Property taxes in Kansas: How are they figured?
The basic rule is value is multiplied by the levy. The result is the tax to be paid.
Appraised Value
All real estate and personal property are valued as of January 1. All property is valued by the County Appraiser. Real estate is valued by the Appraiser annually. If a building is partially complete on January 1, that part that is complete will be included in the property value for computing taxes.
Laws on personal property require the holder of the property to notify the Appraiser annually. Personal property renditions must be postmarked on or before March 15 of each year. Failure to notify timely results in penalties, in addition to tax.
A notice of value for all real property is sent by the County Appraiser’s Office on or before March 1 each year. This notice will indicate how you may challenge that value. The first opportunity is called an Informal Hearing where the property owner or representative meets with an Appraiser from the County. During the hearing, any issues regarding the real property are discussed. For example, if the property owner or representative believes the property is over-valued, the Appraiser can reduce the value at that time. If the two cannot reach an agreement, additional steps are available to the property owner.
If you do not appeal the value from the March 1st valuation notice, you have an opportunity to appeal the value when the first half taxes are paid on December 20 or at the time the second half taxes are paid by May 10. This appeal process is called Payment Under Protest. When you get your bill, you can choose to pay the taxes under protest. A form is available for this procedure. Paying Under Protest requires that at least half of the taxes shown as due be paid. Once paid, the hearing will be held which may reduce the amount due for the second half. If the Payment Under Protest is not filed until taxes are paid in full, a refund will be issued if the value is reduced through the appeal.
Kansas law allows the property owner one appeal per tax year. For example, if the property owner appeals the value from the March 1st notification for the 2023 tax year the property owner cannot appeal again in the payment under protest on December 20 or May 10.
You are urged to review the County Appraiser’s web page for a more in-depth review of the appeal process.
Assessed Value
Once the Appraised Value is set, the Assessed Value is a mathematical calculation. Kansas Law offers a range of assessment rates. Some of the key rates are as follows: residential property 11.5%; commercial property 25%; vacant lots 12%. For more information on assessment rates, please refer to K.S.A. 79-1439. For example, if you own a commercial real estate property that has an appraised value of $1 million, the property will have an assessed value of $250,000 ($1 million x .25 = $250,000).
Rate:
In Kansas, taxes are levied based on a mill rate, which can be calculated as Budget divided by Value.
Budget:
Each taxing entity in Kansas must adopt a budget no later than August 25. This budget will indicate the total amount of tax dollars required to pay the costs associated with each of the entity’s funds. For example, if a City General Fund will spend $10 million in 2023 and will receive revenues, including cash remaining from 2022, in the total amount of $4 million, that fund will need to raise $6 million in taxes.
All entities adopting budgets that levy taxes must publish their budgets and hold a public hearing before the August 25 deadline. The budget published then becomes the maximum budget for each published fund. The public hearing may lead the elected representatives of the entity to vote to lower the budget but they cannot increase it without first publishing and holding another hearing. Governing bodies certify the budget to the county clerk on August 25. The County Clerk certifies the tax roll to the County Treasurer on November 1. On December 15 the County Treasurer sends out the tax statements.
Value:
As described previously, the Office of the Appraiser calculates the value of all real and personal property in the County. This value is separated into the various taxing entities to enable the calculation of a levy.
In September, the Appraiser will give the Clerk a report that indicates what the Assessed Valuation is (as of that date) in each of the taxing entity districts.
Also in September, the State will provide the Clerk with the total Assessed value, by district, of all property assessed by them. This includes railroads, utilities, and pipelines. The state appraises these properties to provide consistency across the state on these unique properties.
Rate:
At this point, the County Clerk has accumulated the budget for each entity and the assessed valuation for each entity.
Calculating the rate is a mathematical exercise. As an example, let us say that the County budget indicates a need for $30 million with an assessed valuation of $1 billion. The formula of 30 million divided by 1 billion results in a value of 0.03. This means the rate is 3 cents per dollar of assessed valuation. For simplicity, Kansas requires a mill levy rate to be stated in terms of dollars per thousand dollars of valuation. Therefore, the official levy rate, in the above example, is 30. That is a levy of $30 for every $1000 of assessed valuation.
Three levy rates are fixed by the State without regard to valuation. The state levies 1 mill for educational buildings and one-half mill for correctional buildings. They also levy 20 mills for schools. These three levies are the same in every county in the state. The first two were set by the legislature quite some time ago and are seldom discussed. The 20-mill school levy is discussed annually by the legislature.