Hillsborough County property taxes after you buy
There is no single Hillsborough County rate. The county is divided into 4 residential tax districts, and the 2025 certified totals run from 18.2515 to 19.8428 mills. Which one applies decides the size of the reset you meet after closing.
Four steps, all of them statutory.
Nothing about the house has to change for the bill to change.
The seller is under a cap
Save Our Homes holds a homestead assessment's growth to the lesser of 3% or CPI while one owner holds the home. s. 193.155(1), Fla. Stat.
You buy, and the cap ends
A change of ownership means any sale, foreclosure, or transfer of legal or beneficial title in equity. s. 193.155(3)(a), Fla. Stat.
The assessment resets to just value
As of January 1 of the year following the sale — January 1, 2027 for a sale closing this year. The gap between the seller's capped assessment and just value is the whole exposure.
You file by March 1, or you do not
The exemption is not automatic and does not transfer from the seller. Missing March 1, 2027 waives it for all of 2027. s. 196.011(1)(a), Fla. Stat.
Every residential tax district in Hillsborough County, 2025.
Split school and non-school, because Florida's additional homestead exemption and its 10% non-homestead cap (the 2026 rate) apply to the non-school column only. These are certified totals as published, not estimates or averages.
| District | Covers | Total mills | School | Non-school |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| TA | City of Tampa | 19.8428 | 6.3400 | 13.5028 |
| TT | City of Temple Terrace | 19.5319 | 6.3400 | 13.1919 |
| PC | City of Plant City | 18.2926 | 6.3400 | 11.9526 |
| U | Unincorporated Hillsboroughunincorporated | 18.2515 | 6.3400 | 11.9115 |
Source: Hillsborough County Property Appraiser, Final 2025 millage by tax district. Retrieved 2026-10-11. The same table is published twice, identically: by the Property Appraiser as 2025FinalMillage.pdf and by the Department of Revenue as the county's 2025 Taxing Authority Code Descriptions file (stamped Received 10/03/2025). Both were retrieved and compared figure by figure.
These rates are corroborated 3 ways.
A reader is entitled to know which figures have been checked against a second source and which have not. For Hillsborough County the answer is 3.
| Publication | Independent |
|---|---|
| Hillsborough County Property Appraiser, Final 2025 Millage | source |
| Florida Department of Revenue, 2025 Hillsborough TACD | check |
| Florida Department of Revenue, 2025 Table 1 - Comparison of Levies | check |
The appraiser's table and the Department of Revenue's TACD file are the same table published twice, figure for figure. Table 1, a third and separately compiled artifact, agrees on the county and all three municipal rates.
March 1, 2027.
A hard statutory date with a consequence that can be put in dollars. Priced below in Plant City, the county's largest tax district by the source's own account.
March 1, 2027
s. 196.011(1)(a), Fla. Stat.If you buy in Plant City this year, your homestead application is due March 1, 2027.
Florida does not move this date and does not send a reminder. The statute says that failing to apply on or before March 1 “shall constitute a waiver of the exemption privilege for that year.” Not a penalty, not a late fee — the exemption is gone for the year, and you pay as though you had never been entitled to it.
In Plant City, on a home that resets to $450,000 of just value, that is the difference between $7,459 with the exemption and $8,232 without it: $773 for one year, computed at 18.2926 mills.
The exemption amounts are $25,000 against every levy and a further $26,411 against the non-school levies only (2026, the latest the Department of Revenue has published; the amount is indexed to CPI). An application missing a required social security number is incomplete, and the cure deadline is April 1, 2027 — s. 196.011(1)(b), Fla. Stat..
The timeline, dated
The reassuring bill and the real one are about twenty months apart, and the filing deadline falls between them.
| When | What happens |
|---|---|
| During 2026 | You close on the home. That is a change of ownership, and it ends the cap the seller was under. s. 193.155(3)(a), Fla. Stat. |
| November 2026 | The bill that arrives is still computed on the seller's capped assessment. Nothing has changed yet, which is why this bill reassures buyers it should not. |
| January 1, 2027 | The assessment is set to just value as of this date, because it is January 1 of the year following the change of ownership. The cap is gone. |
| March 1, 2027 | Your own homestead exemption application for 2027 is due with the Hillsborough county property appraiser. Miss it and the exemption is waived for 2027. |
| April 1, 2027 | Last day to cure an application that was filed but incomplete for want of a required social security number. |
| November 2027 | The first bill computed on the reset assessment arrives — roughly twenty months after you closed. |
Read the verbs. Outside postal error this is discretionary and the window is about three weeks in late summer, not a second deadline. File by March 1.
File with the Hillsborough County property appraiser. The exemption is $25,000 against every levy plus up to $26,411 against the non-school levies only, on assessed value above $50,000 (s. 196.031(1)(a)-(b), Fla. Stat.). The second figure is the 2026 published amount and is indexed to CPI.
3 cities and towns in Hillsborough County.
Each has its own page with its own rate, the levies behind it, and the reset worked out. Rates shown are the 2025 certified totals.
| Place | Total mills | Districts |
|---|---|---|
| Plant City | 18.2926 | PC |
| Tampa | 19.8428 | TA |
| Temple Terrace | 19.5319 | TT |
Where a place shows a range, a residential parcel inside it can fall in more than one tax district at more than one rate. Its page publishes every one and names them; it does not average them, because an average is not a rate anyone pays.
Unincorporated Hillsborough County.
These communities are not cities and do not levy their own millage, so there is no separate rate to publish for any of them. They are taxed at the county's unincorporated rate.
- Apollo Beach
- Bloomingdale
- Brandon
- Carrollwood
- Citrus Park
- Dover
- Egypt Lake-Leto
- FishHawk
- Gibsonton
- Lutz
- Mango
- Palm River-Clair Mel
- Riverview
- Ruskin
- Seffner
- Sun City Center
- Thonotosassa
- Town 'n' Country
- Valrico
- Westchase
Unincorporated Hillsborough County rates and arithmetic
We do not publish a separate page for each of these names. A page for Brandon and a page for Riverview would carry the same rate as each other and as every other unincorporated community in the county, and a page whose only distinguishing feature is its title is a duplicate dressed up as a location. The rate that applies to all of them is one click away.
What the reset did to one Hillsborough County house.
Everything else on this page is arithmetic on a round number. This is a specific parcel on the 2025 roll, with its own published values and its own district rate, worked line by line so you can reproduce it from the two sources named below.
| Just value — what the appraiser says it is worth | $594,322 |
| Assessed value — what Save Our Homes has held it to | $177,601 |
| The Save Our Homes differential, invisible on any listing | $416,721 |
| Published taxable value, school levy — so the exemption here is $25,000, derived not assumed | $152,601 |
| Published taxable value, non-school levies — so the exemption here is $50,722, which is $25,000 plus the 2025 additional $25,722 | $126,879 |
| The seller's bill: $152,601 × 6.3400 ÷ 1,000 = $967.49, plus $126,879 × 13.5028 ÷ 1,000 = $1,713.22 | $2,680.71 |
| A buyer who homesteads it and files on time: $569,322 and $543,600 taxable, same rates | $10,949.62 |
| The change, for the same house, with nothing about it altered | +$8,268.91 a year +$689 a month · 308% higher |
| An investor buyer, or an owner-occupant who missed March 1: $594,322 × 19.8428 ÷ 1,000 | $11,793.01 |
Parcel values: Florida statewide parcel layer (FL_Parcels), ArcGIS FeatureServer, roll year 2025, source date 12/30/2025, retrieved 2026-10-12 by spatial envelope query. Rate: Hillsborough County Property Appraiser, Final 2025 millage by tax district, district TA, 19.8428 mills total — 6.3400 school and 13.5028 non-school. Exemptions per s. 196.031(1)(a)-(b), Fla. Stat., derived from the parcel's own published taxable values rather than assumed.
What the November 3, 2026 ballot measure would and would not change.
Every exemption figure on this site is current law. Amendment 3 would change some of those figures effective January 1, 2027 if approved by 60% of voters, so a page that projects next year's bill has to say which law it used. It would not change the reset itself. We take no position on the measure.
| Provision | Would become | Clause |
|---|---|---|
| Homestead exemption, all levies other than school district levies | Up to $150,000 beginning January 1, 2027 and up to $250,000 beginning January 1, 2028, inflation-indexed from January 1, 2029. Replaces the present two-tier exemption. | Art. VII s. 6(a)(1)a.2 |
| New Florida residents | A person who was not a permanent Florida resident as of December 31, 2026 and establishes homestead on or after January 1, 2027 receives $25,000 for school levies and $50,000 for non-school levies, rising to the full amount beginning with the fifth year of exemption. | Art. VII s. 6(a)(1)b |
| Non-homestead annual assessment cap, non-school levies | Ten percent before January 1, 2027; five percent beginning January 1, 2027. | Art. VII ss. 4(g)(1), 4(h)(1) |
| Local use of property tax revenue | Restricts county and municipal property tax revenue to specified purposes. | Art. VII s. 9 |
| Provision | Stays as it is | Clause |
|---|---|---|
| The Save Our Homes cap itself | Still the lower of 3% or the change in CPI. | Art. VII s. 4(d)(1) |
| The homestead change-of-ownership reset | Homestead property is still assessed at just value as of January 1 of the year following a change of ownership. | Art. VII s. 4(d)(3) |
| The non-homestead change-of-ownership reset | Still triggered by a change of ownership or control, including a change of ownership of the legal entity that owns the property. | Art. VII s. 4(g)(3) |
| Portability | Still capped at $500,000. | Art. VII s. 4(d)(8) |
| The school district exemption | Still $25,000, and the school levy is still uncapped on a rental. | Art. VII s. 6(a)(1)a.1 |
Sources: Florida Department of State, Constitutional Initiatives — Increased Homestead Exemption; Lower Cap on Increases in Non-Homestead Property Assessments (https://constitutionalinitiatives.dos.fl.gov/) · Ballotpedia, Florida Amendment 3 (2026) — full constitutional text with strikethroughs. Verified 2026-10-12 against the constitutional text rather than against a summary of it, because the “would not change” claims above are only checkable in the text. Nothing on this page is legal, tax, or voting advice, and nothing on it is a recommendation about the measure.
Checked against the appraisers' own numbers.
The exemption arithmetic on these pages is not our interpretation of the statute. It is checked against published taxable values: we read parcels from the statewide parcel layer, computed what the statute says their school and non-school taxable values should be, and compared the result to what the appraiser actually published for them.
| Sample box | Parcels read | Single-family | Under the cap | Reproduced to the dollar |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| central Tampa -82.50,27.93 to -82.47,27.96 | 994 | 449 | 246 | 219 |
Source: Florida statewide parcel layer (FL_Parcels), ArcGIS FeatureServer, read 2026-10-11, serving assessment year 2025. “Under the cap” counts single-family parcels whose homestead assessed value sits below just value. “Reproduced to the dollar” counts those whose published school and non-school taxable values are returned exactly by the statutory arithmetic at the 2025 additional exemption of $25,722.
These counts describe the stated boxes only. They are evidence that this site's arithmetic matches the appraisers' published figures. They are not statistics about Hillsborough County, they are not a sample designed to represent it, and nothing here should be read as a claim about what homes in the county are worth or what their owners pay.
What buyers in Hillsborough County ask.
What is the property tax rate in Hillsborough County, Florida?
There is no single rate. Hillsborough County is divided into 4 residential tax districts, and the 2025 certified totals run from 18.2515 mills (U, Unincorporated Hillsborough) to 19.8428 mills (TA, City of Tampa). The rate depends on which city or unincorporated service area the parcel sits in. Every district is listed on this page.
What is the property tax rate in unincorporated Hillsborough County?
18.2515 mills for 2025, in district U. Of that, 6.3400 mills is the school levy. Unincorporated communities do not levy their own millage, so they are taxed at this rate.
When is the homestead exemption deadline in Hillsborough County?
March 1. An exemption application must be filed with the county property appraiser on or before March 1. Failure to apply by March 1 constitutes a waiver of the exemption privilege for that year. (s. 196.011(1)(a), Fla. Stat.) An application missing a required social security number is incomplete and the cure deadline is April 1 (s. 196.011(1)(b), Fla. Stat.). A homestead exemption showing on the parcel record after you buy is the seller's for the current year and does not transfer to you.
Why do property taxes go up after you buy in Hillsborough County?
Save Our Homes caps a homestead assessment's growth at the lesser of 3% or CPI while one owner holds the home (s. 193.155(1), Fla. Stat.), so a long-held home can sit far below just value. Homestead property is assessed at just value as of January 1 of the year following a change of ownership. A change of ownership means any sale, foreclosure, or transfer of legal or beneficial title in equity. (s. 193.155(3)(a), Fla. Stat.) The bill is then rebuilt from just value. On a home resetting to $450,000 in Plant City the arithmetic comes to $7,459 a year with the exemption filed on time.
Do Hillsborough County rates include CDD fees and other assessments?
No. Non-ad-valorem assessments — community development district debt and operations, MSBUs, solid waste, and fire fees — arrive on the same November bill but are not millage, and no figure on this site includes them. In newer subdivisions a CDD assessment can exceed the county levy, so the millage-derived figure is not the whole bill.
Everything on this page is arithmetic on certified, published millage, for screening. Your actual bill depends on the just value the Hillsborough County property appraiser determines, on the exemptions you qualify for and file, on any millage voters approve, and on non-ad-valorem assessments that are not millage and are not included here. Nothing on this page is legal, tax, or lending advice, and nothing on it is an opinion of value.
Run the reset on the house you are actually looking at.
The free Florida property tax check takes the seller's current assessment, the just value it resets to, and whether you will homestead the home, and returns what the seller pays now, what you would pay after the reset, and the monthly difference.
The tax reset is one number out of roughly forty in the full financial inspection. Delivered within 3 hours of payment, with 30 days to get your money back. We take no lender money.