When Are The Tax Bills Sent Out to Homeowners?

• Summer taxes are sent out July 1st.
• Winter taxes are sent out December 1st.

Where & When Can I Pay My Taxes?

• In addition to paying in person at the Township Hall, you can use the drop box at the Township Hall or send by mail to: Bennington Township Treasurer 5849 S. M-52 Owosso, MI 48867

When Are Taxes Due By?

• Taxes are due on receipt of the bill. To avoid all penalties, summer taxes must be paid by September 14th, and winter taxes must be paid by February 14th. If the 14th is a Saturday or Sunday, the payment must be received by the Monday following the 14th.
• Beginning the next business day, September 15th, add 1% interest to the unpaid balance of your summer tax bill. An additional 1% per month will be added on the first of each month thereafter. Failure to receive the tax bill does not waive interest.

Can Tax Payments Be Deferred?

• Summer taxes may be deferred if your preceding calendar year total household income was less than $40,000 or you meet one of the following requirements:
  ► 62 years of age or older, including the unmarried surviving spouse of a person who was 62 years of age or older at the time of death
  ► A paraplegic or quadriplegic
  ► An eligible serviceperson, eligible veteran, or their eligible widow or widower
  ► A blind person or a totally and permanently disabled person

Applications for deferment are available at the Treasurer’s office or on-line here: Application for Deferment of Summer Taxes and must be returned by September 14th. You must apply for a deferment for every year a deferment is requested. Click here for the Deferment form instructions.

How are my Township Property Taxes determined?

• Your property taxes are determined by multiplying the tax rate (set by local government entities) by the assessed or taxable value of your property*.

County commissioners, city councils, school boards, and township boards hold budget hearings each year to determine how many dollars will be needed for the following year’s operations. These hearings are usually held in September or October. Check the ARGUS-PRESS for the hearing dates for Bennington Township.

What is a Mill?

• The Mill Levy and Tax Rate are two different methods of expressing the same information. A Tax Rate is expressed in percentage, a Mill Levy is expressed in mills (1 mill = $1 of property tax for every $1,000 of assessed value). Each taxing entity determines what revenues will be required to operate the entity during the coming fiscal year. The required revenues are then divided by the total assessed value to determine the tax rate/mill levy per entity.

Example: Say the total assessed value for the township as determined by the assessor is $100,000,000.
The Township Board determines the budgeted property tax revenues to be $1,398,000.
$1,398,000 (tax revenue) divided by $100,000,000 (assessed value) = 1.3980% (Tax Rate) or 13.98 Mills (Mill Levy)
Therefore the township tax rate in this example is $13.98 in tax liability for each $1,000 of assessed value.
Properties may be affected by several taxing entities. To determine your Total Tax Rate, sum the tax rates for each entity that impacts the property.

* Headlee… and Proposal A
The tax calculation must also consider the restrictions established by Section 31 of the Headlee Amendment which pertains to local government. It requires that voters approve local government tax increases not authorized by law or charter prior to November 1978 (that is, any local taxes not already in place at the time the Headlee amendment was adopted have to be approved by the people who will pay them). This section also provides that if the definition of the base of an existing tax is broadened, the maximum authorized tax rate on the new base must be reduced to yield the same revenue as the tax on the prior base; for example, if the tax base was increased from $1,000,000 to $1,100,000, and the tax rate was one mill, the millage would have to be reduced to .909 mill, so that the yield would be the same— $1,000—as that generated by the one mill on the original tax base.

A key provision of this section limits revenue from property-assessment increases. If the assessed value of a local unit’s total taxable property, excluding new construction and improvements, increases by more than the inflation rate, the maximum authorized property tax rate must be reduced so that the local’s total taxable property yields the same gross revenue, adjusted for inflation, as collected on it at its prior assessed value. The assessment on individual property still could increase more than the inflation rate, because the limit applies to all property combined, not each parcel.
The Headlee provision’s importance has been reduced by Michigan’s Proposal A, because the latter imposes a limit on assessment increases that is more restrictive than that imposed by the Headlee amendment.

Proposal A increased the state sales and use tax rates from 4% to 6%, limited annual increases in property tax assessments, exempted school operating millages from uniform taxation requirement and requires 3/4 vote of Legislature to exceed statutorily established school operating millage rates. This constitutional amendment:

• Limited annual assessment increase for each property parcel to 5% or the inflation rate, whichever is less.When property is sold or transferred, adjusted the assessment to the property’s current value.
• Increased the sales/use tax. Dedicate additional revenue to schools.
• Exempted school operating millages from uniform taxation requirement.
• Required 3/4 vote of Legislature to exceed school operating millage rates.
• Activated laws raising additional school revenues through taxation including partial restoration of property tax.
• Nullified alternative laws raising school revenues through taxation, including an increase income tax, personal exemption increase, and partial restoration of property taxes.