Your Property Taxes

TRUSTEE ONLY COLLECTS TAXES AND DOES NOT APPRAISE/ASSESS PROPERTY OR SET TAX RATE

Contact the Washington County Assessor of Property 423-753-1671 regarding any change in mailing address or for any appraisal and/or assessed value questions.

Personal Property Taxes:

Contact the Washington County Assessor of Property 423-753-1671 or 423-753-1688

Tax Rate Information:

The 2023 county tax rate is $2.15 per $100 of the assessed value.  The chart below explains the breakdown of the tax rate among the various funds.

Fund                                   County Rate

County General Fund                         $0.79

Highway Fund                                     $0.135

General Purpose School                     $0.74

Debt Service Fund                              $0.25

Sanitation                                            $0.035

General Capital Projects                     $0.03

Education Capital Projects                  $0.17

Total                                          $2.15

Washington County Property Tax is collected annually by the Trustee's Office. The Property Tax amount you pay is based on the value of your property (appraisal/assessment set by the County) combined with the tax rate that is set by the County Commission each year. The Trustee is not responsible for setting the tax rate and is not responsible for property appraisals/assessments for tax purposes The Trustee only collects Property Tax. The following shows a Property Tax example:

Example

Example of $150,000 residential property:

$150,000 (Appraised value of property set by the County) multiplied by 0.25 (Residential property is assessed taxes on 25% of value, Business property 40%) equals $37,500 (Assessment). $37,500 (Assessment) multiplied by 0215 ($2.15 tax rate set by County Commission per $100 of assessment) equals $ 806 (2020 County Property Tax Bill).

Beginning with tax year 2020, the Washington County Commission approved rounding to the nearest dollar for all tax bills. So, while the example would calculate to $806.25, the actual tax bill will be $806.

Tax Notices

Tax Notices are typically mailed in October each year and are payable through the end of February. Unpaid balances as of March 1st will have 1.5% interest added to any remaining balance.

Your Tax Notice offers helpful information, take a moment and read your notice.

Property owners are expected to pay Property Tax on time each year regardless of whether a Tax Notice is received. If you do not receive your notice(s) by November 15th of any given year, please notify our office immediately (if your mortgage company pays your taxes, you will not receive a notice). If you own multiple parcels of property, please make sure you receive all of your notices.

Please notify the office of the Trustee of any mailing address changes by calling 423-753-1602. The Property Assessor's office should be notified immediately of any business closings by calling 423-753-1788.

Official Tax Roll

According to State Law, the official tax roll is as of January 1 of the tax year. If you buy or sell property during a tax year, the owner on the official tax roll will be as of January 1. We typically attempt to send a tax notice to the new owner because we do not know who is responsible for the Property Tax after the closing of the sale. Normally, the taxes are prorated at closing and the buyer is made the responsible party. If you purchase property during the tax year and do not receive a tax notice, please call our office and check the status of the Property Taxes.