[FFlank]

I randomly looked at about twenty recently purchased homes on the Sumter County Tax Collector's website and in each instance, the assessed value (before any exemptions were applied) was way less than the sales price. When I look at the property tax estimator on the property appraiser's website, they just want you to enter the sales price. It seems that the property assessor sets an assessed value that is somewhere around 80 to 85% of the sales price for property tax purposes. I take this to be a good thing since it means we all pay a lesser amount, but I can't figure out WHY this is the case. Does anyone know of any statute or rule that causes this to happen? I know that I can use the estimator but it just seems that this will give me an artificially high number, and the appraiser will likely change it downward to some amount after the purchase. I'm not considering the homestead exemption or any of the other statutory exemptions. This seems to be an across the board phenomenon before any exemptions are applied. My thanks to anyone who has the answer to this.