If you’re a commercial property or business owner, a tax assessment is coming soon to a mailbox near you.

If you don’t like the value that city hall has given your property or business, you won’t have much time to appeal to city hall – regardless of whether you live in Calgary or Grande Prairie.

But don’t worry, because the Assessment Advisory Group can help you fight for a fair and equitable tax bill.

“We offer customers the chance to lower their property and business assessments and, therefore, lower their taxes,” said Stephen Cobb, AAG’s founder and president.

The Assessment Advisory Group team (clockwise from left) – Bill Symons, Stephen Cobb, Darrell Johnson, Josh Weber, Elia McGovern and Melodie Merrick – will go to great lengths to make sure you don’t pay too much business property tax.

Since 1999, Calgary-based AAG has helped hundreds of property and business owners save millions of dollars. For example, AAG helped a retail property owner save more than $90,000 in annual taxes.

“There is an urgency for people to react when the assessments are mailed,” said Cobb. “It’s something that people must appreciate as their chance to be involved in the democratic process.”

In Calgary, assessments should hit owners’ desks in early February. Edmonton property and business owners should receive their assessments at the end of February. Red Deer owners should get their assessments in mid-February while Grande Prairie and Fort McMurray owners should get theirs around the end of May.

No matter where you live, you only have 30 days to appeal the assessment and lower the original tax bill.

“We talk to a number of people who don’t see their assessment, and they’re peeved about their taxes – and they can’t do anything about them,” said Cobb.

But AAG can.

“They get a fairer assessment of their property,” said Cobb. “These are the cornerstones of the system: It’s got to be fair to the market value of the property and it’s got to have equity with other properties of the same type.

In other words, said Cobb, if you own a hotel and you think your assessment is right on a market basis, but then you find out that a better hotel has a lower assessment, then you’re entitled to a break on your assessment.

Unfortunately, AAG can only economically help commercial property assessments over $400,000.

“We’re talking about income- producing real estate,” said Cobb. “So you’re talking about offices, retail, warehouses, multi-family buildings, mixed use like Chinook Centre – i.e. any building that is an income-producing property.”

By calling AAG, you can focus on your business while Cobb and his crew concentrate on what they do best.

So you don’t know how the system works?

Well, you won’t have to.

“It's an intimidating process for the individual owner,” said Bill Symons, AAG’s marketing director who has 20 years of sales, marketing and consulting experience and eight years in the commercial, industrial and oil and gas property tax industry.

“We’ve seen property owners at hearings who didn’t have comparable property information to win their case.”

By calling AAG, you can rely on the team’s knowledge of the assessment system, experience and negotiating skills.

Speaking of negotiation, AAG allows you to pay an hourly fee or a contingency fee based on the amount of money that you save.

“We’re not a lawyer’s office,” said Cobb. “We don’t start the clock as soon as you walk in through the front door or as soon as you fax an assessment to us.”

AAG also makes sure that no faxes go astray. All information is kept confidential. The company only works on property and business tax-related projects, so you don’t have to worry about the team getting distracted by other pursuits.

“The fact that we’re not a department of a large professional firm means we can move and negotiate quickly and easily,” said Cobb.

“We’re competitive and, obviously, cost-effective . . . because if I didn’t save their taxes, I wouldn’t have an office,” added Cobb, who has over 20 years of experience in marketing, sales and asset management in Canada, the U.K. and the U.S.

Over the last two years, when it came to reducing taxes, AAG had a 70-per-cent success rate. The company serves more than 250 commercial clients and oil and gas companies in Alberta, B.C., Saskatchewan, Manitoba and, periodically, the U.S.

Melodie Merrick, who has more than 10 years’ experience in the assessment and administration game, specializes in oil and gas companies.

“We’re dealing with them throughout the year because we’re dealing with hundreds and hundreds of different tax assessments,” Merrick said. “For instance, each well, each pipeline segment, each piece of equipment has an assessment.

“So you can imagine, just a small oil company could have over 100 assessments.”

Josh Weber, a graduate of the University of Alberta’s commercial real estate program, has more than six years in sales and marketing. He applies his experience in board hearings.

Cobb and his employees will always do their best to get you a fair tax bill. So, if you’re not happy when that property assessment arrives, call AAG – for free.

“Always get professional advice,” said Cobb. “It costs nothing to find out if someone can help you.”

Call AAG at 266.4777 in Calgary or 448.4935 in Edmonton.