how mill levies work
there can be several taxing authorities in one region which could include school county and city districts when it comes to the mill levy the rate of taxation is expressed in mills this mill levy determines how much the taxable value of your property will be charged in real estate taxes most jurisdictions use a percentage formula which is known as an assessment ratio to determine the property value for the mill levy each year the official assessed value of a property is usually set by a tax assessor and may be used to set the mill levy in some cases a percentage of the market value of the property can be used to set the mill levy instead to determine what the mill levy will be most jurisdictions use a percentage formula which is known as an assessment ratio to determine the property value for the mill levy a tax assessor usually sets the assessed value of a property for mill levy purposes in some cases a percentage of the market value of the property can be used to set the mill levy example of a mill levyas an example if the entire property value in the area is 1 billion and the school district needs 100 million in revenue the county needs 10 million and the city needs 50 million the tax levy for the school district would be 100 million divided by 1 billion or 0 10 the tax levy for the county would be 0 01 10 million 1 billion and the tax levy for the city would be 0 05 50 million 1 billion add all the tax levies up and you get a mill levy of 0 16 or 160 mills one mill 0 001 in general mill levies are applied to real estate land buildings and significant personal property such as cars and boats 