ABSTRACT
In general, land ownership and taxation are essentially informational issues. Data and information to serve program operation and statistical purposes are at the heart of modern management, whether in government or the private sector. The International Association of Assessing Officers (IAAO) serves as a conduit through which data may flow from and to the membership and to various public and private agencies. Retrieving data is not easily accomplished without identifiers common to all sources. It is clear to anyone who has researched deeds or reviewed assessors’ records and tax maps that there are many different property identifiers and map numbering systems. Certainly, IAAO would like to have up-to-date statistics that would aid assessors in estimating market values within and between jurisdictions. The same reluctance is sometimes evident in contacts with information repositories that hold their information to be of a confidential nature.
