Sacramento County Supplemental Tax Bills....triggered by reassessment events and they must be paid...

My husband and I bought another house in January of this year, and just finally this week received in the mail our supplemental tax bill from Sacramento County. 10 months later! Wow...when we bought our last house, the supplemental bill came within a month or so.

What is a supplemental tax bill? Well, one is generated when a property goes through a "reassessment event." Properties are reassessed when there is a change in ownership, significant remodel or addition, etc. A supplemental tax bill reflects the difference between the previous assessment amount and the new reassessed amount...this can be an increase or a decrease depending on the circumstances. Generally, unless we are in a market of significantly declining values, most supplemental tax assessments will be increases, and there will be money owed. (FYI, your house is NOT reassessed by the county if you refinance and the house appraises for a higher amount than your original acquisition value. This tends to confuse people, and it is not a reassessment event.)

In the instance of a change in ownership, the new property tax assessment is based on your acquisition cost. So for example, if you purchased your new home for $300,000, that is your new assessed value. If the previous owner's assessed value was $200,000, then there will be a supplemental tax billing based on the increase of approximately $100,000 in assessed value.

It's not super simple to calculate the amount you owe or when you will owe it though...depending on if the property was purchased during the first or second half of the fiscal year, there may be one or two supplemental tax bills and they may be prorated. Luckily the Sacramento County Assessor's office has an online supplemental tax bill calculator.

In my case, I have a supplemental tax bill for both fiscal years 2015-2016 AND 2016-2017. Boo! But it has to be paid...

For those people who pay property taxes out of an impound account (paid with your monthly mortgage payment), the supplemental tax bill is not paid by your mortgage company. They will not automatically receive a copy of a supplemental tax bill like they do your regular first and second installment payment bills. Sometimes a mortgage company will have collected enough from you during your payments to cover the cost of the supplemental bill -- BUT you must contact your mortgage company, provide them a copy of the supplemental tax bill and find out.