Figuring out your property tax is a bit more complicated than some people make it out to be.
You'll usually see the simple equation:
[(Fair Market Value X 40%)-homestead exemptions] X millage rate/1000
Guess what. If you use that equation you're going to be off. It drove me crazy for the longest time. I looked up the millage rate direct from the Fulton County website. For Sandy Springs they have it at 34.034. Then I looked up the Homestead Exemption direct from the Fulton County website. The homestead exemption is $30,000.
Using those numbers and that equation, I never could get the taxes to come out right. So I called the tax office and found out the fine details of calculating property taxes.
Those homestead exemptions aren't applied towards the total amount of taxes. THe tax bill is broken down into several separate portions and the homestead exemption is only applied to a few of them. For example, in Fulton County the $30,000 homestead exemption does not apply to the school tax portion. Also, the Sandy Springs exemtion is only $15,000, not $30,000. Unfortunately, the equation is a little more complicated.
But the nice thing about it is that you can actually go online and find the tax bill for any property in Fulton County all broken down so you can see how they came up with it. But don't go to the Fulton County Tax Assessor site. You need to go to the FultonCountyTax.org site. Play around a bit and you can get a detailed bill that spells it all out.
A spreadsheet like I made below is helpful in calculating the tax.
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