Where a Palm Beach Tax Dollar Goes
A Palm Beach tax bill is eleven levies added together. Each taxing authority sets its own rate in September, and the Property Appraiser applies all of them to the same taxable value. The School District takes 6.32 mills in two parts, one set by the state and one by the local board, which is 43 percent of the bill. The county takes 4.5330. The town takes 2.6110. The remaining 1.40 mills fund the Children's Services Council, the Health Care District, the water management district and the navigation district that maintains the Intracoastal.
Two lines found on most county bills are missing. The town is not part of the county library taxing district, and it runs its own fire rescue and police. Neither the county library nor the county fire rescue district appears on its bills. The town funds its services inside 2.6110 mills, which is the smallest municipal line of any market in this series. The table lists every line with its 2025 rate and what it costs on a $5M purchase.
Source: Palm Beach County Property Appraiser, 2025 final millage rates
Source: Palm Beach County Property Appraiser, 2025 final millage rates
Houses, Condominiums and the Bill
Florida resets the assessed value to the purchase price in the year after a sale, so a new owner pays on the price they paid. The town recorded 157 closings at $3M or more in the twelve months through July 2026. No market in the county has a wider spread between its houses and its apartments. Houses made up 88 of them, with a median price of $13M and a top sale of $66.1M. Condominiums made up 57, with a median of $4.3M. The 12 townhouses sat between the two at $10.1M. Both medians sit in the table beside the round numbers.
The rate is the same at every price, so the dollars scale with the purchase. A buyer at $25M pays $371,725 a year, and a buyer at $3M pays $44,607. The November discount is 4 percent of the bill, which is $14,869 at the top of this table.
Source: Palm Beach County Property Appraiser rates applied to the purchase price. Medians from BeachesMLS, 157 closings at $3M+ in the Town of Palm Beach, August 2025 through July 2026
Across the Bridge
The comparison buyers make most often is with West Palm Beach, where the new towers on Flagler Drive face the island across the lake. The county, school and district lines are the same on both sides. The municipal line is not. West Palm Beach levies 8.1888 mills and funds its own library, fire rescue and police inside it. The town levies 2.6110. The combined stacks for 2025 were 14.87 mills on the island and 20.45 across the bridge, a gap of 5.58 mills, which is $27,889 a year on a $5M purchase. Inside the downtown district of West Palm Beach a further 0.9700 mills applies.
The island is cheaper to hold than the northern markets too. Palm Beach Gardens paid 17.86 mills in 2025 and Jupiter 18.73. The town has proposed holding its rate at 2.6110 mills for 2026, above the roll-back rate of 2.4094, so bills rise with assessed values rather than with the rate. With the county and school lines proposed for 2026, the combined rate would be 14.82 mills, within a rounding error of this year.
The Exemption and the Two Caps
The homestead exemption removes $50,000 of taxable value on a primary residence. At the town's rate that is worth about $585 a year, because the second $25,000 does not apply to the school levies. On a $10M bill it is a rounding error. Its real value is the Save Our Homes cap that comes with it. Once a home is homesteaded, its assessed value can rise by no more than 3 percent a year, or the inflation rate if that is lower, whatever the market does. Island values have risen far faster than that for years. A buyer who homesteads and holds for a decade ends up taxed on a fraction of what the home is worth. Up to $500,000 of that gap can move to the next Florida homestead.
A second home gets a weaker cap. The assessed value of non-homestead property can rise by no more than 10 percent a year, and the school levies are excluded from that protection. Many island homes are held in trusts or companies, and a home held that way may not qualify for homestead at all. The rules are not forgiving after the fact, and the filing deadline is March 1 of the year after closing. The mechanics of the exemption, the caps and portability are set out in our county property tax guide, and the same rules apply in every municipality.
The Calendar and the Discount
The Property Appraiser sets values on January 1 and mails the notice of proposed taxes in August. The hearings run through September. Bills go out on November 1 and carry a discount for early payment. The discount is 4 percent in November, 3 in December, 2 in January and 1 in February. The full amount is due by March 31. On a $5M purchase the November discount is $2,974, and escrowed taxes are usually paid in November by the lender for that reason.
A buyer closing in the second half of a year pays the seller's bill at closing, prorated, and meets the reset the following year. The first full bill at the new value arrives the November after that. Buyers budgeting a purchase through our buyer services should plan on the reset figure from the start.
What the Rate Leaves Out
The millage covers the ad valorem part of the bill. The same bill can carry non-ad valorem assessments charged per parcel rather than per dollar of value. On the island the one to read closely is the town's underground utilities assessment. It is billed by parcel over a term of years, and neither the homestead exemption nor the cap reduces it. Condominium buildings carry their own costs through the association, and those fees never appear on the tax bill. Both belong in the same budget as the tax, on their own lines.
The notice of proposed taxes for a specific parcel lists every line, and that notice, not a county average, is the number to model before signing a contract. Our Palm Beach community page sets out the island's neighbourhoods, from the Estate Section to the North End.
Bottom Line
The Town of Palm Beach taxes a new owner at 14.87 mills, about 1.49 percent of the purchase price in the first year. It is the lowest combined rate of any luxury market in the county. On the median house at $13M that is $193,297 a year, and on the median condominium at $4.3M it is $63,937. The town takes 18 percent of the bill, and the stack runs 5.58 mills below West Palm Beach across the bridge.
For a buyer budgeting an island purchase: Budget 1.49 percent of the price for the first year. Read the notice for the specific parcel, including the underground utilities line. File for homestead by March 1 if the home is your primary residence and the title allows it.
Millage rates are the 2025 final rates for a Town of Palm Beach parcel as published by the Palm Beach County Property Appraiser. Eleven levies sum to 14.8690 mills. The county library line is excluded because the town is not in the county library taxing district. The county fire rescue line is excluded because the town operates its own fire rescue. The worked bills multiply the purchase price by the rate and assume the assessed value resets to the purchase price with no exemption. The homestead figure removes $25,000 from every levy and a second $25,000 from every levy except the two school levies. Non-ad valorem assessments are excluded.
The medians are the median closing prices of 88 single-family, 12 townhouse and 57 condominium sales at $3,000,000 or more in the Town of Palm Beach. They were recorded in BeachesMLS from August 1, 2025 through July 31, 2026 and deduplicated. Each median is rounded to the nearest $100,000. The West Palm Beach, Palm Beach Gardens and Jupiter comparisons use the same source and year. The 2026 proposed rates are the figures published for the August notices and were not yet adopted when this was written.
Palm Beach County Property Appraiser, proposed and final millage rates by taxing authority (pbcpao.gov).
Town of Palm Beach, adopted budget and millage (townofpalmbeach.com).
Palm Beach County Library System, the library taxing district's member municipalities (pbclibrary.org).
BeachesMLS via the Spark API for closing prices.
