Philadelphia's property tax formula is refreshingly simple once you see it laid out. Understanding it tells you exactly where your bill comes from — and, more importantly, which part of it you can actually change.
Here's the whole thing:
(Assessed market value − exemptions) × 1.3998% = your annual property tax
That's it. There are only three moving parts: the assessed market value the Office of Property Assessment (OPA) assigns to your home, any exemptions you qualify for that get subtracted first, and the rate. The rate is set citywide and is the same for every residential parcel, so two of the three parts are out of your hands. The one you can influence is the assessed value — and that's the whole reason appeals exist.
Philadelphia's total effective property tax rate is 1.3998% of assessed value — about 1.4%. It looks like one number, but it's really two stacked together. A portion goes to the City of Philadelphia to fund municipal services, and a larger portion goes to the School District of Philadelphia. When people quote the single combined rate, that's the sum of the City and School District pieces. You pay one bill; behind the scenes it's split between those two purposes.
Because the rate is fixed by law, no homeowner can negotiate it down. That's a feature worth internalizing: if your bill feels too high, the rate isn't the problem. The assessed value is the only variable with any give in it.
The following is an example only — the numbers are illustrative and not a promise about any real property.
Say OPA assesses a rowhome at a market value of $312,000. Ignoring exemptions for a moment, the tax works out to:
Now suppose the owner runs a self-check, finds that genuinely comparable homes nearby sold closer to $267,500, and wins an appeal that brings the assessed value down to that figure. The new tax would be:
The difference in this example is roughly $623 a year — and because property tax is charged annually, a reduction like that keeps returning on every future bill until the next reassessment. Again, these figures are purely illustrative; your own numbers depend entirely on your property's assessed value and what the comparable sales support. To see whether your assessment is inflated in the first place, start with our self-check on whether your home is over-assessed.
Exemptions come off the top, before the rate is applied — so they shrink the value that gets taxed. The best-known is the Homestead Exemption, which reduces the assessed value of an owner-occupied home by a fixed amount. The exact dollar figure changes over time, so rather than quote a number that may be stale, we'd point you to the current amount at phila.gov. Other relief programs work along similar lines. The key mechanical point is that an exemption and an appeal do different jobs and can stack: an exemption lowers the taxable value by a set amount, while an appeal lowers the underlying assessed value itself. We compare the two directly in Homestead Exemption vs. appeal.
Step back and look at the formula again. The rate is fixed. Exemptions are set by program rules you either qualify for or don't. That leaves the assessed value as the one input that can be wrong in your favor — and, because OPA uses mass appraisal across hundreds of thousands of parcels, it sometimes is. A model that values your block off stale or mismatched sales, or that carries an error in your property record, produces a value that's too high, and the 1.3998% rate faithfully turns that inflated value into an inflated bill. Correcting the value is the only move that changes the outcome, which is exactly why an assessment appeal is the tool most homeowners reach for. Everything you find on your notice ties back to this formula — our guide to reading your OPA assessment notice shows where each number lives.
TaxAssessmentIQ starts from the same formula. It pulls your live OPA assessed value, checks it against real comparable sales, and shows you the gap — then translates that gap into what a corrected value would mean using the 1.3998% rate. If the numbers support an appeal, it builds a Board-ready packet you can file yourself. You keep every dollar of the savings, because there's no lawyer or consultant taking a cut.
The total effective rate is 1.3998% of your assessed market value, roughly 1.4%. It is a combined figure: part goes to the City of Philadelphia and part to the School District of Philadelphia.
No. It is based on the market value the Office of Property Assessment assigns to your property, not your purchase price. If OPA's value drifts above what your home would actually sell for, your bill follows it upward regardless of what you paid.
An exemption is subtracted from your assessed value before the rate is applied, so only the reduced value is taxed. Amounts change over time, so confirm the current figure at phila.gov rather than relying on an older number.
Because the rate is fixed by the City and School District, the assessed value is the only part of the formula an individual owner can influence. Winning a lower value through an appeal is the main lever most homeowners actually control.
In general, yes. Because tax is charged annually on your assessed value, a reduction you win tends to carry forward and lower future bills as well, until the next reassessment changes your value again.
TaxAssessmentIQ gives you a free, honest verdict from the City's own recorded sales — just enter your address, no sign-up and no account. If your home looks over-assessed, you can get a ready-to-file appeal packet for a flat, one-time price, backed by a money-back guarantee. If it isn't worth filing, we tell you that too — for free, before you pay anything.