Prorated Property Tax Calculator

Enter the annual property tax bill, the closing date, the tax year, and who owns the closing day to split the year's taxes between seller and buyer and see the adjustment that belongs on the closing statement.

Short answer: prorated property tax = annual tax ÷ days in the tax year × days owned. For a $6,000 calendar-year bill and a July 15, 2026 closing where the buyer owns the closing day, the daily rate is $6,000 ÷ 365 = $16.4384. The seller owns 195 days and owes $3,205.48, and the buyer owns 170 days and owes $2,794.52. Whether that turns into a credit to the buyer or a charge to the buyer depends on whether the bill has already been paid.

The calculator is for informational purposes only and gives estimates. The title company, escrow officer, or closing attorney prepares the official figures from the actual tax bill and your contract.

How does the prorated tax calculator work?

The tool finds the tax period that contains your closing date — for a fiscal-year county, July 1, 2026–June 30, 2027 for any closing from July 2026 through June 2027 — and counts the seller's days from the start of that period up to closing (through closing day if the seller owns it). The buyer gets the rest of the period. Under the actual-days method each share is the bill × days ÷ days in the period; under 30/360 every month counts as 30 days and the year as 360. Dates are treated as calendar dates, so your time zone can't shift a day.

The results show each side's dates, days, and dollars; the Closing Disclosure entries (debit or credit to the buyer and the matching entry for the seller); and a check that the two shares add up to the bill. For the July 15, 2026 example with the bill unpaid, the calculator shows 195 seller days, a $3,205.48 credit to the buyer, and a $3,205.48 debit to the seller. Switch the status to "already paid by seller" and it shows a $2,794.52 debit to the buyer and credit to the seller.

Special assessments. If you choose to prorate them, the assessment is split by the same days and shown on its own line; it is counted once, never added to the tax and then again. With a $1,200 assessment added to the July 15 example, the seller's total becomes $3,846.58 ($3,205.48 tax + $641.10 assessment) and the buyer's $3,353.42. If you choose not to prorate, the tool leaves the assessment out of the split and reminds you that your contract decides who pays it — which is how many contracts handle levied assessments (see below).

Paid in arrears vs paid in advance: who credits whom?

How the split shows up at closing depends on one question: has the bill for the current tax period been paid yet?

On the Closing Disclosure, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's guide to the form describes two adjustment lines, and the calculator labels its result the same way. "Adjustments for Items Paid by Seller in Advance" are costs the seller prepaid that you, the buyer, now reimburse. They add to what's due from you in Section K. "Adjustments for Items Unpaid by Seller" are the seller's taxes and fees that you will pay later. They show up as credits that reduce your cash to close.

Using the July 15 example:

• Arrears: the seller credits the buyer $3,205.48. The buyer then pays the full $6,000 when the bill comes due.
• Advance: the seller already paid $6,000, so the buyer reimburses the seller $2,794.52.

Either way, each side ends up bearing only its own days.

Who owns the closing day?

There's no single national rule for the settlement statement. Your purchase contract controls, and local custom fills in when the contract is silent. Assigning the closing day to the seller instead of the buyer moves one day's tax:

For federal income tax, the rule is fixed no matter what the contract says. Under IRS Publication 530, the seller is treated as paying the real estate taxes "up to but not including the date of sale" and the buyer from the date of sale on, regardless of lien dates under local law.

365-day vs 360-day proration: how much difference does it make?

Most residential closings use actual days: 365 in a normal year and 366 in a leap year such as 2028. Some contracts and some commercial deals use a 360-day "banking" year, which treats every month as 30 days.

Here's the July 15, 2026 closing with the 30/360 convention, buyer owning the closing day:

• Seller days: 6 full months × 30 + 14 days = 194
• Buyer days: 360 − 194 = 166
• Daily rate: $6,000 ÷ 360 = $16.6667
• Seller share: 194 × $16.6667 = $3,233.33; buyer share: 166 × $16.6667 = $2,766.67

That's $27.85 more for the seller than the 365-day method gives, and it's what the calculator shows when you pick the banking method. Under a 360-day convention, the days must also be counted in 30-day months. Dividing by 360 while counting actual calendar days would add up to more than the full bill. Ask your closing agent which convention the contract uses before comparing numbers.

Worked example: fiscal-year property tax proration

Many local governments and school districts bill on a July 1–June 30 fiscal year. Suppose the bill for July 1, 2026 to June 30, 2027 is $4,800, the closing is October 20, 2026, and the buyer owns the closing day. That fiscal year has 365 days, because February 2027 has 28.

• Seller days: July 1–October 19 = 31 + 31 + 30 + 19 = 111
• Buyer days: 365 − 111 = 254
• Seller share: $4,800 × 111 ÷ 365 = $1,459.73
• Buyer share: $4,800 × 254 ÷ 365 = $3,340.27

Choose "Fiscal Year (Jul 1 – Jun 30)" in the calculator and it uses this July 2026–June 2027 period automatically.

If your property gets bills from more than one taxing body on different calendars, for example a county on the calendar year and a school district on a fiscal year, prorate each bill on its own period and add the results.

What if the current year's tax bill isn't out yet?

In arrears areas you often close before the current year's bill exists. Contracts handle that in a few ways: prorate on last year's bill, on a percentage of last year's bill, or on an estimate from the assessor's new value. Some contracts make the proration final at closing. Others require the parties to re-prorate when the actual bill arrives.

Example. Last year's bill was $5,500. The contract says to prorate on 105% of that, or $5,775. Closing is September 1, 2026, and the buyer owns the closing day.

• Seller days: January 1–August 31 = 243
• Credit to buyer: $5,775 × 243 ÷ 365 = $3,844.73

The actual 2026 bill comes in at $6,050. The seller's true share is $6,050 × 243 ÷ 365 = $4,027.81, so the buyer was under-credited by $183.08. Whether the buyer can collect that depends entirely on the contract's re-proration clause.

Reassessment and supplemental bills. Some states reassess a property when it sells and bill the new owner separately for the higher value over the rest of the tax year. Because that extra tax comes from the buyer's purchase, it's usually not part of the seller-buyer proration. Ask the county whether a separate bill will follow your closing.

Special assessments, delinquent taxes, and escrow

Special assessments for sidewalks, sewers, or other local improvements are often handled outside the proration. The contract typically says either the seller pays off any levied assessment at closing or the buyer assumes future installments. Pub 530 also treats them differently for income tax. Assessments for local benefits that increase the property's value aren't deductible as taxes and go into basis instead. The parts for maintenance, repair, or interest can be deducted.

Delinquent taxes are unpaid taxes the seller owed for an earlier year. They aren't prorated. They're paid off from the seller's proceeds at closing. If a buyer agrees to pay them, Pub 530 says the buyer can't deduct them and adds them to the home's cost basis.

Escrow. A lender usually collects an initial escrow payment at closing to start your escrow balance, separate from the proration credit. For your tax deduction, you count only the real estate taxes the lender actually paid from escrow to the taxing authority during the year, not the total you paid into escrow. Use the amount your tax bill or year-end escrow statement shows.

How do buyer and seller deduct prorated property taxes?

Each side deducts its own share of the year's tax, even if the other side actually wrote the check. You deduct it on Schedule A, line 5b, and only if you itemize. Pub 530 works through an example: the buyer closes on September 1, owns the home for 122 days of a calendar tax year, and deducts $730 × 122 ÷ 365 = $244. The seller had paid the whole $730 on August 15 and wasn't reimbursed.

Pub 530 also sets these basis rules:

For 2026, deductible state and local taxes, including property, income, and sales tax, are capped at $40,400 ($20,200 married filing separately). The cap shrinks once modified AGI exceeds $505,000 ($252,500 MFS) but never goes below $10,000 ($5,000 MFS), per Rev. Proc. 2025-32. A partial year of property tax often isn't enough to beat the standard deduction of $16,100 single or $32,200 married filing jointly. Check with the standard deduction calculator before assuming the closing-year taxes will help. The 2026 OBBBA tax changes guide explains the higher cap and its phase-down.

Sellers: the property tax proration is a deduction for your share, but transfer taxes you pay are selling expenses that reduce your amount realized. They aren't deductible taxes. How that feeds into your gain is covered in the real estate capital gains tax guide.

Rental and investment property: property taxes on a rental are deducted as a rental expense on Schedule E, not as an itemized deduction. The rental property after-tax cash flow guide shows where they fit in the numbers.

Common property tax proration mistakes

• Using the wrong tax period. A July closing in a fiscal-year county falls in a new tax year. Prorating against the prior fiscal year's bill gives the seller days that belong to a different year.
• Off-by-one day counts. January 1 to July 14 is 195 days, not 194. Count both endpoints: January through June is 181 days in 2026, plus 14 days in July.
• Mixing conventions. Dividing by 360 while counting actual calendar days overstates both shares.
• Ignoring leap years. In 2028 the divisor is 366 under the actual-days method.
• Getting the credit backwards. In arrears areas the seller credits the buyer. When the seller prepaid, the buyer reimburses the seller.
• Deducting the escrow deposit. You deduct taxes actually paid to the taxing authority, not the initial escrow deposit or monthly escrow payments.
• Prorating charges that aren't taxes. Trash, water, and other service fees on a tax bill aren't deductible real estate taxes under Pub 530, and HOA dues are never property tax.

Local example: St. Louis County, Missouri

If you're closing in St. Louis County, estimate the full-year bill first with the St. Louis County property tax calculator, then enter that figure here as the annual tax. The St. Louis County property tax guide explains how the county's assessment rates and due dates work.