Property Tax in Florida

Downtown skyline across a river

Today is Monday, September 28, 2026. The timely window for a 2026 homestead is closed. If you are closing this fall and you will live in the house on January 1, 2027, you are filing for the 2027 tax year. Call us at (904) 309-0609 if you want a second set of eyes on the address before you pick a county line by accident.

 Three offices, three jobs

People mix these up at the closing table, then again in November when the bill arrives. Get the names straight before you drive downtown.

The property appraiser sets value

The property appraiser does not set the tax rate and does not collect the check. The office estimates just value, applies caps such as Save Our Homes, and records exemptions. Homestead is filed here. Portability is filed here, with the new county, not the old one. If the deed is still in the seller's name, this office cannot pretend it is in yours.

Duval's appraiser is at 231 E. Forsyth Street, Suite 260, Jacksonville. Clay County's office is on the second floor at 477 Houston Street in Green Cove Springs. St. Johns is Eddie Creamer's office. Nassau is A. Michael Hickox's office, with desks in Yulee, Fernandina Beach, and Callahan. Columbia is Jeff Hampton's office at 135 NE Hernando Avenue, Suite 238, in Lake City. The steps for each desk are below. Do not file Clay paperwork in a Duval lobby because the commute was shorter.

The taxing authorities set millage

The county commission, the school board, the city, and special districts adopt millage. This page will not print a rate. Two houses in the same county can sit in different cities and different districts. Orange Park is not unincorporated Middleburg. The beaches are not Baldwin. A community development district on one subdivision is absent two streets away.

Millage is on the TRIM notice, the Truth in Millage notice the appraiser mails in late summer. Read every line. Multiply taxable value by that millage and divide by 1,000 if you want the ad valorem piece. Then read the non-ad valorem lines separately. Solid waste, stormwater, and a CDD assessment do not shrink when your homestead exemption grows.

The tax collector sends the bill

The bill comes from the tax collector, usually in November. Duval's collector is at 231 E. Forsyth Street, phone (904) 255-5700, email taxcollector@coj.net, with public pages at the City of Jacksonville tax collector page and duvaltc.com. Hours are Monday through Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. You pay that office. You do not pay the appraiser.

Clay's tax collector is Diane Hutchings, claycountytax.com, phone (904) 269-6320, property tax line (904) 269-6395, mail PO Box 218, Green Cove Springs, FL 32043. St. Johns collects at sjctax.us, (904) 209-2250, main office 4030 Lewis Speedway, St. Augustine. Nassau's collector is John M. Drew, nassautaxes.com, (904) 491-7400, 86130 License Road, Fernandina Beach. Columbia collects at columbiataxcollector.com, (386) 758-1080, 135 NE Hernando Avenue, Suite 125, Lake City, FL 32055, a different suite from the appraiser, and a different job.

 Just value, assessed value, taxable value

Just value is the appraiser's market number. Assessed value is just value after caps. Taxable value is assessed value minus exemptions. The bill uses taxable value, and it uses two taxable values when homestead is on the parcel: one for school levies and one for everything else.

You do not buy the seller's cap. A longtime homestead often shows an assessed value well under the sale price, because Save Our Homes limited the climb for years. When that house sells, the assessment usually resets closer to just value for the new owner. The seller may carry the accumulated difference to the seller's next Florida homestead. That transfer is portability. It is the seller's benefit, filed in the seller's new county. It does not stay glued to the house you just bought.

Some transfers are treated differently, including certain transfers between spouses. Do not guess. Ask the appraiser who covers that parcel before you budget the old assessed value as if it were yours. A listing price is not an assessed value. A Zestimate is not a TRIM notice. Use the number the county printed.

 The 2026 homestead dollars

Eddie Creamer, the St. Johns County property appraiser, confirmed the 2026 figures in March 2026. They match the Florida Department of Revenue CPI notice. Use these numbers. Do not use a blog from 2023.

The first $25,000 comes off every levy, including the school board. That piece does not get an inflation adjustment. If the assessed value is under $25,000, the exemption stops at the assessed value. There is no refund check for the unused piece.

The additional exemption for 2026 is $26,411. It applies only to non-school levies. It applies only to assessed value between $50,000 and $76,411. The band from $25,001 to $50,000 is taxable for the school levy and for the non-school levies. People miss that gap and then cannot figure out why the taxable value is higher than a simple subtraction.

Here is the shape of it, using $280,000 only because that is the starting number in the estimator below. It is not a county median and it is not a price we are quoting. Replace it with the assessed value on your TRIM notice.

On an assessed value of $280,000, the first exemption is $25,000. School taxable value is $255,000. The additional non-school exemption is the full $26,411, because the value sits above $76,411. Non-school taxable value is $280,000 minus $25,000 minus $26,411, which is $228,589. The school board still taxes the larger number. The county, the city, and the districts tax the smaller number. Each one uses its own millage.

Drop the assessed value to $60,000 and the second exemption is only $10,000, the amount of value above $50,000. School taxable value would be $35,000. Non-school taxable value would be $25,000. Drop it to $40,000 and the second exemption is zero, because nothing sits above $50,000. School and non-school taxable value would both be $15,000. The full $26,411 appears only when assessed value reaches $76,411.

Type your own assessed value below. Leave the millage fields at zero if you do not have the TRIM notice in your hand. The box will not invent a Duval rate, a Clay rate, or a beach rate. Two houses in one county can sit in different cities. When you do type millage, type the school lines in the school box and everything else in the other box. Non-ad valorem fees are not millage. They will not show up in the total, which is the point. Go back to the bill and add them.

The estimate is not a tax bill and not a closing disclosure. If the math surprises you, the usual cause is the gap between $25,001 and $50,000, or a millage line you put in the wrong box. School millage does not receive the second exemption. Putting the school rate in the "all other" box will understate the school piece.

 Save Our Homes is a value cap

Once homestead is in place, assessed value cannot rise by more than 3 percent a year, or by the change in the Consumer Price Index, whichever is lower. For 2026 the Department of Revenue figure is 2.7 percent, so the Save Our Homes cap for 2026 is 2.7 percent. The same 2.7 percent CPI change was used to set the additional exemption at $26,411.

Read that again before you lock a house payment. The cap limits assessed value. It does not freeze just value, and it does not freeze the tax bill. Millage can move. A new special district can appear. Non-ad valorem fees can rise. If your assessed value is still under just value, recapture rules can still move the assessed value up toward just value, within the cap, even in a flat market. Ask the appraiser which limitation is printed on your TRIM notice before you tell a lender the taxes will only rise 2.7 percent. They will not hear that from us, because it is the wrong sentence.

The first year is different from the tenth year. The year you buy, expect a reset. The cap compounds after you qualify. A PCS family that sells in three years will not see the same gap between just value and assessed value that a neighbor who homesteaded in 2012 sees. Budget the reset. Then file on time so the following years have a cap to compound.

 Portability, Form DR-501T

If you already have a Florida homestead and you are buying the next one, the accumulated Save Our Homes difference can move with you. The form is DR-501T. You file it with the property appraiser in the new county, generally in the same trip as the new homestead application. You do not mail it back to the county you left and hope they forward the savings.

The difference that transfers is capped by statute. This page will not invent a dollar amount of portable savings. Bring the prior TRIM notice so the examiner can see the old just value and the old assessed value, and then let the new office calculate it. Subtracting last year's tax bill from a guess about this year's tax bill is how people blow a pre-approval. The old bill was built on the old county's millage, the old exemptions, and the old assessed value. None of those three automatically repeat.

Portability stays inside Florida. A homestead you left in Texas, Virginia, or Georgia does not port. What it can do is hurt you, if that other state still has you on a residency-based exemption. One permanent residence. Section 196.011 requires a Social Security number on the application. A residency-based exemption somewhere else can kill the Florida homestead.

 January 1 is the test, March 1 is the file

Two dates. Own the property, legal title or equitable title, on January 1. Occupy it as your permanent residence on January 1. Then file by March 1. Miss January 1 and a perfect application in February does not pull the exemption backward. Close on January 5 and you are looking at the following January.

A fall closing still works if you actually move in by New Year's Day. Closing in October 2026, sleeping there by January 1, 2027, and filing by March 1, 2027 is the ordinary path. A house you close and then rent to someone else is not your permanent residence, even if your household goods are in a storage unit and the orders say Jacksonville. The appraiser will ask the date of occupancy. Answer it with the date you moved in, not the date on the deed if those dates differ.

Permanent residence is a fact pattern, not a slogan. The Florida driver license or ID should show the homestead address. The vehicle tag should match if you are using it as proof. If you vote, the voter card should match. You do not have to register to vote to get homestead. Voting is one proof among others, not a condition of the statute. The mailing address on your last IRS return is something Duval asks for. Have it. If the IRS still has a Virginia address because you filed before the move, be ready to explain the timeline. Do not "fix" that by guessing what the examiner wants to hear.

 If you are standing here in late September 2026

The timely 2026 deadline was March 2. Late filing is not a courtesy extension for people who forgot. It is for extenuating circumstances, and it generally runs only until 25 days after that county mails the TRIM notice. TRIM notices go out in mid to late summer. By September 28, a lot of those clocks have already stopped. This page will not tell you the late window is open. Call the appraiser for the county where the house sits and ask that morning.

Clay's own rule is stricter on the method. Applications after the March 1 deadline must be filed in person, with a late-file explanation, up to 25 days after TRIM. Clay planned to process timely 2026 applications by July 1, 2026, mail denials on July 1, and show approved exemptions on the August TRIM. If you never filed, do not treat the August TRIM as a second invitation. Ask.

Nassau has closed 2026 applications and opened 2027. You can file a 2027 homestead online or in person now if the house is, or will be, your permanent residence. A 2026 purchase that you occupy as your permanent residence can be filed for 2027 through March 1, 2027. It shows on the August 2027 TRIM, not on a bill you were hoping to shrink this November.

 After they approve it

Homestead renews. You do not file a fresh application every January just to keep it. The appraiser mails a renewal card or notice. Read it. If the ownership changed, the marital status changed, or the house stopped being your permanent residence, you refile or you tell them. Ignoring the renewal because "they already have me" is how a bad fact sits on the roll for another year.

In Duval, adding a person or an extra exemption onto an existing homestead has to be done in person at Suite 260. The online system is for the application it was built for. It is not a standing edit button. Other counties have their own counters for add-ons. Call before you drive.

 Seniors, and what we will not promise

There is a local-option extra exemption for seniors. The age test is 65 on January 1. The household income limit for 2026 is $38,686. Counties adopt the extra exemption or they do not. This page will not say that every county grants an extra $50,000. Ask the appraiser in the county where the house sits. Bring proof of age and income when they tell you the exemption exists there.

A separate local option covers a long-term senior: 25 years in the homestead, just value under $250,000. That is not the same exemption as the age-65 income test. A county can adopt one, both, or neither. Ask. Do not stack numbers you saw on a statewide chart onto a Nassau bill or a Columbia bill without the office confirming the ordinance.

 Wrongful homestead is a lien

Section 196.161 is the penalty statute. A wrongful exemption can become a lien on the property, with a 50 percent penalty and 15 percent interest. That is not a paperwork fee. It is what happens when someone keeps two permanent residences on paper, or leaves an out-of-state residency exemption in place, or files for a house they rent out.

A clerical error by the appraiser is treated differently from a claim the owner had no right to make. If you get a notice that does not match what you filed, call the office and put the correction in writing. Do not pay a penalty you do not owe, and do not ignore a notice because the first year "looked fine."

Military families get caught in a specific version of this. One spouse updates the Florida license. The other spouse still has a homestead or a residency exemption on a house in another state, sometimes because a relative is living there, sometimes because nobody filed the surrender. St. Johns states it in plain language: neither spouse may hold a residency exemption in another state. Treat that as the safe rule in every county on this page. Ask before you file, not after the lien letter.

 Trusts, and one note on divorce deeds

If a trust holds title, the applicant needs beneficial title, not just a familiar last name on the trust. Bring the trust pages that show who holds the beneficial interest. St. Johns asks for those pages up front. Duval and the other offices will ask once the deed shows a trustee. This is not legal advice. Have the closing attorney, or another Florida attorney, confirm the trust qualifies before you assume the exemption is automatic. A land trust, a revocable living trust, and an irrevocable trust are not the same conversation.

A divorce transfer of the marital home can be exempt from deed documentary stamps under section 201.02. That sentence is about the stamp on the deed. It is not a homestead ruling and it is not income-tax advice. The spouse who keeps the house still has to qualify for homestead on the January 1 test, in that spouse's own name or through a trust that qualifies. Have the attorney who handled the judgment prepare the deed. Do not widen a stamp exemption into a promise about the tax bill.

 The early-pay discount

The Duval Tax Collector published this discount schedule for the bill: 4 percent if you pay by November 30, 3 percent by December 31, 2 percent by January 31, and 1 percent by February 28. The bill is then due by March 31 before it goes delinquent. Other counties use the same Florida discount statute. Confirm the due date on that county's bill before you wire a payment on the last morning. A discount you missed by a day is gone. We will not rebuild it at closing.

Prorated taxes at closing are a contract item between buyer and seller. They are not the same thing as homestead, and they are not the November discount. The title company estimates the proration from the current bill or the current assessment. If you are the buyer in a fall 2026 closing, assume the bill you are prorating does not yet include your 2027 homestead. Budget the reset. File next spring.

 How to file in Duval County

Duval is consolidated with the City of Jacksonville. The beaches, Baldwin, and the urban core still share this property appraiser. They do not share one millage. File homestead online at homestead.coj.net or in person. Phone (904) 255-5900. The counter is 231 E. Forsyth Street, Suite 260, Jacksonville, FL 32202.

The deed has to be in the owner's name before the online system will take the application. The office says to allow about 60 days after closing for the deed to post. If you closed in August and the system still shows the seller, do not keep retrying a session that cannot see you. File in person. Bring the recorded deed if you have it. The deed itself records at the Duval County Clerk of Courts. We are not going to invent a clerk web address here. The appraiser's recording delay is the practical problem, and Suite 260 is the fix.

The online session does not save. Plan about an hour with the documents already on the table. You will want a Florida driver license or ID that shows the homestead address, including the card number and the issue date. You will want the vehicle tag, voter registration if you are registered, date of birth, Social Security number, the date you became a Florida resident, the date you occupied the house, the purchase date, and the mailing address on your last IRS return.

If you are adding a spouse or another owner to an exemption that already exists, or adding an extra exemption onto that homestead, Duval requires the visit in person. Do not send one spouse downtown with a phone photo of the other spouse's license and expect the counter to finish it. Both people, both cards.

Schools are a separate question from the exemption, and they are a large line on the bill. Duval County Public Schools publishes boundaries and choice rules at duvalschools.org. Homestead does not enroll a student. The school board's millage still comes off only the first $25,000, not the extra $26,411. When you compare a Duval house with a St. Johns house, compare the TRIM lines, not a rumor about which county is "cheaper."

The houses you can scroll from this page are Duval County homes, newest first. That feed is not a tax search. A new listing does not tell you the assessed value.

 How to file in Clay County

Clay County Property Appraiser Tracy Scott Drake's site is ccpao.com. The homestead portal is exemption.ccpao.com/Homestead/. Phone (904) 284-6305, extension 1. The office is the County Administration Building, second floor, 477 Houston Street, Green Cove Springs, FL 32043. The counter is open Monday through Friday, 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

A timely application can go online, by mail, or in person. That choice ends at the deadline. Clay's own instructions say applications after March 1 must be filed in person, with a written late-file explanation, and only up to 25 days after the TRIM notice. If someone tells you to upload a late Clay file through a third-party website, do not.

Proof is a Florida driver license or Florida ID at the homestead address, plus one more item. The office accepts a voter card, vehicle registration, W-2, federal return, or utility bill as that second item. Bring the Social Security number. If you moved from Duval to Orange Park, Fleming Island, Middleburg, Oakleaf, or Green Cove Springs, update the license to the Clay address before you apply. A Jacksonville address on the card will not match a Clay parcel.

County government background sits at claycountygov.com. Schools are Clay County District Schools at oneclay.net, not Duval. The school line on a Clay bill is Clay's millage. Read it on the TRIM notice. We will not print a rate, and we will not print a school grade.

 How to file in St. Johns County

St. Johns County Property Appraiser Eddie Creamer takes homestead, portability, and the other exemptions through an online portal. Start at sjcpa.gov/homesteadportability and the exemptions page at sjcpa.gov/exemptions. Phone (904) 827-5500. Email sjcpa@sjcpa.gov.

The Florida driver license or ID must show the homestead address. Licenses updated after November 1, 2023 may have been reissued with a new number. Upload the updated license. A photo of the card you surrendered will not match what DHSMV has now. Non-U.S. citizens bring the permanent resident card. If a trust is on the deed, upload the trust pages that show beneficial ownership.

Neither spouse may hold a residency exemption in another state. That is the office's rule, and it is the one to walk into the house with if you are transferring from a homestead in another Florida county or from a house that had a residency exemption up north. File DR-501T with St. Johns, not with the county you sold.

Julington Creek, Fruit Cove, and the neighborhoods along Race Track Road are St. Johns, even when a listing headline says Jacksonville. The tax collector is still sjctax.us at 4030 Lewis Speedway. Schools are the St. Johns County School District, stjohns.k12.fl.us. County government is sjcfl.us. If the parcel is across the Duval line, you are in the Duval section above, no matter what the subdivision brochure says.

 How to file in Nassau County

Nassau County Property Appraiser A. Michael Hickox posts the homestead instructions at ncpafl.com. Phone (904) 491-7300. Toll free 1-888-615-4398. The county's new-resident guide, revised March 6, 2026, lists three offices. The main office is 96135 Nassau Place, Suite 4, Yulee, FL 32097. There is also the Historic Courthouse at 416 Centre Street, Fernandina Beach, and the Callahan County Building at 45401 Mickler Street, Callahan. Call before you drive so you land at a counter that is open that day.

2026 applications closed March 2, 2026. 2027 applications are open, online or in person. If you bought in 2026 and the house is your permanent residence, file for 2027 through March 1, 2027. The exemption shows on the August 2027 TRIM. It will not rewrite the bill that is about to go out for 2026.

Bring both spouses' Florida residency documents if both of you live there: driver license with the Nassau address, vehicle registration, Nassau voter registration if you vote, and Social Security numbers. Fernandina Beach, Yulee, and Callahan do not share one city millage. The City of Fernandina Beach is fbfl.us. An address inside the city is a different stack from a Yulee address in the county. Read the TRIM notice for that parcel.

The tax collector's main office is 86130 License Road, Fernandina Beach. The clerk of courts is a different building: nassauclerk.com, (904) 548-4600, 76347 Veterans Way, Yulee. Deeds and homestead are not the same window. County government is nassaucountyfl.com. Schools are Nassau County School District, nassau.k12.fl.us, (904) 491-9900, 1201 Atlantic Avenue, Fernandina Beach. The school district does not take the homestead application.

 How to file in Columbia County

Lake City is the Columbia County seat, west of Jacksonville on I-10. It is not a Duval suburb for schools or for taxes. Property Appraiser Jeff Hampton's office site is columbia.floridapa.com. Phone (386) 758-1083. Email contact@ccpafl.com. The office is 135 NE Hernando Avenue, Suite 238, Lake City, FL 32055. Hours are 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. on weekdays.

The exemptions page at ccpafl.com/property-tax-exemptions says the initial homestead application must be filed in person at the property appraiser's office. Do not send a Columbia file to a third-party site that promises online filing for a fee. The on-time window is January 1 to March 1. Late filing runs to the 25th day after TRIM, and the office says to contact them. As of this September, ask before you make the drive for a 2026 late file. A 2027 file waits for the January 1, 2027 occupancy test and the March 1, 2027 deadline, and it is still in person when you are ready.

Bring the deed or the contract, a Florida ID at the homestead address, your Social Security number, and one more proof of residency. If the closing was recent, the contract plus a recorded deed, when you have it, keeps the counter from sending you home. The tax collector is Suite 125 at the same Hernando Avenue address. Different suite, different job. The clerk is columbiaclerk.com. County government is columbiacountyfla.com.

Say this plainly if you are searching from Jacksonville: the Northeast Florida MLS may not carry Columbia County listings the way it carries Duval and Clay. Homestead rules still apply. The absence of a listing feed is not the absence of a tax bill. Confirm the parcel on Hampton's site before you treat a Lake City address as a Duval deal with a longer driveway.

 What to do with the TRIM notice

When the TRIM notice comes, check the owner name, the situs address, just value, assessed value, each exemption, and the taxable values. Then read every millage line and every non-ad valorem fee. If the value is wrong, the notice prints the petition deadline. Use the date on the paper. Do not wait until the November bill to argue an August value. The tax collector cannot rewrite the roll because the payment feels high.

If the exemption is missing, that is a different call from a value dispute. Take the notice to the appraiser. If you never filed, a missing exemption is not a surprise. If you filed and it was denied, Clay mails denials, and the other counties do too. Appeal paths are printed on the denial. Follow them. A phone call to a realtor does not extend a statutory date.

Compare houses on the same rules. Same county is not even enough. Same city, same districts, then the exemption math above, then the insurance and the HOA, which are not on this bill. The payment you care about is principal, interest, tax, insurance, and HOA. Homestead changes only the tax piece, and only after you qualify.

 Keep going

Look at houses while the rules are fresh. The feed on this page is Duval so a statewide tax article is not an empty search. For the rest of the map, start with the county, then the ZIP, then the street.

Duval County homes  |  Just listed  |  Browse by ZIP

Military Realty of Florida. (904) 309-0609.