Property are budget driven. This means that all property values could stay exactly the same and property taxes could still increase due to of budget increases.
Property taxes are the principal source of income for cities, counties and special-purpose governments like schools, libraries, cemetery, fire, and other taxing districts. The county Treasurer sends and collects the tax, then distributes it to these local governments. At the Assessor's Office, our job is to make sure homes and businesses are valued correctly. Under Idaho Code 63-205, our assessed value must be the same as the actual market value of that property as it is on January 1st of each year.
Determining Levy Rates
- Each tax district determines their budgets at public hearings. See Idaho Code 63-803
- Individual properties are assessed to determine their market value
- Homeowners (and other) exemptions are subtracted from the value
- The total budget dollars requested by each district is divided by the total taxable value in the areas they serve
Taxing District Levy Example
Budget divided by property value equals tax levy rate
Example: $42 million / $13 billion = .003230767
Properties are generally served by more than one tax district, so the levies of all the tax districts serving your property are added together. The geographical areas in each county having a common group of tax districts is called a Code Area. The levy for this Code Area is shown in the table below.
Type | Levy |
---|
County | 0.03113130 |
School | 0.05137568 |
City | 0.05811937 |
Special Districts (highway, fire, etc) | 0.01004090 |
Total | 0.014062635 |
The taxable value of each property is determined:
Type | Taxable Value |
---|
House Value: | $100,000 |
Land Value: | $40,000 |
Total Value: | $140,000 |
Minus Homeowners Exemption: | ($70,000) |
Total Taxable Value | $70,000 |
Individual Tax bills are calculated: taxable value mulitplied by levy rate equals tax amount.
Example: $70,000 times 1.4062635% equals $984.39
The collection of unpaid balances owed to certain agencies, may be added to your property tax bill. If you have questions regarding an amount charged by an agency to your property tax bill, please contact that agency. See Idaho Code 50-1008.