Many people are confused by the way property taxes are calculated.
Find Your Taxable Value
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I own a property now: This is the hardest part of calculating property taxes. If you already own a property you can see exactly what your valuation is by looking on the Alachua County Property Appraiser’s website. (click here to Search for a property) You can pull up any property by owner name, address, or tax parcel number.
I am buying a property: If you are buying property and want to know how much tax you might expect to pay then looking at the current owner’s payment doesn’t help you much.
Start by Adding up the purchase price and the exemptions you expect to apply for. The appraiser doesn’t always set your property value at the purchase price, but it is a good number to use for a guesstimate.
Purchase Price (Market Value) – Exemptions = Taxable Value
For Example:
$169,300 My Property’s Market Value
-$ 8,780 My “Save Our Homes” deduction
-$ 50,000 My Homestead Exemption
$110,520 My Taxable Value
Finding Your Property Tax Rate
Your Tax Jurisdiction sets your tax rate.
Looking up the property on the Alachua County Property Appraiser’s website can show you the jurisdiction (click here to Search for a property) – once you get to the “Property Search Results” page the jurisdiction is on the left side.
| Tax Year of 2009 | ||
|---|---|---|
| City Code | Taxing Authority | Millage Rate |
| 0200 | MSTU St. Johns WMD | 22.7184 |
| 0300 | MSTU Suwannee WMD | 22.7425 |
| 0400 | MSTU St. Johns WMD | 22.7184 |
| 0500 | MSTU Suwannee WMD | 22.7425 |
| 1700 | City of Alachua | 25.0245 |
| 2700 | City of Archer | 27.3301 |
| 3600 | City of Gainesville Suwannee WMD | 23.8967 |
| 3700 | City of Gainesville St. Johns WMD | 23.9208 |
| 4600 | City of Hawthorne | 27.6254 |
| 5700 | City of High Springs | 25.6745 |
| 6700 | City of LaCrosse | 21.6689 |
| 7600 | City of Micanopy | 27.5004 |
| 8700 | City of Newberry | 24.9997 |
| 9600 | City of Waldo St. Johns WMD | 26.5494 |
| 9700 | City of Waldo Suwannee WMD | 26.5735 |
If you want to know how much goes to each of the public services click here.
Calculating Your Taxes
Multiply your Taxable Value by your Millage Rate and divide by 1,000
For Example:
$110,520 My Taxable Value (from the example above)
x 22.7184 My Millage Rate (from Chart)
2,510,837
÷ 1000
$2,510.74 My 2009 Property Taxes
What Exemptions are Available?
- upto $50000 Homestead Exemption
- $25000 Senior Homestead Exemption
- $500 Widows/Widowers Exemption
- $500 Disability Exemption
- $500 Exemption for Blind Persons
- $5000 Veteran Disability Exemption
- Service-Connected Total and Permanent Disability Exemption
- Exemption for Totally and Permanently Disabled Persons
- Exemption for Disabled Veterans Confined to Wheelchairs
- Agricultural Classification
(click here to find out why your Homestead Exemption is important!)
Excellent! Can one obtain both Homestead and Senior exemptions?
Perhaps sometime in the future you will be address the portability of homestead exemptions. I believe there are a few timing rules.
Thanks for this.
Yes, it is possible to have multiple exemptions on the same property.
I closed on a house March 1, 2009 and filed the exemption March 2, 2009. The exemption notification was received a month later.
The new 2010 tax bill does not show any exemption. When I called the tax office, I was told the new exemption will not show up on the bill until perhaps Decemeber 2010, and not to pay the qrtly installments until it hits.
Does this sound right?
Hello Juli,
First – I wanted to confirm that your property is in Florida. (The statement about quarterly payments thru me off since most people in Alachua County just pay once a year)
If you got a confirmation that your homestead exemption was filed in 2009 it should have affected your taxes after 1/1/2010.
If you have the confirmation letter I would take it downtown to the Property Appraiser’s Office and talk to a clerk there face to face. Explain that they received your homestead exemption and ask why it wasn’t put on your property when they received it.
You can check on their website to see if your exemption is showing up now – http://acpafl.com/search.html – search by your name or address, then look for”exempt” in the second section (called “Assessment History”).