Arizona Property Taxes
Arizona property taxes are based on the assessed value of the property, which is set by the County Assessor at about 80% of the "market" value. For residential property the tax formula is:
Assessed Value x 10% X District Tax Rate
The average tax rate in Maricopa County is now about $11 per $100 of value. Therefore, the average property tax per $100,000 sales price is:
$100,000 x 80% x 10% x $11/100 = $880, or 0.88%.
Thus, 1% of the sales price is generally used for residential property taxes, which is actually a bit high.
For any given property, the dollar amount of the property tax would be about same throughout most of the metro area. The "District Tax Rate" in the above formula varies by school district and city, but so does the assessed value and usually in such a way that the tax would be about the same for a given property where ever it were located in the County. For example, Scottsdale has a low District Tax Rate, but a property would have a high assessed value there.
Arizona Personal Income Tax
Arizona income tax is “progressive” and normally
based on the same "Adjusted Gross Income" as federal taxes.
For individuals, the tax rate progresses from 2.87% for the first
$10,000, up to $6,422 plus 5.04% for the income above
$150,000. For joint returns, tax rates are same but the
progression steps are double (tax less).
Arizona Sales Tax
The Arizona sales tax is 5.5%. Maricopa County adds another 0.5%.
Most cities tack on a bit more.
Plus there are adds for transportation system growth. The result is a
sales tax that varies between 6% and 8%, depending on where you
buy.
There is no sales tax on food, prescription medicines, or
real estate.
Personal Property Taxes
Personal property taxes on such items as cars, boats, etc, are in registration/license fees only. If there is no license then there is no personal property tax.
Annual registration costs are based on the "Assessed Value”. At purchase the rate is 3.12% of 60% of the MSRP. This declines 16.25% per year. For example, for a new car with a MSRP of $20,000, the initial registration fee would be $374 (20,000x.6x.0312), declining $61 to $313 for the registration in the second year.
