A typical Mississippi homeowner pays $1,215 a year on a house worth $169,800, according to the Census Bureau, or 0.72 percent of value. Across counties the share runs from 0.38 percent in Amite to 1.12 percent in Coahoma. This Mississippi property tax calculator takes the true value you enter and multiplies it by the ratio between what owner-occupants in your county pay and what their homes are worth, then puts the county’s median bill beside the result. Enter true value (the market figure), not the 10 percent assessed value, and do not subtract the homestead credit; each county ratio already accounts for it.
Most Owners Get a $300 Credit, Not a $7,500 Exemption
Many summaries say every Mississippi homeowner gets “up to $7,500” off. That figure belongs to another tier. The homestead program has three levels, and most households land in one that is a tax credit, not a cut in value.
Mississippi Property Tax Calculator (2027)
Choose one of 81 counties and type the home's true value. The tool applies what owner-occupants there really pay as a share of value, returns a yearly and monthly figure, and lines it up against the county's median bill. Ratios come from the Census Bureau's ACS 2024 five-year release; Issaquena is the one county without published figures.
This is an estimate: the true value you enter times the county's ratio of median payments to median owner-occupied value, from US Census ACS 2024 five-year data. An actual Mississippi bill assesses a Class I home at 10 percent of true value, applies the mills of the county, school district, and any city or levee district, and then subtracts a homestead credit of up to $300, or exempts the first $7,500 of assessed value ($75,000 of true value) for owners 65 or older and totally disabled owners. The Census builds its median payment only from owners who get a bill, while its median value counts every owner, including seniors and disabled veterans whose exemption wipes the bill out, so in counties with many such households the ratio can read higher than what a typical owner there pays. Not modeled: the senior value freeze, full exemptions for qualifying veterans and surviving spouses, rentals and camps taxed as Class II at 15 percent, and garbage or fire fees. Check value questions with your county tax assessor and bill questions with the county tax collector.
- Regular homestead (under 65): a credit taken straight off the bill, read from a table in Miss. Code Section 27-33-75. It grows by $6 for each $150 of assessed value and tops out at $300 once assessed value passes $7,350, which a Class I home reaches at about $73,500 of true value. Half the credit comes out of school district levies and half out of the county general fund levy.
- Age 65 or totally disabled: no tax at all on the first $7,500 of assessed value, which is $75,000 of true value.
- Total exemption: the entire homestead is exempt for qualifying veterans and certain surviving spouses (covered below).
Applications go to the county tax assessor between January 1 and April 1. You must own and live in the home on January 1, and the deed has to be filed with the chancery clerk before January 7. Once approved, it renews on its own until something changes, such as a sale, a death, or turning 65, which calls for a new application. Falling behind on Mississippi income tax or tagging a car in another county can cost you the exemption.
Class I Homes: 10 Percent of True Value, Then Mills
The constitution sorts property into five classes; a single-family, owner-occupied home is Class I, assessed at 10 percent of true value. Rentals, second homes, and other real property are Class II at 15 percent. The county tax assessor must revalue real property at least every four years.
Rates are set in mills, $1 per $1,000 of assessed value. Every parcel pays county and school district millage, and homes inside a city or a levee district pay those levies as well. Take a $200,000 Class I home at 125 mills, the illustrative rate the Department of Revenue uses in its own example. The assessed value is $20,000 and the gross levy $2,500. A regular homestead credit takes off $300, leaving $2,200. An owner who is 65 or older instead exempts $7,500 of assessed value, so the levy applies to $12,500 and comes to $1,562.50.
Under Section 27-39-321, a county or city cannot raise total levy collections more than 10 percent above any of its three prior fiscal years, new construction aside.
County Ratios, From Amite at 0.38% to Coahoma at 1.12%
On the Census Bureau’s 2024 five year estimates, the top five ratios belong to Coahoma (1.12 percent), Quitman (1.06), Grenada and Leflore (both 1.02), and Montgomery (1.00). The lowest are Amite (0.38), Smith (0.42), Choctaw (0.48), and Claiborne and Tishomingo (0.49). The middle county sits at 0.69 percent; 47 of the 81 counties in the calculator come in below the 0.72 statewide figure, and Copiah, Marshall, and Walthall match it.
Madison County has the largest median bill, $2,108 on a $311,100 home, while Lafayette has the highest median value at $315,400 with a ratio of only 0.55. Amite has the smallest median bill, $386. Quitman has the lowest median value, $69,600, and the second highest ratio. That pattern repeats through the Delta: Leflore, Humphreys, Sunflower, Washington, and Holmes all sit well above the state figure despite modest home values. Issaquena, with about 230 owner-occupied homes, is left out because the Census withholds its figures.
Two examples:
- DeSoto County, $300,000 home: 0.60 percent gives $1,800 a year, or $150 a month, which is $187 more than the county’s $1,613 median bill.
- Hinds County, $200,000 home: 0.88 percent gives $1,760 a year, or $146.67 a month, $357 above the $1,403 median.
A $170,000 house, near the statewide median value, comes to $1,904 a year at Coahoma’s ratio and $646 at Amite’s.
One caution: the Census computes its median payment only among owners who actually receive a bill, yet its median value counts every owner. In counties where many seniors or disabled owners live in homes worth under $75,000 and owe nothing, the ratio can land above what a typical household there pays. Some widely shared estimators quote a Mississippi effective rate near 1.35 percent; the Census ratio of what owners here report paying is 0.72.
Turning 65: the $75,000 Shield and a Frozen Assessment
Reaching 65, or being classified as totally disabled under Social Security, a qualified retirement plan, or other approved proof, moves you to the second tier. The first $75,000 of true value is exempt from every levy, school and city included.
Most calculators ignore a second benefit. Since 2018, when a county completes a reappraisal update while you own the home, the resulting rise in assessed value is also exempt. The base is the assessed value on January 1, 2018, or the first year you claimed the tier, whichever applies. Additions and renovations do not ride along, except work that improves energy efficiency, safety, or access.
Bills to lift the $7,500 assessed limit keep failing. House Bill 1255 in 2025 and several 2026 bills with the same aim, House Bill 913 among them, died in committee, so a claim that the senior exemption rose to $12,500 in 2026 is wrong; the statute still reads $7,500.
Veterans and Surviving Spouses: Full Exemption, Age 85 From 2027
The third tier removes the whole homestead from taxation. It covers honorably discharged veterans with a service-connected total disability and their unremarried surviving spouses, and the unremarried surviving spouse of a service member, reservist, or Guard member killed on active duty or active duty for training. Since January 1, 2025, it also covers honorably discharged veterans aged 90 or older, and House Bill 812 of 2025 extended that to their unremarried surviving spouses from 2026.
The newest change is House Bill 420, signed March 20, 2026. From January 1, 2027, the age threshold drops to 85: an honorably discharged veteran who is 85 by January 1 of the tax year, and later an unremarried surviving spouse, owes no property tax on the homestead. Eligible veterans file in the January 1 to April 1, 2027 window.
Board of Supervisors First, Circuit Court Second
Each county’s five-member board of supervisors reviews the assessor’s rolls before they are adopted and hears objections from owners. To contest your value, ask the chancery clerk for a hearing; the objection normally has to be filed by the first Monday in August before the tax comes due. If the board rules against you, Section 11-51-77 allows an appeal to circuit court within 10 days after the meeting adjourns, with a bond of double the amount in dispute. A 2026 bill to stretch that window to 20 days died in conference.
February 1, Then the Tax Sale
Taxes are assessed to the owner of record on January 1, bills go out in November and December, and payment is due to the county tax collector by February 1 (the next business day if that falls on a weekend or holiday). Counties such as Clay start interest at 1 percent a month on February 2. Unpaid parcels are sold at the county’s tax sale, held on the first Monday in April in some counties and the last Monday in August in others. The owner then has two years from the sale to redeem through the chancery clerk, paying the taxes plus 1.5 percent a month.
What 2027 Brings for Bills and for This Data
Bills mailed at the end of 2027 will be the first to carry the age 85 veteran exemption, and seniors in the second tier keep their frozen base as counties post new values. The Census publishes a new five year release each December, and the county ratios here will refresh with it; the current file pools surveys from 2020 through 2024, so recently reappraised counties may run higher than shown.
Sources: Census Bureau American Community Survey, 2024 five-year release, tables B25103 (taxes paid) and B25077 (home value); Mississippi Department of Revenue homestead exemption, local property appraisal, and property tax FAQ pages; Miss. Code Sections 27-33-75, 27-39-321, and 11-51-77; Mississippi Legislature bill status for HB 420 (2026), HB 812 (2025), HB 1255 (2025), and SB 2893 (2026); Clay, Harrison, and Jackson county tax offices. Verify your bill with your county tax collector and your value with your county tax assessor.