Every Vermont tax bill stacks two separate rates: a state education rate that depends on whether the property is your declared homestead, and a municipal rate your town votes for its own budget. This Vermont property tax calculator adds the two for a homestead, using the tax year 2025 table (fiscal 2026, July 2025 through June 2026) that the Department of Taxes collected from all 260 municipalities, plus 55 village, fire, police, and highway districts. Combined homestead rates ran from $0.7688 per $100 of listed value in the unorganized towns and gores of Essex County to $3.9720 in Killington, with a median of $2.1707. Enter the listed value printed on your bill, not what the house would sell for today.
Two Rates on One Bill: Homestead Education Plus Municipal
Since Act 60 in 1997, Vermont has paid for schools out of a single statewide Education Fund. Towns still collect the money, but the education line on your bill is a state tax. It comes in two flavors. The homestead rate applies to a primary residence whose owner files a Homestead Declaration (Form HS-122) each year. The nonhomestead rate applies to everything else: second homes, rentals, camps, and commercial property. Skip the declaration and your house is billed at the nonhomestead rate, so filing it on time matters.
Vermont Property Tax Calculator (Homestead Rates, 2025-26)
Choose any of 260 towns, cities, gores, and incorporated districts, or one of 55 village, fire, police, or highway district entries, enter the listed value, and see the yearly homestead bill split into education, municipal, local agreement, and district pieces. Rates are the tax year 2025 figures the Department of Taxes collected from every municipality.
Planning figure only. The estimate multiplies the listed value you enter by the tax year 2025 homestead education rate plus the municipal and local agreement rates (and one district levy if you pick one) that the Vermont Department of Taxes compiled for 2025-26. It is the gross amount before the income-based Property Tax Credit, which the state pays straight to your town and which about two thirds of homesteads receive; that credit, veterans and other exemptions, current use enrollment, and nonhomestead use of part of the property are not modeled. Fiscal 2027 bills use newer rates, and 40 municipalities reappraised for 2026. Your town treasurer or tax collector has the exact bill.
The second line is the municipal tax. It pays for roads, plowing, police, the town office, and the library, and it is set by the budget voters approve at Town Meeting or by a city council. Some towns add a tiny third line called the local agreement rate. When a town votes an exemption or a tax stabilization deal that reduces education tax, state law makes it repay the Education Fund with a separate levy on the municipal grand list. In 2025 Burlington’s was $0.0004 per $100; Rupert’s, the highest, was $0.0524.
For a Burlington homestead listed at $400,000, the 2025-26 rates of $1.5264 (education), $0.8557 (municipal), and $0.0004 (local agreement) add up to $2.3825 per $100. The bill is $9,530.00: $6,105.60 for schools, $3,422.80 for the city, and $1.60 in local agreement tax. That is $4,765.00 per half year or $794.17 a month in escrow. The city’s posted fiscal 2027 total is $2.4590, which would put the same house at $9,836.00.
Why the School Rate Tracks Your Town’s Appraisal Level
Your homestead education rate starts with how much your school district spends per pupil, measured against a yield the Legislature sets each spring. For tax year 2025 that homestead property yield was $8,596, and the nonhomestead base rate was $1.703. Then comes equalization. Each year the Division of Property Valuation and Review (PVR) compares three years of sales with listed values to find each town’s common level of appraisal, or CLA. The 2025 study used 16,166 sales from April 2024 through March 2025.
Under Act 183 of 2024, starting July 1, 2025, the school district rate is divided by the town’s CLA over a statewide adjustment rather than by the CLA alone. The statewide adjustment was 72.36 percent for fiscal 2026 and is 70.33 percent for fiscal 2027. The Department of Taxes stresses that the change shifts the arithmetic, not what anyone owes.
The practical effect: a town whose listed values have fallen far below market shows a high rate on low values. Killington’s CLA for fiscal 2026 was 45.90 percent, so its homestead education rate of $3.3006 applied to values less than half of sale prices. Measured against market value, Killington homesteads paid roughly $1.51 per $100 for schools, against about $1.21 in Stowe, where values sat slightly above market. The headline rates, $3.30 against $1.14, overstate that gap about seven times over.
2025-26 Combined Rates, Killington to the Essex County Gores
At the top, Killington’s $3.9720 is followed by Plymouth at $3.7642, Rutland City at $3.7593, Barre City at $3.6484, Springfield at $3.5520, Newport City at $3.5248, and Brattleboro at $3.4826. The older industrial cities carry heavy municipal rates as well: Rutland City’s $2.1482 and Barre City’s $2.2493 each exceed their education rate.
The bottom belongs to places with almost no local government. Averill, Averys Gore, Ferdinand, Lewis, Warners Grant, and Warren Gore, administered together in Essex County, shared a total of $0.7688, and three of them had no homesteads on the list at all. Among organized towns, Morgan was lowest at $1.0163, followed by Stratton at $1.0312, Dorset at $1.1450, and Lowell at $1.1651. The plain average across all 260 municipal entries was $2.1590.
Villages, Fire Districts, and Other Levies Stacked on Top
Vermont still has incorporated villages inside towns, and many run their own streets, water, or fire service. Village residents pay the town rate plus a village rate; people outside sometimes pay a highway district rate instead. The calculator lists these as Town: District entries. In Rockingham, a homestead listed at $300,000 owes $5,634.00 outside Bellows Falls at $1.8780, but $7,104.90 inside the village, where the $0.4903 village levy adds $1,470.90. The steepest combination in the table is the Orleans village levy on top of the Orleans incorporated district rate, $4.1890 in all.
Downtown improvement, special benefit, sewer, and street light levies are excluded because they fall mainly on businesses or specific parcels.
Listed Value, Reappraisal, and the Grievance Ladder
State law defines listed value as estimated fair market value, but values drift between reappraisals. Statewide, listed values averaged 70.3 percent of market in the 2025 study. A town must start a full reappraisal within six years of its last one, or sooner if PVR finds its coefficient of dispersion above 20, under 32 V.S.A. § 4041a. Forty municipalities reappraised for 2026, Killington, Colchester, and Essex Junction among them, which is why their fiscal 2027 education rates fell sharply while listed values rose.
When listers change your value they must mail a notice. The default calendar has them lodging the grand list by May 5 and hearing grievances by May 20, though towns often extend it. Grieve in writing to the listers or assessor first. If that fails, appeal to the Board of Civil Authority within 14 days of the listers’ decision (§ 4404), and from there to the PVR Director or Superior Court within 30 days of the board’s ruling (§ 4461). The state appeal carries a $70 entry fee.
The Property Tax Credit and Other Relief
Vermont has no across-the-board homestead exemption; some aggregator pages say otherwise. Its main relief is the income-based Property Tax Credit, which roughly two thirds of homesteads receive. For 2025 claims, household income had to be $115,400 or less, and the credit can reach $5,600 on the education tax and $2,400 on the municipal tax. File with your income return by April 15; claims through October 15 are accepted with a $150 reduction. The state pays the credit to your town, and it appears on the bill as a State Payment. Credits for tax year 2025 totaled $156.2 million.
The newest change is Act 169 of 2026. Starting July 1, 2027, it raises the $47,000 income threshold for the extra income-based credit to $50,000, lifts the municipal maximum to $2,600, and lifts the education maximum to $6,000. Veterans receiving at least 50 percent disability compensation get $10,000 of value exempted under 32 V.S.A. § 3802(11), and towns may vote the municipal side up to $40,000. The calculator shows the gross amount before any of these.
Due Dates Vary by Town, and So Do Penalties
Each town mails one bill a year and picks its own schedule: a single payment, two installments, or four. Burlington collects on the 12th of August, November, March, and June. Towns that vote to charge interest may add up to 1 percent a month for the first three months and 1.5 percent a month after that (32 V.S.A. § 5136). Once at least $1,500 has been overdue for more than a year, the collector may start tax sale proceedings, but only after offering a written repayment plan (§ 5252).
What Changes for 2026-27 and After
Fiscal 2027 education rates were posted July 29, 2026, and the calculator shows each town’s new homestead rate beside the 2025-26 figure. The complete table, with municipal rates, arrives with the next PVR annual report, and these rates will be replaced then. Longer term, Act 170 of 2026 pushes regional assessment districts to January 1, 2031, and Act 164 moves the grand list date from April 1 to January 1 starting July 1, 2031.
Data: tax year 2025 homestead education, municipal, local agreement, and district rates from the Vermont Department of Taxes, Division of Property Valuation and Review (PVR Annual Report 2025 data), cross-checked against the FY2026 education rate table; FY2027 education rates as posted July 29, 2026. Rules from Title 32 of the Vermont Statutes. For your exact bill, ask your town treasurer or tax collector, and ask your listers about your value.