Attention all Property Managers!

Attention all Property Managers (and wanna-be Property Managers): Please be aware of the change that happened with the ARIZONA Department of Revenue (ADOR). They have introduced a new form (FORM 285) which effects all Property Mangers where the taxes are being paid on your Landlord/Tenant managed property(ies). The form is calling for a “limited Power of Attorney” as you report the taxes (and send them in for the Landlord in the respective city where the city taxes are being paid). This form is “new” and is to replace the previously used form. Chances are if you are doing this monthly tax-paying for your client the ADOR has already send you the new form for use in 2015.

Currently, the ADOR is working to introduce the fact that they will be collecting the taxes for ALL the cities beginning in January, 2016. We are fortunate to have our own Sue Flucke on the joint committee with the ADOR and AAR, along with Nicole, the AAR Governmental Affairs Staff person. I understand in talking to Sue that the discussion is focusing on having each city taxes be paid through ADOR, with the Landlord being licensed with ADOR instead of every city in which they hold rental properties. Some of the earlier discussions were not going in a “favorable direction for either the Landlord or the Property Mangers. Now, it seems that this one-year-delay for the next change is a positive step and one that we will be watching closely. (Thank you, Sue!)

David Pruitt, Head of of Property Management Division here at West USA Realty and I have discussed this matter at some length and will be putting together an information session within the coming weeks (after the 2015 ADOT committee meets again and have established a “clearer focus” of where this and other forthcoming changes are headed. So, please stay tuned and we will be making announcement about the upcoming session. Most likely we will meet at the Corporate Office once we have a clear view of these issues.

Meanwhile, stay current with the current tax payment in the respective cities where you are paying the Landlord’s taxes and adapt immediately to FORM 285 if paid to the ADOR. I read over the week-end that “A fine is a tax for doing wrong. A tax is a fine for doing well.” So, avoid the fine…and stay current with the tax. (The paying of it, especially if you are managing another's property.)

— C Dale Hillard