Listers & Property Assessment

       

2025 Preliminary Grand List and Grievance Hearings

The preliminary Grand List for 2025 has been provided to the Town Clerk.  Please see the link here to view the Notice to Taxpayers.

Listers / Assessor

      At the March 3, 2025 Annual Town Meeting, Lincoln voted to eliminate the office of Lister (formerly a board of three elected Listers). We have replaced these positions with a Town Assessor, appointed by the Selectboard.  Our part-time Town Assessor assumes the roles and responsibilities of Listers, and works as the job requires. Their primary responsibility is to appraise as accurately and equitably as possible, all real property in the town, in compliance with the Vermont State Statutes. The Grand List is a list of all properties in Lincoln and their assessments. 
      Our Assessor is additionally supported by professional assessors from the New England Municipal Resource Center (NEMRC).  NEMRC assessors can frequently be found on the roads of Lincoln doing site inspections, measuring buildings, checking for changes, determining land grade, and double checking the accuracy of the files. 
 
          If you would like to meet with the Assessor, please call the Town Office at (802) 453-4509 to schedule an appointment, or email listers@lincolnvermont.org.
 

Maintaining the Grand List – The Grand List is a list and description of all taxable properties in the town, with names, addresses and parcel identification numbers. The Assessor provides an annual abstract of the Grand List to the Town Clerk which is also available to the public. A copy is forwarded to the Vermont Department of Taxes’ Division of Property Valuation and Review. Timely filing is necessary for the receipt of state highway and education aid.

Property tax maps – are maintained for changes in ownership, sub-divisions, etc. The Assessor coordinates this data with the third-party map producer. Tax maps are updated annually after the Grand List has been finalized.

Assessment – The Assessor works with NEMRC to assess all taxable property in the Town at 100 percent of the Fair Market Value (FMV). The estimated FMV is the price that the property will bring in the open market when offered for sale and purchased by another, taking into consideration all the elements of the availability of the property, its use both potential and prospective, any functional deficiencies, and all other elements such as age and condition, which combine to give property a market value. The Assessor must set all real and personal property in the Grand List at one percent of its listed value as of April 1 of the year of its assessment.

Any questions regarding a taxpayer’s assessment should be directed to the Assessor – they compile, handle and maintain this data, as well as homestead values, Veteran’s exemptions, and Current Use values in a computer database for tax bills. Agricultural and forest properties that are part of the Current Use value program must be assessed at their use value in accordance with 32 V.S.A Chapter 24, subchapter 1.

The Assessor also holds an annual grievance hearing day (usually in May or June) for those taxpayers who wish to contest their assessments. Decisions of the Assessor may be appealed to the Board of Civil Authority, and the Assessor may appear before the Board to defend the appraisals in question.

The Assessor sits as part of the Board of Tax Abatement to determine whether a taxpayer may have their taxes abated.