Calculating Property Tax

Estimating Property Tax

You can estimate what your property tax bill will be if you know the assessed value of your property and the tax levy rate.

Levy rates are expressed in dollars per thousand dollars of assessed value. An example levy rate might look like: 9.1234567891

The calculation for estimating property tax is:

Assessed Value x Levy Rate ÷ 1,000 = Estimated Tax

Here is an example on how the calculation would look if the assessed value of a property is $500,000 and the levy rate is 9.1234.

Estimated tax example of the assessed value is multiplied by the levy rate, then divided by 1000

First, we take the $500,000 of assessed value and multiply it by the levy rate of 9.1234 to get a result of 4,561,700. This 4,561,700 is then divided by 1,000 to give a result of $4,561.70 for the estimated tax.

Special Assessments

Some properties depending on their location or certain conditions might have a special assessment added to their property tax. This is separate from the levy rate.

Below is a list of some of the special assessments along with the department that can give additional information.

NameCodeDepartmentContact
On-Site SewageOSSWhatcom County Health DepartmentHealth Department website
Garbage Collection FeeGRBPRWhatcom County Health DepartmentHealth Department website
Birch Bay Watershed and Aquatic Resources ManagementBBWARMWhatcom County Public WorksPublic Works website
Lake Whatcom Stormwater UtilityLWSUWhatcom County Public WorksPublic Works website
Diking, Drainage, McAulay Creek Flood, Lighting, Subzones
Whatcom County Public WorksPublic Works website
Foreclosure Warning NoticeFWNWhatcom County TreasurerTreasurer website
Fire Patrol
Washington State Department of National Resourcesdnr.wa.gov
Whatcom Conservation District
Whatcom Conservation Districtwhatcomcd.org
Watershed Improvement Districts
Ag Water Board of Whatcom Countyagwaterboard.com


Additional Information