King County Property Taxes

How does King County calculate property taxes? As a new property owner, it is important for you to understand how your property taxes are calculated. It may seem somewhat convoluted, especially if you are trying to predict the cost of property taxes on new construction.

But here is a primer to get you started on calculating your property taxes:

How Property Taxes Are Used In King County?

It all starts with the local and state government costs. The levies you and

your neighbors have approved for services such as metro, schools, parks,

fire protection, water districts and emergency medical services, as well as

other services determines about half of your property tax.

King County General Fund is supported by 17 cents of every property tax

dollar. Cities, State, and other local jurisdictions divide the remaining 83

cents. This is how the dollar is used to fund the county general fund.


How Property Taxes Are Figured in King County

The amount of tax payable per dollar of the assessed value of a property.

King County uses a tax rate which is expressed in Mills. The mill rate is

based on "mills"; as each mill is one-thousandth of a currency unit, one mill

is equivalent to one-tenth of a cent or $0.001.

Property tax in dollar terms is calculated by multiplying the assessed

property value and the mill rate.


More on millage rate in King County in another blog post. In the mean time,

Happy Investing!


Thanks to Bernita McKinnion for assistance on today's blog!