Maine counties do not send property tax bills: each of the 482 towns, cities, and plantations commits its own tax every year, school and county shares included, and the town’s mill rate alone says little about how heavy that tax really is. This Maine property tax calculator uses the full value tax rates that Maine Revenue Services (MRS) computes by dividing each municipality’s 2024 commitment by the state’s own estimate of full market value, which puts every town on the same footing. The spread runs from $0.70 per $1,000 in Garfield Plantation to $25.29 in East Millinocket, with a weighted statewide figure of $10.37. Enter what the home would sell for, not the assessed value printed on the bill.
Why a Town’s Mill Rate Can Fool You: The Certified Ratio
Maine law sets April 1 as the status date for every parcel, and assessors are supposed to value property at just value, meaning market value. Between revaluations, assessments drift below what homes sell for. Each town reports how far behind it is as a certified ratio on its annual Municipal Valuation Return. State assessing standards call for a ratio of at least 70 percent and no more than 110 percent.
Maine Property Tax Calculator (2024 Full Value Rates)
Pick one of 482 Maine towns, cities, and plantations, enter what the home would sell for, and get a yearly figure, a two-installment split, a monthly escrow amount, and the local full value tax rate. Rates are the 2024 full value tax rates that Maine Revenue Services published in January 2026.
Planning figure only. It multiplies the market value you type by the 2024 full value tax rate from Maine Revenue Services, which divides each municipality's 2024 commitment by its full state valuation. It does not take off the $25,000 homestead exemption, the veteran or blind exemptions, or the Property Tax Fairness Credit, and later budgets, revaluations, and the 2025 and 2026 commitments will shift the real number. For the amount actually owed, ask the tax collector or assessor at your town office.
Lewiston shows why this matters. Its tax rate for fiscal 2025, the 2024 tax year, was $31.77 per $1,000, the second highest mill rate in the state that year. But Lewiston reported a certified ratio of just 54 percent that year, so a $31.77 rate was being charged on assessments worth roughly half of market value. Measured against full value, the MRS rate for Lewiston is $14.26, below Bangor’s $16.42 even though Bangor’s own mill rate was lower, at $18.55. The city has finished a revaluation that takes effect for the 2027 tax year. Augusta just went through the same reset: after a citywide revaluation for April 1, 2026, its rate fell from $24.40 to $14.23 per $1,000. A lower rate after a revaluation does not by itself mean a lower bill, because the assessments it applies to went up.
Commitment Day: How the Rate Gets Set
Towns raise money in a town meeting or through a council budget. The amount raised has to cover the municipal budget, the local share of the school budget or school district assessment, and the town’s slice of the county tax, which the state apportions by each town’s state valuation. Once the budget is fixed, the assessors subtract state revenue sharing and other income, divide the rest by the town’s taxable valuation, and commit the tax list to the collector. That commitment date starts the abatement clock.
In the unorganized territory, where no town government exists, the MRS Property Tax Division acts as assessor and sends the bills, so those areas are not in the calculator.
Full Value Rates From Garfield Plantation to East Millinocket
The cheapest places to own a home, on a full value basis, are small plantations and resort towns where large valuations spread a modest budget thin. After Garfield Plantation’s $0.70 come Lake View Plantation at $2.66, Lincoln Plantation at $2.71, South Bristol at $2.88, and Sandy River Plantation at $3.23. Coastal York County is also low: Ogunquit at $4.79, Kennebunkport at $4.92, and York at $7.65.
The heaviest rates cluster in the Katahdin region and Aroostook County. East Millinocket leads at $25.29, followed by Ashland at $20.93, Millinocket at $20.71, Medway at $20.28, and Limestone at $19.99. Among the county averages MRS publishes, Aroostook is highest at $15.96 and Lincoln lowest at $7.53. The median of all 482 places is $10.78, and 191 of them come in under $10.
The weighted statewide rate fell from $14.10 in 2020 to $10.37 in 2024, meaning market values grew faster than the amounts towns committed.
Two Worked Bills
A Portland house that would sell for $450,000 carries a full value rate of $11.09, so the yearly estimate is $4,990.50. If the owner lives there and qualifies for the homestead exemption, entering $425,000 instead gives $4,713.25, which is $392.77 a month for escrow.
Now take the same $300,000 home to four places. In Kennebunkport it would cost about $1,476.00 a year. In Portland the figure is $3,327.00, in Bangor $4,926.00, and in Presque Isle, at $18.58, it reaches $5,574.00. Same house, nearly four times the bill. In East Millinocket, a $150,000 home works out to $3,793.50.
Exemptions, the Fairness Credit, and the April 2027 Overhaul
The homestead exemption takes $25,000 of just value off the assessment of a permanent Maine resident’s home, provided the owner has owned a Maine homestead for the 12 months before April 1. Because the exemption is stated in market terms, the assessor multiplies it by the town’s certified ratio, so in a town assessing at 80 percent it removes $20,000 of assessed value. Other partial exemptions work the same way: $6,000 for veterans who served in a recognized war period and are 62 or older or 100 percent disabled, $50,000 for veterans with a federally funded specially adapted home, and $4,000 for a legally blind owner. Applications go to the local assessor by April 1.
That structure is about to change. The 2026 supplemental budget, Public Law 2025, chapter 650, Part M, folds the homestead, veteran, and blind exemptions into a single provision for tax years starting April 1, 2027. It drops the wartime service requirement, opens the veteran benefit to those under 62, and ties the veteran tier to disability rating. MRS says owners who held an affected exemption in the 2026 tax year generally will not need to reapply, and it will publish guidance on which new exemption matches the old one.
Relief also comes through the income tax. The Property Tax Fairness Credit is refundable, and for tax years beginning in 2026 its maximum rises to $1,500 for filers under 65, while the cap for those 65 and older stays at $2,000. The State Property Tax Deferral Program lets homeowners 65 or older, or unable to work because of disability, have the state pay their tax, with repayment due later; applications filed since 2024 must show income under $80,000 and liquid assets under $100,000, or $150,000 when there are several owners. The filing window runs January 1 through April 1.
The 185-Day Abatement Window
If you think the assessment is too high, the first step is a written abatement application to your town’s assessors within 185 days of the commitment date. The assessors have 60 days to answer, and silence counts as a denial. From there you have 60 days to appeal to the local board of assessment review, or to the county commissioners where the town has no board. Nonresidential property and holdings with an equalized value of $1 million or more go to the State Board of Property Tax Review instead. Superior Court comes after that.
Filing is free. Compare your assessment with recent sales, adjusted by the town’s certified ratio.
Due Dates, 7 Percent Interest, and the 18-Month Lien Clock
Each town votes its own due dates, so schedules vary from a single payment to two or four installments. Scarborough, for example, committed its tax on August 19, 2026 and set payments for October 15, 2026 and March 15, 2027. The town also chooses the interest rate on late payments, up to a ceiling the State Treasurer sets each January. For the 2026 tax year that ceiling is 7.00 percent, down from 7.50 percent for 2025.
Unpaid real estate tax becomes a lien. Between 8 and 12 months after commitment the collector can send a 30-day demand, then record a lien certificate. If the tax, interest, and costs remain unpaid 18 months after the lien is recorded, the lien forecloses and the town takes title. Under a 2024 amendment (Public Law 2023, chapter 640), a town that sells a foreclosed home to someone other than the former owner must list it with a licensed broker and pay the former owner any proceeds beyond the taxes, interest, and costs owed.
When These Rates Will Be Replaced
MRS publishes full value rates about two years behind the tax year, because they rely on the state valuation, which is itself built from sales studies. The 2024 rates used here came out in January 2026. The 2025 set should follow once the 2027 state valuation is certified, and this calculator will switch over then. Revaluations like Augusta’s and Lewiston’s move local mill rates sharply but barely touch full value rates, which is why market value is the better input.
Data: Maine Revenue Services Property Tax Division, Estimated Full Value Tax Rates 2013 to 2024 (2024 commitments divided by the 2026 state valuation, homestead, BETE, and TIF adjusted), with certified ratios and mill rates from the 2024 Municipal Valuation Return Statistical Summary. Rules from Title 36 of the Maine Revised Statutes, the MRS property tax relief pages, and the State Treasurer. Confirm the amount due with your town tax collector and your valuation with the local assessor.