The Town budget runs on a fiscal year basis, from July 1 to June 30. Your property taxes pay for the portion of the town budget that is not funded by state aid or local fee receipts.
Property owners receive two tax bills within the fiscal year, preliminary bills and actual bills. Each bill includes two quarterly payments: The preliminary tax bill includes quarterly payments due on August 1 and November 1, your first and second quarter payments of the fiscal year. The actual tax bill includes quarterly payments due on February 1 and May 1, your third and fourth quarter payments of the fiscal year.
The preliminary tax bill is also referred to as an estimated tax bill because it is based on the previous fiscal year’s assessment and property tax rate. It is calculated by adding up your tax payments for the previous fiscal year, dividing that number by four, and billing you that one-fourth sum for each of the first two quarters of the new fiscal year.
Although the new fiscal year begins on July 1st, before the new fiscal year’s property values and tax rate can be certified (approved) by the state Department of Revenue (DOR) a few things have to happen first:
· The previous year’s financial books need to be closed out,
· Assessors need time to calculate any “new growth” that took place during the previous fiscal year,
· Any budget surplus (“free cash”) from the previous fiscal year needs to be calculated and approved by the DOR, and
· The fall Town Meeting needs to be held.
The time it takes to do these things is why the new valuation and tax rate are usually not finished being calculated – and then certified by the DOR – until the mid-November timeframe. Then, the actual tax bill can be calculated – your new assessment is multiplied by the new tax rate and your first two quarterly payments are subtracted – and is issued in late December for the remaining balance of what is owed on a given piece of property.
Here’s an example from Fiscal Year 2026 (which ended on June 30th):
In Fiscal Year 2025, your total tax bill was $9,759.83. This was based on a $666,200 value and a tax rate of $14.65. Take that amount and divide it by 4. $9,759.83/4 = $2,439.96. Your Fiscal Year 2026 preliminary bills were : $2,439.96 due August 1, 2025 and $2,439.96 due November 1, 2025.
When the Fiscal Year 2026 valuations and tax rate were calculated, the same property is now assessed at $723,500 and the tax rate is now $14.29 per thousand dollars of valuation. The total amount of property taxes owed is $723,500 times .01429 = $10,338.82. Subtract from this number the $4,879.92 quarter one and quarter two payments you already made and the balance due is your actual bill $10,338.82 – $4,879.22 = $5,458.90. Divide this number by 2 to give you
$2,729.45 due on February 1, 2026 and $2,729.45 due on May 1, 2026.
For the entire Fiscal Year 2026, your total taxes are $10,338.82 = a $578.99 increase (5.9%) above your previous fiscal year’s bill of $9,759.83.
Please note that his example does not include the 1.5% Community Preservation surcharge.
This is calculated by subtracting $100,000 from your property value, next calculating the property taxes for that amount, and then multiplying the result by 0.015. In our example, the $723,500 value minus $100,000 = $623,500 × .01429 = $8,909.82 × .015 = $133.65 for Community Preservation surcharge due in Fiscal Year 2026.
