Santa Clara County Assessor's New Tool for Estimating Supplemental Property Taxes

The Santa Clara County Assessor's Office has developed a new tax estimator to help new and prospective homeowners estimate the amount of property taxes they will owe following their purchase. Supplemental assessments and taxes are in addition to the regular assessments and taxes. The Regular assessments are prorated during escrow such that the seller and buyer each pay the portion of taxes attributed to their period of ownership. This Regular property tax is based on the old owner's current assessed value prior to the purchase transaction. The supplemental assessment is based on the difference between the prior assessed value and the new assessed value. This value is multiplied by the tax rate then the resultant tax is prorated for the number of months remaining in the fiscal year from the date of acquisition by the new owner. The sum of the regular tax bill and the supplemental tax bill results in effect to a property tax based upon the value of the property as of the new owners' date of purchase. Realtors typically provide prospective homeowners with an estimate of their taxes for future years by multiplying the purchase price by an estimate tax rate. These estimates usually don't emphasize the new property owner's responsibility to pay the supplemental tax bill that will result from their purchase. This is why the Santa Clara County Assessor's Office created the new supplemental estimator at www.sccassessor.org/ste . This site should take the mystery out of supplemental property taxes.