Property taxes provide revenue to ensure that countless projects are completed and the local, county, and city infrastructure stays strong and maintained. This means that homeowners are footing the bill, in essence, to keep their towns and schools running optimally. If you reside in the state of Arizona, you will be happy to learn that your property tax rates remain among the lowest in the United States. Unfortunately, the way your taxes are calculated could be one of the most confusing and convoluted processes in the nation. That is what makes understanding taxes in Arizona as a whole and Sedona in particular so challenging. Thankfully, the following is some information that will make this process of understanding property taxes in Sedona, Arizona a bit less arduous.
What is Property Tax, and How is it Calculated?
As mentioned above, property taxes are a way to garner income from homeowners in a region, to provide needed funds to keep city, county, and state infrastructure, schools, and government entities running smoothly. Property taxes are composed of a few elements, those being the County Assessor’s assessments, the Legislature’s legal class codes, and the taxing jurisdiction’s tax rate, also known as the mill levy. Arizona is a bit more complicated in terms of the assessed value part of the equation as the state has two ways of figuring this number, the full cash value, and limited property value.
Sedona’s Current Property Tax Rates
To get down to the nuts and bolts of the issue, the following information will lay out what the state and local property tax rates are you can expect to pay when residing in Sedona, Arizona. Keep in mind that Sedona actually straddles two counties, these being Coconino and Yavapai:
- State Tax Rate: 6.600%
- Coconino County Rate: 1.125%
- Yavapai County Rate: 0.750%
- City Tax Rate: 3.00%
How to Find Out Your Property Tax Rate
Determining your property tax amount is difficult. This is because this rate will depend on where you live. For example, factors like community colleges, schools, city and bond issues, and more can affect the rate in a particular region. The tax rate is often the complication of state, county, special district, school, and municipal rates.
A good rule of thumb to remember is most Arizona homes before rebates and exemptions are taxed between .87% and 1.5% the market value of your home. To put this in a real-life setting, let’s say your Arizona home is assessed at $200,000. If your property taxes are 1.3%, this means you can expect to pay $2,600 yearly in property taxes. Most experts agree that if you plan around 1% of the value of your home, this would put you in the ballpark for determining your actual property tax rate.
Get More Information
If you still aren’t sure where you stand property tax-wise or how to even formulate an estimation of how much you can expect to pay, there is no need to fret. You can contact both the Yavapai County and Coconino County tax offices and ask them for more specific information. Each county also has specific tax information pertaining to that county, such as detailed mapping, available for current or future residents. You can find this information here for Yavapai County and here for Coconino County. Admittedly, estimating property taxes is confusing and not the most pleasant task in the world to accomplish. Hopefully, the above information has helped make the entire process easier.
