Tax bills on the way

COEUR d’ALENE — Kootenai County property owners will soon receive their long-awaited 2022 tax bills.

The bills will likely go out in the mail beginning Wednesday and will be mailed no later than Nov. 28. The Treasurer’s Office will be closed Friday.

Many property owners who estimated their tax bills using the Idaho State Tax Commission’s online calculator won’t be in for any big surprises, said Kootenai County Treasurer Steve Matheson. County staff have compared estimates for dozens of properties, particularly residential ones, to the final bills.

“They were all very close,” he said.

Some outliers are to be expected, however.

“When we send out nearly 100,000 of them, I’m sure there will be a few that aren’t quite close to the estimate,” Matheson said.

Those situations typically mean the estimate was calculated using some information, such as an addition to a home, that wasn’t reflected in the county’s records, Matheson said.

Many property owners saw values skyrocket this year.

For example, one single-family home in Coeur d’Alene with an assessed total market value of around $392,000 last year is now assessed at around $638,000 — a 62% increase in just one year. The tax bill for the home increased almost $400.

More than 700 people appealed their value assessments in Kootenai County, a major increase over recent years.

Rising property values don’t necessarily translate to dramatic tax increases. That’s because Idaho uses a levy-based tax system.

In this system, taxing districts set their budgets, determining the revenue each district needs. The budgets of all taxing districts are totaled and then divided by the total sum of all property values in the boundaries of the taxing districts. That determines the levy rate.

The levy rate is then applied to each property in the taxing district’s area in order to calculate the individual tax charges for each property.

When budgets increase, the levy rate also increases, causing property taxes to rise. But property values do not influence the levy rate.

Property owners can view their tax bill information, access the 2022 levy rates and pay their taxes via the treasurer’s website: www.kcgov.us/509/Treasurer