Dear Taxpayer,

You will notice that your preliminary bill may be different than in past years.  This is due to an initiative to decrease the burden of any potential tax increase by spreading it to 4 quarters rather than 2.  This allows for reduced burden and easier planning.

It has been the policy of the Town of North Andover to utilize this formula to create its estimated preliminary bills in the 1st and 2nd quarters of each fiscal year:  

Previous Year’s Net Taxes x .50 = Preliminary Tax

Basically stated; it is 50% of last year’s net taxes.

The issue with the formula is that it does not take into account the increase in costs and inflation of the Town’s budget that increases each year.  When the 3rd and 4th quarter bills are issued, they must make up for any underpayment or overpayment of tax in the 1st and 2nd quarters.  For most residents it appears inequitable to make such an adjustment.  

It was decided this year to use the following formula to make any increase in taxes more equitable over all four quarters:

Previous Year’s Net Taxes x .525 = Preliminary Tax

Basically stated:  It is 52.5% of last year’s net taxes.

This is a more equitable and less impactful approach to each resident’s yearly real estate taxes. Most residents budget their expenses and rely on the Town to be more predictable.  There are also a number of residents that pay their taxes through their mortgage.  If the preliminary bills are too low, and the actual (3rd and 4th Quarters) are too high, the escrow account is functioning like a roller coaster.  

Although we cannot predict the new tax rate or value at this time, this new calculation is intended to make each year’s increase less impactful.