About Property Taxes
Property taxes in Utah are collected by local governments—including counties, cities, school districts, and service districts—to fund essential services and infrastructure.
Why Property is Taxed
Under Utah law, local governments have the authority to levy property taxes on all taxable property within their boundaries. As established in Article XIII, Section 2 of the Utah Constitution, “all tangible property in the State … shall be assessed at a uniform and equal rate in proportion to its fair market value … and taxed at a uniform and equal rate.”
These taxes are not dependent on whether a property owner directly benefits from specific local services; rather, they fund essential public functions such as law enforcement, emergency services, road and utility maintenance, education, and water and sewer infrastructure. Every property is subject to multiple overlapping local governments, and based on these overlaps, the county establishes Taxing Districts that consolidate the individual tax rates into a single combined rate.
What Determines Your Property Tax?
There are three elements in determining the amount of property tax assessed. The annual budget of a local government, a property's taxable value, and final adopted Tax Rate.
- Budget: Every local government must adopt a balanced budget each year. The portion of the budget funded by property taxes will be proportionally divided among all taxpayers within the government's boundaries, based on the taxable value of their property.
- Taxable Value: The portion of a property's value that is taxed is referred to as its Taxable Value. For all property, except primary residences, Taxable Value is 100% of the Assessed Market Value. For primary residences, Taxable Value is only 55% of the Assessed Market Value.
- Tax Rate: The tax rate charged to a property owner by a local government is determined by a simple formula: Total Estimated Property Tax Revenue divided by the Total Taxable Value within the government's boundaries. This rate is then applied to each property individually to calculate the property tax due. See below for more detailed explanation.
Where Do My Tax Dollars Go?
Your property taxes help fund essential services that keep our community running smoothly. The accompanying chart shows how these dollars are divided, giving you a clear picture of where your money goes and how it supports the programs and services we rely on every day.
In 2025, Utah County Residents paid a total of $940,440,145 in Property Taxes to local government agencies, as per the 2026 Treasurer 750 Report that can be found at TaxRates.Utah.gov.
Those taxes were distributed to the various local governments in the following amounts:
2025 County Distribution Totals
School Districts - 65.74%
Cities - 12.79%
Utah County - 9.44%
Redevelopment Agencies - 5.71%
Central Utah Water District - 4.18%
Special Service Districts - 0.48%
Local & State Assessing/Collecting - 1.4%
City Water Districts - 0.15%
Public Infrastructure Districts - 0.13%
Learn more about the specific tax entities that relate to this distribution pie chart.
Tax Entity Information ->How are Property Tax Rates Calculated?
Changes in assessed value affect property owners differently because values do not rise or fall uniformly across the county. Although it may seem intuitive that property taxes move in direct proportion to assessed value, this is not always the case.
While assessed value influences taxes, broad shifts in value create tax shifts between properties. For example, if countywide values increase by an average of 10%, a property that increases only 5% may see a tax decrease. Conversely, if countywide values fall by 10% and a property decreases only 5%, that property may experience a tax increase.
Because assessed values across the county and property types change by varying percentages each year, taxes shift from some areas and property types to others. As a result, some property owners may see their taxes rise even when their assessed value declines. These examples are simplified illustrations and may not reflect every individual situation. The equation to calculate the tax rate is:
For example, if a local government has a budget of $100,000 and a taxable value within its boundaries of $100 million, then the tax rate for that entity would be 0.1%:
This rate changes every year. If the budget remains the same but the assessed value changes, the rate will change opposite to the assessed value. Using the same example budget again, if the taxable value for this tax entity increased to $110 million, the rate would decrease to .0909%.
To learn more about tax rates and view information specific to each local government in Utah County, visit taxrates.utah.gov and log in as a guest.