3 Emerging Property Tax Technology Trends in 2022

The last two years saw a rapid shift to remote workplaces alongside ever-increasing globalization. As such, businesses have had to quickly adopt new technology, from asynchronous communication tools to remote data and project management applications.  

While property tax still lags other industries in its adoption of new technology, this is beginning to change. Alongside the rise of CRETech and PropTech, there are more opportunities for innovation within real estate processes than ever before. And as of 2021, the commercial real estate industry shows no signs of slowing down its hunger for innovation.  

Below, we discuss the key CRETech and PropTech trends to watch for in 2022.

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3 Property Tax Technology Trends Coming in 2022

Here are three technology trends becoming more prevalent in the property tax industry.  

1. ‍Increased Automation

Workflow automation is a solution many property tax teams have begun to implement in 2021 and will continue to make its mark in 2022. As property tax teams work with growing volumes of data, many of which are in paper format, having to analyze and review documents for errors is a tedious process that can be improved with automation. Data abstraction tools such as itamlink Capture allows you to extract relevant data from paper tax documents, converting it into searchable and editable electronic data that’s stored in a central repository.

Additional opportunities for automation include the approval and payment of tax installments, which can turn a multi-step process with lots of human intervention into something that can be completed with just a few clicks. Using automated reports, property tax teams can quickly see at-a-glance information about their tax bill payments: upcoming payments, payments awaiting approval, and those that have been recently paid, among others. Clearly, automation saves property tax teams from having to review individual documents one by one and helps ensure tax bills are paid on time.  

2. Implementation of Connected Systems

Particularly for teams working with multiple internal departments and third parties, data sharing can be a complex process that exposes companies to risks. The following factors must be considered:

• Relevant stakeholders must have appropriate access and user permissions,  
• All stakeholders must be working from a single source of truth, and  
• Manual data entry errors must be limited (or ideally eliminated)

Implementing connected systems helps solve this problem. System integrations allow property tax teams to perform functions in unison, syncs values across systems, and can ensure appropriate users receive notifications as needed when data is sent or received. This reduces back-and-forth communication and improves data accuracy, which can be challenging to maintain for companies managing multi-property portfolios. Integrations also increase data access and transparency, which can help set organizations up to scale. Connected systems can also enable senior leaders to manage permissions for specific users and groups.

Property tax management software such as itamlink offer standard and custom integrations with industry-leading systems, including MRI, Yardi, Nexus Systems, and Anybill to streamline the payment approval process.  

3. Advancement of Artificial Intelligence

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is an emerging trend within many industries because of its ability to reduce duplication, streamline decision making and reduce human intervention in repetitive or monotonous tasks.  

For property tax and accounting teams, AI is well-suited for tasks that require large datasets to be analyzed and manipulated. For instance, if you upload a large amount of jurisdictional data at once, AI can flag data entry errors, such as an incorrect value or ratio. This helps to preserve data accuracy and saves a ton of time down the line when you complete forecasts, budgets, and other property tax tasks.

AI will continue to disrupt how tax teams complete their forecasts and budgets, too. For example, AI will be able to help teams complete annual property tax forecasts and detect trends on demand with greater accuracy, without having to manually review and analyze historical or jurisdictional data. Together, this will speed up time-consuming forecasting processes, allowing senior staff to allocate more time to strategic decision-making, rather than double-checking data and inputting numbers.

With the rapid growth and variety of technological trends, PropTech and CRETech can be expected to grow considerably within the next couple of years. It’s important for property tax teams to analyze what innovations will best serve their business and benefit their specific workflows and processes.