Travis Bunn

Founder, AppealDesk · Published February 27, 2026

How Much Can Property Taxes Increase in Pennsylvania? (2026 Guide)

Updated July 2026 · 13 min read

Pennsylvania has no statewide cap on individual property tax increases. Unlike California's 2% cap or Florida's 3% Save Our Homes protection, Pennsylvania property owners face unlimited assessment increases during countywide reassessments. The Act 1 Index provides modest protection by limiting how much each school district can raise its millage rate without voter approval. For 2026-27 the base index is 3.6%, and district-specific indices run from 3.5% to 5.8%.

If you're wondering why your Pennsylvania property tax bill jumped 15%, 30%, or even 50% after a reassessment, you're not alone. Pennsylvania's lack of assessment caps means your property value, and therefore your tax bill, can increase dramatically in a single year. The good news? You have the right to appeal, and many Pennsylvania property owners challenge inflated assessments every year.

How Much Can Property Taxes Increase Per Year in Pennsylvania?

The bottom line is no assessment cap and limited rate protection. Here's what actually limits property tax increases in Pennsylvania:

• No cap on individual assessments: Your property's assessed value can increase by any amount during a countywide reassessment.
• Act 1 Index limits school tax rates: School districts (which typically account for the largest share of your property tax bill) can only raise millage by their annual index without voter approval or an approved exception. The 2026-27 base index is 3.6%.
• County and municipal taxes are largely uncapped: Local governments have broad authority to raise tax rates as needed, with limited statutory restrictions.
• Reassessment anti-windfall rules: After a countywide reassessment, taxing districts must first roll millage back to revenue-neutral. They may then, by a separate and specific vote, raise the rate to collect up to 10% more revenue than the prior year. That protects the aggregate tax base, not your individual parcel.
• No reassessment mandate: Pennsylvania does not require counties to reassess on any schedule, which is why bills can sit flat for a decade and then jump.

Translation: Pennsylvania relies on tax rate limits for schools and anti-windfall rules during reassessments to provide modest protection. But if your property's value increases faster than your neighbors', your bill can climb sharply even if tax rates don't change.

What Changed for Pennsylvania Property Taxes in 2026

Three things are worth knowing about the current cycle, and one of them puts money directly in the hands of people who were shut out two years ago.

The Property Tax/Rent Rebate is much larger, and reaches much further up the income scale

Act 7 of 2023 rewrote the Property Tax/Rent Rebate program for claims filed from 2024 onward. The changes are substantial:

• Maximum standard rebate raised to $1,000
• Income cap raised to $45,000, up from $35,000 for homeowners, and indexed to inflation every year after. For rebate claims filed in 2026 the income limit is $48,110
• Only half of your Social Security counts toward that income figure, which is what makes the cap reach further than it looks
• Roughly 175,000 additional Pennsylvanians became eligible under the expansion
• Supplemental rebates of up to 50% more are available to qualifying lower-income homeowners in Philadelphia, Scranton, and Pittsburgh
• The application deadline for the current claim cycle is December 31, 2026

If you checked your eligibility before 2024 and were told your income was too high, check again. The threshold has moved by more than $13,000 and keeps moving.

Allegheny County's Common Level Ratio fell to 50.14%

This is not legislation, but for appeal math in Pennsylvania's second-largest county it is the operative change. The ratio used to convert market value into base-year assessed value dropped to 50.14% for tax year 2026, from figures in the 80s in earlier years. It is the continuing fallout of the 2022 and 2023 litigation over how the ratio is calculated, and it is why Allegheny appeals have been worth filing for three straight years. Details in the example section below.

What did not change

No statewide assessment cap. No general levy cap. No reassessment mandate. Bills that would require every county except Philadelphia to reassess on a regular cycle have been introduced and remain in committee through the 2025-2026 session. If you are waiting for Harrisburg to cap your assessment, nothing in the current session suggests it is coming.

Will Property Taxes Go Down in 2026?

For most Pennsylvania homeowners, no. Millage rates move up far more often than down, and the Act 1 Index sets a ceiling on school increases, not a floor under decreases. There are three realistic paths to a lower bill, and two of them require you to act:

• A successful assessment appeal. The only lever that reduces the number every millage rate is multiplied against. In counties with a low common level ratio, the arithmetic currently favors homeowners more than it has in years.
• A rebate or exclusion you are not claiming. The Property Tax/Rent Rebate and the homestead exclusion both require an application. Neither is applied automatically.
• A reassessment that lands in your favor. In a countywide revaluation, roughly half of parcels come out below the county average shift and see bills fall. You do not control which half you are in.

Understanding the Act 1 Index

The Act 1 Index, established by Special Session Act 1 of 2006 (the Taxpayer Relief Act), is Pennsylvania's primary property tax control mechanism. It only applies to school districts, which represent the largest portion of most property tax bills.

How the Act 1 Index Works

• Annual limit tied to two wage measures: The base index is the average of the percent increase in the Pennsylvania statewide average weekly wage and the federal Employment Cost Index for elementary and secondary schools. It is not the ECI alone.
• 2026-27 numbers: The base index is 3.6%. Districts with a market value/personal income aid ratio above 0.4000 get an upward adjustment, so district-specific indices for 2026-27 run from 3.5% to 5.8%. Recent years have run above the old 2% to 4% rule of thumb.
• Applies to school tax rates only: County and municipal taxes are not subject to the index.
• Exceptions allowed: School districts can exceed the index for special education costs, pension obligations, debt service, or grandfathered projects, without voter approval.
• Referendum required otherwise: To exceed the index beyond approved exceptions, school districts must hold a voter referendum.

Example: At a 3.6% index, a school district with a current millage rate of 25 mills can raise it to 25.9 mills without voter approval, assuming no exceptions apply. On a $200,000 assessed home, that moves the school bill from $5,000 to $5,180, a $180 increase.

The Act 1 Index Doesn't Protect Your Individual Bill

Here's the critical distinction: The Act 1 Index limits how much tax rates can increase, not how much your individual bill increases. If your property's assessed value jumps 30% during a reassessment, your tax bill will increase by roughly 30%, even if tax rates don't change at all.

Worked example:

• A home assessed at $200,000
• School tax rate: 25 mills (2.5%)
• School tax at that assessment: $5,000
• A reassessment moves the assessed value to $280,000 (+40%)
• School tax rate stays at 25 mills (within Act 1 limits)
• New school tax: $7,000 (+40%, or $2,000 more)

The Act 1 Index provided zero protection in this scenario because the assessment increased, not the tax rate.

Do Property Taxes Go Up Every Year in Pennsylvania?

Not automatically, and the reason is structural. Pennsylvania assessments are frozen to a county base year until that county runs a countywide reassessment, and the state does not require counties to reassess on any schedule. In a county that has not revalued in years, your assessed value can sit unchanged indefinitely.

What actually moves your bill in a typical year:

• Millage changes. Your school district, county, and municipality each set a rate every budget year. School millage is bounded by that district's Act 1 index unless voters or an approved exception say otherwise. County and municipal millage is largely uncapped.
• A change to your parcel. New construction, an addition, a subdivision, or the expiration of an abatement can trigger an interim assessment even with no countywide reassessment underway.
• A countywide reassessment. This is the year bills move the most, and the one worth preparing for.
• Losing a homestead exclusion. If the property stops being your primary residence, or the application lapses, the exclusion comes off.

So a fair expectation in a non-reassessment year in Pennsylvania is a low single-digit increase driven by millage alone. In a reassessment year, there is no ceiling on what an individual parcel can do.

What Triggers a Reassessment in Pennsylvania?

Two different things get called a reassessment, and they carry very different stakes.

• A countywide reassessment revalues every parcel in the county at once. It happens when county commissioners decide to do it, or when a court orders it after a uniformity challenge. There is no statutory cycle. Bills to require regular reassessments in every county except Philadelphia have been introduced repeatedly and remain in committee as of the 2025-2026 session.
• An interim or spot assessment touches your parcel alone: new construction, a substantial improvement, a demolition, a subdivision, or a catch-up after a permit closes out. Pennsylvania courts have restricted spot reassessment triggered solely by a recent sale price, but a countywide-appeal-by-the-school-district can still target recently sold properties in some counties.

Either one generates a change-of-assessment notice, and that notice carries its own appeal window separate from the annual deadline. Read the date printed on the notice rather than assuming the county's usual date applies.

How Pennsylvania Countywide Reassessments Work

Pennsylvania counties conduct reassessments sporadically. Some haven't reassessed in decades, while others reassess every few years. When a countywide reassessment occurs, here's what happens:

The Anti-Windfall Rule (and the 10% It Allows)

Under 53 Pa.C.S. § 8823, taxing districts must first reset their millage rates after a countywide reassessment so the district collects the same total revenue as the prior year. That is the anti-windfall step, and it is mandatory.

What most summaries leave out: after that rollback, the statute permits the district to increase the rate again by a separate and specific vote, up to an amount that yields no more than 10% more revenue than the prior year. So "revenue neutral" is the starting point, not the ceiling. A reassessment year can legally carry a 10% aggregate revenue increase on top of whatever redistribution the new values create.

How this works:

1. County revalues all properties to current market value
2. Total assessed value across the county increases significantly
3. Tax rates (millage) are reduced proportionally to keep total revenue flat
4. The taxing body may then vote separately to raise the rate back up, capped at 10% more revenue than the prior year
5. Individual property owners see their bills increase or decrease based on how their property's value changed relative to the county average

Key insight: The anti-windfall rule protects the aggregate tax base, not individual properties. If your home's value increased more than the county average, your bill will increase, potentially by a lot.

Winners and Losers in Reassessments

Tax bills increase for:

• Properties in gentrifying neighborhoods
• Homes with significant improvements (additions, renovations)
• Properties previously underassessed relative to market value
• Areas experiencing rapid appreciation

Tax bills decrease for:

• Properties in declining neighborhoods
• Homes that were previously overassessed
• Properties whose values grew slower than the county average

In practice, reassessments create winners and losers. Even if you didn't change anything about your home, you could face a large tax increase simply because your neighborhood appreciated faster than others.

County and Municipal Taxes: Even Less Protection

While school taxes are subject to the Act 1 Index, county and municipal property taxes have virtually no statutory caps in most Pennsylvania jurisdictions.

• Counties: Can raise millage rates as needed to fund operations, with limited restrictions under county home rule charters.
• Municipalities: Second-class and third-class cities have some statutory limits (e.g., maximum millage rates), but these vary widely and are often high enough to provide minimal protection.
• Special districts: School districts, fire districts, and other special purpose entities have their own rules. Some carry voter approval requirements, others none.

County and municipal taxes are usually the smaller share of a Pennsylvania tax bill, but they can increase sharply year over year if local governments face budget pressures, and nothing in Act 1 restrains them.

Real-World Examples: How Much Can PA Property Taxes Increase?

Example 1: Allegheny County and the Common Level Ratio

Allegheny County (Pittsburgh) is the clearest illustration of what a stale base year does to appeal math. The county's last countywide reassessment was in 2012, and 2012 is still the base year. It did not reassess in 2022. What changed instead was the Common Level Ratio, the figure the state publishes to express how county assessed values compare to current market value.

Litigation in 2022 and 2023 over how that ratio was calculated drove it sharply down. For tax year 2026 the Allegheny CLR is 50.14%, against figures in the 80s in earlier years. In plain terms, a property in Allegheny County should now be assessed at roughly half its current market value.

What that does to an appeal:

• Current market value of the home: $400,000
• 2026 CLR: 50.14%
• CLR-supported assessed value: $400,000 × 0.5014 = $200,560
• Value actually on the county books: $260,000
• Over-assessment exposed by the ratio: about $59,440
• At a combined 25 mills, that gap is roughly $1,486 a year in tax

Note what did not happen here. No one reassessed the property. No millage rate moved. The homeowner's leverage came entirely from the ratio the appeal is measured against. Allegheny's appeal window for tax year 2026 ran July 1, 2025 through September 2, 2025; the county publishes each year's window separately, so confirm the current one before relying on those dates.

Example 2: A Reassessment Year, Step by Step

Here is the arithmetic of a countywide reassessment in a county where values have drifted apart:

• Old assessed value: $150,000; old combined rate: 30 mills; old bill: $4,500
• Countywide reassessment sets the new assessed value at $310,000
• Countywide assessed value roughly doubles, so the anti-windfall rollback cuts the combined rate to about 15 mills
• New bill at the rolled-back rate: $4,650
• The taxing bodies then vote separately for a 5% revenue increase, which § 8823 permits up to 10%
• Final bill: about $4,883, an 8.5% increase

That is the mild version, where the parcel moved roughly in line with the county as a whole. A property that appreciated well ahead of the county average carries a proportionally larger share of the same levy, and its increase can run far past 8.5% with no rate increase at all. A property that lagged the county average sees its bill fall.

Example 3: A Year With No Reassessment

In counties that have not revalued, increases are far more predictable:

• Assessed value: unchanged, because the base year is unchanged
• School millage: bounded by that district's Act 1 index, 3.5% to 5.8% for 2026-27 depending on the district
• County and municipal millage: whatever the budget requires, uncapped
• Result: total bill increases in the low-to-mid single digits are the common pattern, far more predictable than a reassessment year

This is why reassessments are so disruptive in Pennsylvania. Between reassessments, increases are modest. During reassessments, individual bills can jump sharply in a single year.

Homestead and Farmstead Exclusions: Modest Relief

Pennsylvania's Homestead and Farmstead Exclusion Program (also from Act 1 of 2006) provides a flat dollar reduction on school property taxes for primary residences and working farms.

How It Works

• Flat dollar exclusion: Each school district sets its own exclusion amount, funded by its share of state gaming revenue, and applies it to your home's assessed value before calculating school taxes. Because the amount is set locally and funded by a revenue stream that shifts year to year, the dollar figure varies widely by district. Check your district's current figure rather than assuming a statewide number.
• Capped by law: The exclusion cannot exceed half the median assessed home value in the jurisdiction.
• Applies to school taxes only: Does not reduce county or municipal taxes.
• Primary residence only: Must be your permanent home (no second homes or investment properties).
• Application required: You must apply with your county assessment office. It is not automatic.

Example:

• A home assessed at $250,000
• District homestead exclusion: $30,000
• School taxes calculated on: $220,000 ($250,000 minus $30,000)
• School tax rate: 25 mills (2.5%)
• School tax owed: $5,500 instead of $6,250, a $750 reduction

The saving scales with your district's exclusion amount and its millage rate, so run the same two-line calculation with your own numbers rather than assuming a typical figure. And note what the exclusion does not do: it is a one-time subtraction from assessed value, so it does nothing to cap future assessment increases. If your assessed value jumps 40% in a reassessment, your bill still climbs sharply with the exclusion in place.

When Should You Appeal Your Pennsylvania Property Tax Assessment?

Given Pennsylvania's lack of assessment caps, appealing your assessment is often the only way to limit property tax increases. You should strongly consider appealing if:

• Your assessment increased significantly during a reassessment (15% or more)
• Your assessed value exceeds recent sale prices of comparable homes in your neighborhood
• Your home has defects or damage not reflected in the assessment (foundation issues, water damage, etc.)
• Comparable properties are assessed lower than yours despite being similar in size, age, and condition
• Your neighborhood has declining property values but assessments haven't adjusted

Pennsylvania Appeal Deadlines

The statutory default is set by 53 Pa.C.S. § 8844, but counties are permitted to move it, and the largest counties operate under separate schemes entirely.

• Annual appeals (most counties): Due on or before September 1, or an earlier date the county commissioners designate. Some counties use August 1. The board must hear and act on appeals by October 31.
• Allegheny County: Runs its own window through the Board of Property Assessment Appeals and Review. For tax year 2026 it ran July 1, 2025 through September 2, 2025. Check the county's published window for the current year.
• Philadelphia: Appeals go to the Board of Revision of Taxes on its own schedule, not the § 8844 date. Confirm the current deadline with the BRT directly.
• Change-of-assessment notices: If you receive a notice that your assessment changed, it carries its own appeal window running from the notice date, separate from the annual deadline. The date on the notice governs. Do not wait for September.
• Informal reviews: Many counties offer an informal review period before the formal appeal. Using it does not extend the formal deadline.

Pennsylvania's appeal process is county-specific and the deadline is the part people most often get wrong. Verify your county's date in writing before you plan around it, because a missed filing date ends the matter for that tax year regardless of how strong the evidence is.

Comparing Pennsylvania to Other States

How does Pennsylvania's lack of assessment caps compare to other states?

Pennsylvania ranks among the weakest states for property tax protection. Only New York and a handful of other states offer similarly limited safeguards. Compare this to California's Prop 13, which caps assessments at 2% annually, or Florida's Save Our Homes, which caps homestead assessments at 3%.

What Is the Average Property Tax Rate in Pennsylvania in 2026?

There is no single Pennsylvania property tax rate, and this is the part that trips people up. Pennsylvania has no state property tax at all. Every dollar is levied locally by three separate bodies: your county, your municipality, and your school district. Statewide averages published by research groups generally put Pennsylvania's effective rate above the national figure, but that average is assembled from thousands of local rates that differ by a factor of three or more.

The number that actually applies to you is your own effective rate, and you can compute it in one line:

• Effective rate = total annual tax bill ÷ current market value of the home
• A $6,000 bill on a $400,000 home is a 1.50% effective rate
• The same $6,000 bill on a $300,000 home is a 2.00% effective rate

Notice that nothing in that calculation involves your assessed value. That is deliberate. Assessed value in Pennsylvania is expressed in a county base year that may be a decade or more old, so comparing your assessment to your neighbor's asking price tells you nothing. Effective rate against real market value is the only comparison that travels between counties.

When you see a Pennsylvania county quoted at a "millage rate," that is a different unit. One mill is $1 of tax per $1,000 of assessed value. To convert millage to an effective rate, you have to run it through the county's common level ratio, which is why Allegheny County's headline millage and its real tax burden look so different from each other in 2026.

Are Property Taxes High in Pennsylvania?

By national comparison, yes, and the reason is structural rather than accidental. Pennsylvania funds public schools primarily through local property taxes, which means the school district line is typically the largest of the three on your bill. States that fund schools more heavily from income or sales tax push less of the burden onto real estate.

Two Pennsylvania-specific factors make the burden feel worse than the raw rate suggests:

• Stale base years. Because the state mandates no reassessment cycle, the relationship between what you are assessed at and what your home is worth drifts for years, and drifts unevenly across a county. Two identical homes on the same street can carry meaningfully different assessments purely because of when each was last touched.
• No cap on the individual parcel. The Act 1 Index restrains rates. Nothing restrains what happens to your assessed value when a revaluation finally lands.

Why Are My Property Taxes So High?

If your bill feels out of line with your neighbors' or with what your home is worth, the cause is almost always one of four things, and only one of them is worth fighting:

1. Your millage is genuinely high. A high-spending district with a small tax base produces a high rate. Nothing about an appeal changes this, only budget votes and referendums do.
2. Your assessment is out of line with your county's common level ratio. This is the appealable one. If your assessed value implies a market value above what your home would actually sell for, once the ratio is applied, you are over-assessed and the arithmetic is provable.
3. Your record card is wrong. Square footage, bedroom or bath count, finished basement, condition grade, or an improvement that was permitted but never built. Mass appraisal models price off those fields, and nobody checks yours unless you make them.
4. You are missing a relief program. No homestead exclusion on file, or an unclaimed Property Tax/Rent Rebate.

The first is a political problem. The second and third are evidence problems, and evidence problems are the ones that get fixed at an appeal hearing.

How Are Property Taxes Calculated in Pennsylvania?

Three separate calculations, added together:

1. Start with your assessed value as carried by the county, stated in the county's base year, not today's market value.
2. Subtract the homestead exclusion if you have one on file. This applies only to the school district portion.
3. Multiply by each taxing body's millage rate, one for the county, one for the municipality, one for the school district, then add the three results.

Worked example:

• Assessed value: $180,000
• County: 5 mills on $180,000 = $900
• Municipality: 3 mills on $180,000 = $540
• School district: 20 mills on $150,000 after a $30,000 homestead exclusion = $3,000
• Total annual bill: $4,440

Every one of those three millage rates is set independently, on its own budget calendar, by a body you can attend the meetings of. Only the school district figure is bounded by the Act 1 Index.

The Bigger Picture: Pennsylvania's Property Tax Problem

Pennsylvania's lack of assessment caps is part of a broader property tax crisis. The state relies more heavily on property taxes than almost any other state, yet provides fewer protections for homeowners.

Key issues:

• Over-reliance on property taxes: Pennsylvania funds schools almost entirely through local property taxes, creating massive rate disparities between wealthy and poor districts.
• Infrequent reassessments: Many counties go decades without reassessing, leading to massive "sticker shock" when reassessments finally occur.
• No statewide standards: Each county sets its own assessment practices, appeal procedures, and timelines, which creates confusion and inconsistency.
• Political gridlock: Proposals for property tax reform, including caps and mandatory reassessment cycles, have repeatedly stalled in the legislature over concerns about shifting tax burdens or reducing revenue for schools. The reassessment-mandate bills sit in committee as of the 2025-2026 session.

Until Pennsylvania enacts meaningful property tax reform, whether through assessment caps, expanded homestead exclusions, or alternative school funding, homeowners will continue to face uncapped increases during reassessments.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does Pennsylvania have a senior discount or property tax freeze for seniors?

There is no statewide senior assessment freeze in Pennsylvania. The main statewide relief is the Property Tax/Rent Rebate Program, which after Act 7 of 2023 pays a standard rebate of up to $1,000 to homeowners and renters 65 and older, widows and widowers 50 and older, and people with disabilities 18 and older. The income limit is indexed annually and is $48,110 for claims filed in 2026. Only half of your Social Security income counts toward that limit, so many people who assume they earn too much still qualify. Supplemental rebates of up to 50% more exist for qualifying lower-income homeowners in Philadelphia, Scranton, and Pittsburgh. A small number of municipalities run their own local senior freezes; check with your county or city.

When do you stop paying school taxes in Pennsylvania?

You don't. There is no age at which Pennsylvania school property taxes end, and turning 65 does not exempt you from the school district portion of your bill. Seniors pay the same school millage as everyone else in the district. What changes at 65 is eligibility for the Property Tax/Rent Rebate, which reimburses part of what you paid rather than reducing what you owe. Proposals to eliminate school property taxes for seniors, or for everyone, have been introduced repeatedly and have not passed.

Can Pennsylvania school taxes increase every year?

Yes, but increases are bounded by that district's Act 1 Index unless voters approve more or the district qualifies for an exception (special education costs, pensions, debt service). For 2026-27 the base index is 3.6%, with district-specific indices running from 3.5% to 5.8%. Your individual bill can increase by more than the index if your assessed value increases, since the index limits rates and not assessments.

How often does Pennsylvania reassess property?

There is no required cycle. Pennsylvania law does not mandate regular countywide reassessments, so the frequency is entirely a county decision. Some counties have revalued within the last several years; others are operating on base years from the 1970s and 1980s. Allegheny County's base year is still 2012. That gap between base year and current market is what causes the sticker shock when a county finally does revalue, and it is also what makes the common level ratio so important to appeals in the meantime.

Can I appeal my Pennsylvania property taxes every year?

You can file a formal annual appeal once per tax year, in addition to any appeal window opened by a change-of-assessment notice. Appeals based solely on "my taxes are too high" rarely succeed. You need evidence that your assessment, not your tax rate, is out of line once the county's common level ratio is applied.

What happens if I don't pay my property taxes in Pennsylvania?

Pennsylvania allows property tax liens to be sold to private investors after delinquency. If you don't pay, the taxing authority can place a lien on your property and eventually foreclose. Pennsylvania's tax sale system moves faster than many states, so don't ignore property tax bills, and don't stop paying while an appeal is pending. Pay the bill as issued and take the refund if you win.

Final Thoughts: Appeal Is Your Best Defense

Pennsylvania's lack of assessment caps places the burden on homeowners to protect themselves. Unlike California, Florida, or Texas homeowners who benefit from constitutional caps, Pennsylvania property owners must actively monitor their assessments and appeal when appropriate.

The value of an appeal is arithmetic, not a national average: the assessment reduction you win, multiplied by your combined millage rate, is your annual saving, and it repeats every year the corrected value stands. A $40,000 reduction in a 25-mill jurisdiction is $1,000 a year. The work is front-loaded into one filing; the saving is not.

If your property tax bill increased sharply after a recent reassessment, or if your county's common level ratio has fallen while your assessment sat still, don't assume the number is accurate. Pull your property record, gather comparable sales, apply the current ratio, and file before your county's deadline. In Pennsylvania, with no cap standing between you and your assessed value, that is the only real control you have.

Rates, indices, income limits, and deadlines cited here are current as of July 2026 and change on separate schedules. The Act 1 Index is set annually by the Department of Education, the Property Tax/Rent Rebate income limit is indexed each year, common level ratios are published annually by the State Tax Equalization Board, and appeal deadlines are set county by county. Confirm the figures that apply to your parcel with your county assessment office before filing. This article is general information, not legal or tax advice.