How is my tax bill actually worked out?
Ohio doesn't tax the full value of your home. It taxes 35% of it — the county calls that your taxable value, and it's the smaller of the two numbers on your letter.
Tax rates are quoted in mills. That's an old word for a simple thing: one mill means $1 of tax for every $1,000 of taxable value.
One more thing about those rates, because it decides everything below: a small part of your bill (up to 10 mills) exists automatically — nobody ever voted on it. The rest was voted in, levy by levy, over decades — for schools, fire, the library, parks.
Why won't my bill rise as much as my value did?
Because of a 1976 Ohio law, known as HB 920. It says a voted levy may only collect the dollars it collected the year it passed. So when the county raises everyone's values, the rates on those levies are automatically cut back so the schools and fire department get the same money as before — not a windfall.
A school levy that raised a million dollars in 2004 still raises about a million dollars today, no matter what happened to home values in between. That is why a 38% value increase does not mean a 38% bill increase — not even close, in most places.
One thing that reassurance leaves out: the cut is worked out on your district's average rise, not yours. If homes around you rose 15% and yours rose 30%, every levy is cut back to fit the 15% — and your share of each still climbs by the gap between the two. "Your bill won't rise like your value" is true for the home that rose exactly as much as its neighbours, and only for that home. The property-tax check works that gap out for your own home.
Two parts of your bill escape that cut, though. The automatic 10 mills mentioned above always follows your value. And a school district's rate can never be pushed below 20 mills — which matters more than it sounds, as the next answer shows.
So how much of my bill follows my value?
It depends almost entirely on your school district.
If your district's rate sits comfortably above the 20-mill floor, its levies get cut back freely — and very little of your bill follows your value. If your district is already at the floor, its rate can't be cut any further — so its whole share of your bill rises with your value, in full.
Each bar counts districts. In the top rows, only a sliver of the bill follows your value; in the bottom rows, most or all of it does. Ohio has a lot of both.
For eight in ten Ohio districts, the share falls between about 33% and 98%; a typical district is near 76%, and a few — the chart's top rows — sit under 10%. 1,713 of Ohio's 4,479 taxing districts (about 38%) are at or near the floor, where the school share of the bill follows the value completely.
This is why the reassurance you'll hear — “don't worry, bills never rise like values” — is true where it's usually said, in high-rate suburbs, and misleading across much of the rest of Ohio. Which kind of district you're in is a fact about your school system, not about your house. The check tool looks yours up.
Why is my bill different from my neighbor's?
Ohio bills by taxing district — the exact overlap of your county, your city or township, your school system, and whatever else levies where you live (a library, a park board, a career-tech school, a health district). Two houses on the same street can sit in different districts and pay genuinely different rates — usually because one is in a different school system.
Discounts also change what neighbors pay. Two come off almost every home before you pay a cent: a 10% non-business credit on residential and farm property, and a further 2.5% if you live in the home you own. Neither applies to levies approved at or after the November 2013 election — which is why two levies of the same size can cost you different amounts. Beyond those, homeowners who are 65+ or permanently disabled can have part of the value shielded entirely (the homestead exemption, which has an income limit). Both are claimed with a short form at the county auditor's office — and both routinely go unclaimed.
Where does the money actually go?
Mostly to schools — a median of 59¢ of every dollar across Ohio. The rest funds county services, your city or township, the library, parks, career-technical schools and, in some counties, a community college or health district.
When you run the check tool and pick your district, we show this for your own bill — in the counties that publish it, right down to the individual levy and the year it was first approved.
My cousin across the state saw no change. Why?
Counties take turns — 41 of Ohio's 88 are being revalued for the current tax year. If someone you know saw no letter, their county simply isn't up this year. Their turn is coming.
When it does come, it will be one of two things — and they are not the same amount of work:
Full reappraisal
Someone comes and looks. The county auditor’s office reviews every property in the county and works out a fresh value for each one — land, building, condition, the lot. It is the value your bill starts from for the next six years.
Update
Nobody visits. The auditor takes the value already on file and moves it to match what property like yours has actually been selling for since. Same house on paper, repriced to the market.
Both are the county auditor’s work, on a timetable the state sets, and Ohio splits its counties into three groups so about a third of the state gets new values each year. Either kind can move your value a long way; neither is the same thing as your bill, which is worked out afterwards from the tax rates certified in December. The state’s own explanation.
See where your county sits, on a map — which counties are getting new values now, which kind they are getting, and the year of every county's next turn from the state's published schedule.
What can I do if the value looks wrong?
The value is a claim about what your home would sell for — and you are allowed to disagree. Here is the whole process:
- Check the county's homework. Look your home up on the county auditor's website and read what they think they're taxing: square footage, rooms, condition, garage. Mistakes are common, easy to prove, and fixing one can lower the value by itself.
- Gather evidence about your home. A recent appraisal, what similar homes nearby actually sold for, or photos of problems the county can't see from the street — a wet basement, a bad roof. Evidence about your home is what wins.
- File with your county's Board of Revision between January and March 31. It's free, the form (DTE 1) is short, and you don't need a lawyer. Many counties let you file online.
One argument that doesn't work: “my increase was bigger than average.” The Board decides whether the value is right — not whether the increase felt fair. Bring evidence about the home, not the percentage.