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Property Tax Overview
Your property tax payments provide the major source of revenue necessary to support local public services in your area. They help cover the cost of schools, police, fire districts, cities, the county, and many other special districts.
Property Owner
The California Constitution sets forth the process for determining the tax you are responsible to pay for your property. California’s current tax system is based on a constitutional amendment adopted in 1978 known as Proposition 13. Under this law, all property has an established base year value that restricts assessment increases to a maximum of 2% each year. The base year value stays in effect until the property changes ownership, or new construction is added.
The Placer County Assessor, Auditor-Controller, and Treasurer-Tax Collector work together to create and process your property tax bill and payment.
Matthew R. Maynard
The Assessor determines the assessed value (the value used to calculate your tax bill) for all real estate and personal property in the county. These values are established by appraising property in accordance with state law. In some instances, this value may be reduced by exemptions or exclusions that have been approved for your property.
The complete list of all assessed value in the county is known as the “Assessment Roll’. This list is provided to the Auditor-Controller for further processing.
Andrew Sisk
The Auditor - Controller calculates the amount of property tax by applying the 1% tax rate and voter approved bond rates to the assessed value of the property. Direct charges are then added to the parcels to obtain the total tax due. This information is forwarded to the Treasurer-Tax Collector for billing and collection.
After the tax collection is complete, the Auditor-Controller apportions the funds to the local schools, cities, and special districts.
Tristan Butcher
The Treasurer-Tax Collector uses the property tax amounts determined by the Auditor-Controller to create the property tax bills. These bills are printed and mailed to the current assessee. The Treasurer-Tax-Collector collects both Secured and Unsecured property taxes. Secured bills are for properties that use the value of the real estate as security for unpaid bills. Certain business property, boats and airplanes are subject to Unsecured property taxes.
The Auditor-Controller distributes property taxes to local agencies who share property tax revenues.