You can’t win it if you’re not in it.

That phrase applies to not only lotteries but city property assessment appeals.

Both large and small real estate owners of 98.6 percent of the city’s total taxable value have filed to have their assessments from last year reduced — and have saved a collective $577 million.

A new report from the NYC Tax Commission for fiscal 2017 shows the independent agency received 54,730 applications in March 2017. They covered 211,034 lots with a combined assessed value of $223.2 billion.

The entire city was tentatively valued at $226.25 billion.

Since savvy property owners file these documents yearly to preserve their rights and don’t necessarily expect a reduced assessment, 17,908 applications representing 44,040 tax lots declined hearings.

The Tax Commission found 7,040 applications for 15,782 lots were ineligible for a hearing. About 1,000 of these applications skipped or screwed up the RPIE — the Real Property Income & Expense form required by the Department of Finance — which could mean a fine.

At the Tax Commission hearings, 9,628 properties representing 49,796 tax lots (condo units each have their own lots) received offers totaling $5.7 billion in assessment reductions. Not all property owners accepted these offers, hoping to snag a larger one next year or through a judicial review.

But 8,408 applications representing 45,237 tax lots accepted $5.11 billion in reduced assessments, wiping $577 million from their tax bills.

Another $1.24 billion in assessment cuts were accepted on 2,279 applications from the 2016-17 tax year.

The NYC Law Department weighed in on 676 taxpayers who rejected or did not receive Tax Commission offers during previous years and filed petitions with the state court. These were granted $709 million in assessment reductions.

But in 2017, there were only two cases decided by a state court judge, and they granted a mere $5,400 in assessment reductions.

Tax Commission president Ellen Hoffman writes that the agency “has been, and continues to be, the most effective means of resolving pending judicial proceedings contesting billions of dollars in assessments.”

When forms are not updated, the Department of Finance removes both personal and nonprofit exemptions. There are 385 of the latter — which include houses of worship, parsonages and even hospitals — on the lien list for nonpayment of taxes or water bills.

The Tax Commission received 4,114 applications to reinstate STAR (School Tax Relief Program), Enhanced STAR, senior citizen, disabled, veteran and clergy exemptions — eight times the requests in 2016 — with just over half being resolved.