Tennessee property tax, explained with the actual numbers

Updated August 29, 2026. Written by the JB PARCEL team. Rates change every year; use the calculator with your county's current rate.

Tennessee taxes property in two steps that trip up almost everyone moving here from another state. First the assessor appraises the property at market value. Then the state applies an assessment ratio that depends on what the property is. Your tax is charged on the assessed value, not the appraisal.

The ratios

So a house appraised at $300,000 has an assessed value of $75,000. A commercial building appraised at the same $300,000 is assessed at $120,000. Same appraisal, 60 percent more tax, before you even look at the rate.

The rate

Every county sets a rate per $100 of assessed value, and every city inside it sets its own on top. A parcel inside Nashville pays the Metro rate. A parcel in Lebanon pays Wilson County plus the City of Lebanon. A parcel outside any city pays the county alone. Rates are set each summer when budgets pass, and they move, especially in reappraisal years when the state requires the rate to be recalculated so the county does not collect a windfall.

Worked example: $300,000 house, county rate $2.50 per $100, city rate $1.00 per $100. Assessed value $75,000. County tax $1,875. City tax $750. Total $2,625 a year, or about $219 a month in escrow. That is an effective rate of 0.875 percent of market value, which is why Tennessee shows up as a low-tax state in every comparison even though the nominal rates look high.

What the card shows you

The parcel card carries the appraised value, the assessed value, and the ratio the assessor applied. If the assessed value is 25 percent of the appraisal, you are looking at residential treatment; 40 percent means commercial. For the bill itself you need this year's county and city rates. The Comptroller publishes all of them, and our Tennessee property tax calculator takes the appraisal, the class, and the rates and gives you the annual and monthly figure.

The certified tax rate, or why reappraisal is not a tax hike

Tennessee law does something in reappraisal years that most owners never hear explained. When a county reappraises and values jump, the state requires it to calculate a certified tax rate: the lower rate that would collect the same total revenue from the new, higher values. The county must adopt that lower rate or hold an advertised public vote to exceed it. So a 40 percent jump in your appraisal does not mean a 40 percent jump in your bill; if your value rose about as much as the county average, your bill stays roughly flat. The people who actually pay more after reappraisal are the ones whose values rose faster than the county average, and the ones who pay less rose slower. When you are comparing two properties, ask which side of the average each sits on, not just what the appraisal did.

Where the counties actually land

Because every county sets its own rate, effective taxes vary more inside Tennessee than most buyers expect. Shelby County plus Memphis city carries the state's heaviest combined load, with rates that produce an effective bill several times what the same house pays in a low-rate county. Fast-growing middle Tennessee counties like Williamson run low rates on high values. Rural counties often run higher rates on low values, which nets out cheap in dollars. The practical rule: never carry a tax assumption across a county line, and inside a county never carry it across a city line. The same $400,000 house can differ by thousands of dollars a year between two addresses twenty minutes apart.

Appealing the appraisal

If the appraisal looks high, the path is administrative and cheap. Start informally with the assessor's office; a call with your evidence sometimes ends it. The formal route is the County Board of Equalization, which meets starting the first of June; you must appeal in that window or you generally lose the year. From there an owner can go to the State Board of Equalization. Evidence that works is the same evidence comps are built from: recent arm's length sales of similar nearby properties, and for income property the actual income. Buying below the appraised value is itself an argument. The card gives you the appraisal and the sale evidence in one place, which is most of an appeal file.

Four things that change the number

• Reappraisal cycles. Counties reappraise every four, five, or six years. Between cycles the appraisal is frozen, which means a property bought well above its appraised value is paying tax on a stale number. That ends at the next reappraisal, and the bill can jump.
• Greenbelt. Farm, forest, and open-space land can be assessed on its use value instead of market value. Taking it out of greenbelt triggers rollback taxes for the prior three years (five for forest). Check the card's land use and ask before you subdivide.
• Tax relief and freeze. Tennessee offers relief to elderly, disabled, and veteran homeowners, and a tax freeze in counties that adopted it. Those follow the owner, not the property. A low bill on a property you are buying from a long-time owner will not stay low.
• Special school districts and fire districts. A few counties add a third line. The calculator has a field for it.

At closing

Tennessee also charges a transfer tax of $0.37 per $100 of consideration, paid by the buyer, and a mortgage tax of $0.115 per $100 of debt above the first $2,000. On a $300,000 purchase with a $240,000 loan that is $1,110 in transfer tax and about $274 in mortgage tax, plus the register's recording fees. Our closing costs calculator does that math too.