How Do I Find the Property Taxes on a House? Public Records, Step by Step

Whoever asks this wants the current bill, the bill a buyer will face after the sale, or proof of what was paid last year. One public record answers all three, but each piece sits with a different office. This guide follows the search as it works in Michigan, where most of these questions come from. If you need the name behind the parcel, start with how to find out who owns a property.

Where the property tax record lives, and who keeps it

In most states one county office values property and another collects the tax. Michigan splits the work four ways: the city or township assessor sets the assessed and taxable values, the local treasurer bills and collects, the county equalization department checks local assessments against the state's 50 percent standard, and the county treasurer takes over what is unpaid. Kent County's search merges Treasurer and Equalization data into one page per parcel and tells users to verify values with the local assessor¹. In Garden City delinquent taxes go to the county treasurer from March 1², and Detroit sends anyone chasing a delinquent real estate tax to the same county site³.

So a house two years behind can show a zero balance at the city because the debt moved on. The property records guide explains the single-county setup most other states use.

How to look up property taxes by address or parcel number, step by step

1. Open the county's property search. Enter the street number and name, or the parcel number; Kent County's search takes either and warns that parcel searches must be exact¹.
2. Read the parcel page. Note the parcel number, the state equalized value, the taxable value, the exemption percentage and the last transfer date.
3. Follow the link to the treasurer. The local lookup is where Garden City sends residents who want to know what they paid in property tax last year². The summer and winter bills sit there too, each with its own millage lines.
4. Check the county treasurer. If the local page is blank for an earlier year, the balance may have transferred on March 1².
5. Verify with the assessor. Kent County's values are current as of March, with later changes processed in April¹.
6. Save the parcel number. Every later question starts with it.

The whole sequence costs nothing.

How do I find my parcel or property tax ID number?

The parcel number (also parcel ID, property ID, property tax ID or, in Michigan, sidwell number) ties assessor, treasurer and recorder together. Four places carry it:

• The tax bill and the assessment notice. Ann Arbor says the taxable value sits on the parcel owner's annual tax bill or assessment change notice, which owners receive each March⁴.
• The deed and the closing statement. The settlement statement lists it next to the prorated taxes.
• The county search, by address. The address search returns the parcel number on the result page¹.
• A duplicate bill from the treasurer. Detroit mails or emails a copy of the current bill on request³.

When an address search comes back empty, Kent County's own tips fix it: leave out punctuation such as periods and commas, keep a direction prefix such as E before the street name, and drop descriptors such as street, court or avenue¹.

Can I look up property taxes by address for free?

Yes, and the free source is the better one. Garden City's tax department answers "How can I find out how much I paid in property tax last year?" with a link to its online lookup², and Kent County's search is open to anyone with an address¹.

Listing portals print a "property taxes" line from the same records, and three things get lost in the copy. The figure is often a year old. It is the seller's bill, computed on a capped taxable value that can sit far below what the buyer will pay. And it rarely shows whether the Principal Residence Exemption applied, which in East Grand Rapids separates a 47.4995 mill bill from a 65.4995 mill one⁵. The treasurer's page carries all three facts; the listing carries one number.

Why is the tax bill based on taxable value, not market value?

Because the constitution and a 1994 ballot measure say so. The Michigan Constitution requires assessment at 50 percent of market value⁴. The county board of commissioners and the State Tax Commission review local assessments and equalize them to that constitutional level, and the figure that comes out is the state equalized value (SEV), 50 percent of true cash value²⁶. On March 15, 1994, voters approved Proposal A, which made a second figure, the taxable value, the base for the bill⁶. Taxable value is the lesser of the SEV or the capped value, and the capped value is last year's taxable value, minus losses, times the inflation rate or 1.05, whichever is lower, plus additions⁴⁶. The State Tax Commission sets that multiplier from the consumer price index under MCL 211.34d; for 2026 it is 1.027, so capped values may rise 2.7 percent at most and no local unit may use another number⁷.

The bill itself is arithmetic: taxable value times millage, divided by 1,000, because one mill is one dollar per $1,000 of taxable value²⁴⁵. Each taxing unit levies its own mills, which is why the state Treasury keeps a millage database for comparing local units⁵.

Two identical houses on one street pay different taxes if one changed hands recently. Garden City puts it bluntly: a neighbor's taxable value may have been capped years before yours, so it has no correlation with the current market². How assessments get set and appealed sits in tax assessment versus market value.

A worked example: one East Grand Rapids house, three bills

The figures are an example, not a real parcel. The millage is the city's published 2025 total: 47.4995 mills with the Principal Residence Exemption, 65.4995 without it⁵.

• The owner who bought in 2016. Market estimate $400,000, so a 2025 SEV of $200,000; taxable value, capped every year since, $140,000. Bill: $140,000 × 47.4995 / 1,000 = $6,649.93⁵.
• The same owner in 2026, no sale. Capped value $140,000 × 1.027 = $143,780⁷; at the 2025 rate, $6,829.48.
• A buyer who closes in 2025. In 2026 the taxable value uncaps to the 2026 SEV, say $205,000⁵⁶. With the exemption, $205,000 × 47.4995 / 1,000 = $9,737.40; with no affidavit on file, at 65.4995 mills, $13,427.40⁵.

The long-held parcel pays about 1.7 percent of its market estimate a year; the buyer starts near 2.4 percent, or 3.3 percent with no exemption. The listing portal would have shown $6,649.93.

Do property taxes reset when a house sells?

In Michigan, yes, with one correction: the taxable value does not reset to the sale price. In the year after a transfer the cap comes off and the taxable value is set equal to that year's SEV, the assessor's 50 percent figure, worked out the same way for houses that sold and houses that did not⁴⁶. Emmet County's equalization department states it plainly: a property uncaps to the SEV, not to the selling price⁶, and East Grand Rapids adds that Michigan law prohibits assessors from basing a value on one sale price⁵. From the second year on, the cap applies again⁵⁶.

Two filings decide what the first uncapped bill looks like:

• The Property Transfer Affidavit. The buyer files it with the local assessor within 45 days of the transfer, deed recorded or not; Garden City charges $5 per day for a late filing, up to $200²⁶.
• The Principal Residence Exemption affidavit. An owner who occupies the house as a principal residence is exempt from part of the local school operating taxes; the affidavit is filed before June 1 or November 1, and the percentage granted appears on the Notice of Assessment²⁶. Its size shows in East Grand Rapids' two rates, which differ by exactly 18 mills⁵.

Caps and resets differ by state, so read your own state's rule before comparing bills.

Reading a Michigan tax bill: summer, winter, mills and the exemption line

A Michigan parcel gets two bills a year, with dates set by the city. Each lists the taxable value, the exemption percentage, every millage line, any administration fee and the total.

Two reading tips. The exemption line carries most of the money: East Grand Rapids levies 44.4731 of its 47.4995 mills in summer and the same 3.0264 in winter whether the exemption applies or not, so the whole 18-mill difference lands in July⁵. And you appeal the assessment, not the bill: Garden City mails assessment change notices in February for the March Board of Review, Ann Arbor in March²⁴.

How to find out how much property tax you paid last year

For the amount actually paid, not billed, three records exist, and they do not always agree.

The treasurer's payment history. The lookup that shows the bill also shows the payments against it, by date; this is the figure a buyer, lender or tax preparer wants².

The annual escrow account statement. If a mortgage servicer pays your taxes, federal Regulation X requires an initial escrow statement itemizing the estimated disbursements, then an annual statement within 30 calendar days of the end of each escrow computation year showing the total paid out for taxes as a separately identified item⁸. The servicer may hold a cushion of no more than one-sixth of the estimated annual payments and must pay each installment before the penalty date, as long as your payment is not more than 30 days overdue⁸. Read the disbursement lines, not the deposits.

Your federal return. The IRS allows a deduction only for the real estate taxes the lender actually paid from escrow to the taxing authority, and for 2025 returns the deduction for state and local income, sales and property taxes is limited to $40,000, or $20,000 if married filing separately⁹. In the year of a sale the seller is treated as paying up to but not including the closing date and the buyer from that date on, whoever wrote the check⁹. This is general information, not legal or tax advice.

When the three disagree, the treasurer's ledger wins, and a bill that never arrived is still owed³.

What a CheckValue report shows about property taxes, and what it does not

A valuation report answers the question the tax record cannot: what the house is worth now. For a US address the CheckValue report pairs that estimate with an ownership costs section in which the property tax line, built from the public assessment and millage, sits beside insurance, maintenance and the rent the property could earn. The US report adds the owner of record from county public files, with the owner type and the date of the last sale, the transfer date that decides whether a Michigan parcel is about to uncap. The free preview puts that layout on screen for any address before payment; the pricing page carries the single report and the packs.

What it does not do: it does not replace the treasurer's bill, it does not know whether the exemption affidavit was filed, and it is not a licensed appraisal or a substitute where the law requires one.

The owner-of-record section draws on county public records for property research. It may not be used for credit, employment, insurance or tenant-screening decisions; the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) governs those, and CheckValue is not a consumer reporting agency.

For buyers, the tax check belongs on the due-diligence list before an offer; for landlords, the uncapped bill is the first line of the real cost of owning a home. Agents running these lookups at volume will find the legal frame in the owner lookup guide for professionals.

This article is general information, not legal, tax or investment advice. Figures and rules carry the year they were published; check the cited source for the current version.

Josef Eckmair MBA

Co-founder, CheckValue · More than 20 years in real estate in Tenerife and Austria · Reviewed by Christian Eckmair

Josef Eckmair MBA is co-founder of CheckValue (CBDNOL GmbH, Ansfelden, Austria). He has more than 20 years of real estate experience in Tenerife and Austria and writes about appraisals, taxes, selling costs and valuations for professionals.

Articles by Josef Eckmair →

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