve a greater reduction in tax savings for the same percentage reduction in value compared to a lower priced property. Therefore, to increase the feasibility of protesting an unjust valuation, lower priced properties are charged a lower (below cost) rate for our services. Alternatively, property owners that achieve the greater savings incur a higher cost for our services.