Tax Collector's Office

The real estate tax year runs from April 1st through the following year. Your taxes are based on the assessed value of your home on April 1st of any year. Under the law, your first half bill is one half of your total prior year bill, plus taxes due to any physical changes that were made to your property in the last tax year. The tax rate is set in October at which time your final taxes due are established less a credit of your prepayment in July.

The rate below is calculated so that the town's budget for the year will be covered by the property taxes collected.  Deficit spending is not allowed and the entire budget (minus any grants or fees collected) must be covered by taxes collected on all Amherst appraised property.  The assessed ratio is computed by the state at the end of each year.  It represents what the appraised value of all Amherst properties represent when compared with real estate sales that year.  For example, an assessed ratio of 80.6% means that the Amherst appraised values represent 80.6% of the average current real estate values, based on sales in town that year.

Tax Rate History