By Alex Rodino, U.S. Army veteran (Capt.) · Licensed GA REALTOR® #443565 · MRP
Published August 21, 2026 · Last updated August 21, 2026 · About 10 minutes
TL;DR: Your Chatham County property tax is fair market value times a 40% assessment ratio, minus any exemptions, times the millage rate of every jurisdiction your parcel sits in. That usually means the county, Chatham Area Transit, and the school board, plus a city rate if you are inside Savannah or another municipality, or the Special Service District rate if you are unincorporated. Real property is billed in two installments, due June 1 and November 15. If you think the value is wrong, you have 45 days from your Notice of Assessment to appeal.
Important: I am a licensed real estate agent, not a tax professional or attorney, and this is not tax advice. Rates and rules change, and I am not estimating your bill. Confirm your parcel with the Chatham County Tax Commissioner at 912-652-7100 or the Board of Assessors at 912-652-7271.
How Chatham County property tax is calculated
Georgia runs one formula everywhere, and Chatham is no exception. The City of Savannah states it as “(Fair Market Value x Assessment Rate) – Exemptions = Taxable Value”, then “Taxable Value x Millage Rate = Taxes Due.” The Chatham County Tax Commissioner’s official Property Tax Information brochure puts the ratio plainly: “Assessed value by law is based on 40% of the fair market value as of January 1 each year.”
A mill is the unit that trips people up. The same county brochure defines it as “1/10 of $.01 or $1 per $1,000 of assessed value.” So 10 mills on $134,000 of assessed value is $1,340, not $1,340,000, and not 10% of anything.
Two different offices own two halves of your bill, which is why people get bounced between phone numbers. The Board of Assessors sets your value and grants exemptions. The Tax Commissioner, currently Sonya L. Jackson, bills and collects. That office’s own brochure says it “plays no part in determining the value of property or the millage rates,” and lists what it does collect for: Chatham County, the Special Service District, the School Board, Transit, Garden City, Pooler, Port Wentworth, Thunderbolt and Tybee Island.
One line you will not find on the bill is a state property tax. Georgia phased its state levy out under O.C.G.A. 48-5-8, and the Georgia Department of Revenue reports the state levy for ad valorem tax purposes has been zero since 2016. Every mill you pay is local.
2026 millage rates in Chatham County (and the worked example)
No single Chatham County millage rate exists, because your total depends on which jurisdictions your parcel sits in. A Savannah address pays the county, transit, school, and city rates. An unincorporated address pays the county, transit, and school rates plus the Special Service District rate that funds county services in place of a city.
| Taxing authority | 2026 millage | Who pays it |
|---|---|---|
| Chatham County General Maintenance and Operations | 10.518 mills | Every parcel in the county |
| Chatham Area Transit Authority | 0.940 mills | Parcels in the transit district |
| Savannah-Chatham County Public Schools | 17.331 mills | Every parcel in the county |
| City of Savannah | 11.749 mills | Parcels inside Savannah city limits only |
| Chatham County Special Service District | 6.502 mills | Unincorporated parcels only, in place of a city rate |
| State of Georgia | 0 mills | Nobody. The state levy has been zero since 2016. |
Where those numbers come from, and the caveat that matters: the county figures are from Chatham County’s published Notice and Explanation of 2026 Property Tax Increase, which sets General Maintenance and Operations at 10.518 mills, the Special Service District at 6.502 mills, and Chatham Area Transit at 0.940 mills, with hearings held July 15 and July 31, 2026. That notice also carries the county’s own clarification that the legally required phrase “tentatively adopted” does not mean the Board of Commissioners has acted. The school figure is the combined 17.331 mills the Savannah-Chatham Board of Public Education carried forward with no change. The city figure is the 11.749 mills Savannah put forward for 2026, unchanged from its 2025 adopted rate and, per the city, its lowest since 1987; the city’s 2026 rollback rate is 11.402 mills, which is why a flat rate still has to be advertised as an increase. Confirm the final adopted rate for your jurisdiction before you rely on it.
The worked example: a $335,000 home, inside the city and outside it
This is an illustration, not a quote for any property. I am using $335,000 as a round stand-in for the Savannah median, based on Zillow’s Savannah market page, which reported a median sale price of $333,083 as of May 31, 2026. No exemptions are applied, so treat this as the ceiling rather than a real bill.
Fair market value $335,000, times the 40% assessment ratio, is $134,000 of assessed value. Now the two stacks:
| Line | Inside Savannah city limits | Unincorporated Chatham County |
|---|---|---|
| County General M&O, 10.518 mills | $1,409.41 | $1,409.41 |
| Chatham Area Transit, 0.940 mills | $125.96 | $125.96 |
| Schools, 17.331 mills | $2,322.35 | $2,322.35 |
| City of Savannah, 11.749 mills | $1,574.37 | Not applicable |
| Special Service District, 6.502 mills | Not applicable | $871.27 |
| Total before exemptions and credits | $5,432.09 (40.538 mills) | $4,728.99 (35.291 mills) |
Same house, same assessed value, about $703 apart, purely because of which side of a city line it sits on. That is the number the county portals and the generic calculators never put in front of you.
Two honest caveats. First, exemptions come off before the millage is applied, so an owner-occupant’s real bill will be lower than either column. Second, real Chatham bills carry a local sales tax credit that reduces the total, and unincorporated parcels can carry separate solid waste and street light fees that are flat charges, not mills. This example is the shape of the math, not your statement
How to read your tax bill
A Chatham County tax bill is one table with a lot of vocabulary. The Tax Commissioner publishes a legend for it, and once you know six terms the whole page opens up.
- Map. The property identification number assigned by the Board of Assessors, also called the Par-ID. This is how every office finds your parcel.
- District. The section of the county you live in, which determines the fees and millage rates that apply.
- Fair Market Value and Adjusted FMV. The value the Board of Assessors assigned for the tax year. The Adjusted FMV can differ from fair market value while a property is under appeal.
- Net Assessment. The 40% figure. The county’s legend spells it out: “This value is 40% of the Adjusted FMV. This is the value used to calculate taxes in Georgia.”
- Exemptions and Taxable Value. Exemption codes appear in their own box, and taxable value is net assessment minus whatever exemptions apply. The county warns this value can differ for each taxing jurisdiction.
- Entity, Gross Tax, Credit, Net Tax. One row per taxing jurisdiction. Gross tax is taxable value times millage, credit is the local sales tax credit, and net tax is what that jurisdiction actually charges.
- Current Due, Back Taxes, Total Due. Current year only, prior unpaid years, and the combined figure including interest and penalties.
The trap for Savannah owners is at the top of the Entity list. The Tax Commissioner’s legend notes that Savannah and Thunderbolt send a separate tax bill, so if you live in the city you get two bills, not one, and paying the county bill does not clear the city bill.
Exemptions, briefly. Chatham owner-occupants should generally carry the standard Georgia homestead exemption plus the local Stephens-Day exemption, both granted by the Board of Assessors and shown as codes in the exemptions box. They are the biggest lever an owner-occupant has on this bill. What each is worth and how to file are their own subject, which I cover separately rather than half-cover here. If your exemptions box is blank and the home is your primary residence, call the Board of Assessors at 912-652-7271.
If you want it walked through in person, the Tax Commissioner’s office runs Tax Commissioner University, a free session series on reading assessment notices, exemptions, and appeals. Pre-registration is requested at tax.chathamcountyga.gov or by calling 912-652-7100.
When Chatham County property taxes are due (and escrow vs paying direct)
Real property in Chatham County is billed twice a year. The Tax Commissioner’s Property Tax Information brochure states it directly: “The first bill is mailed by April 1st and is due June 1st. The second bill is mailed by Sept. 15th and is due Nov. 15th.” Personal property is due annually by November 15. If you are inside Savannah, the city bills you separately, and its FAQ says the city bills in April with payment typically due mid-June and bills again in September with payment typically due mid-November.
The first county installment is essentially an estimate based on the prior year. The second is where the current year’s value, exemptions, and millage all land, which is why the November bill is the one that surprises people.
With a mortgage, your servicer usually escrows a monthly slice and pays the installments. Two things worth knowing. The Tax Commissioner’s new homeowner guidance is blunt: “We do not send tax bills to mortgage companies,” and “it is ultimately the responsibility of the property owner to ensure taxes are paid.” And the annual escrow analysis is what moves your monthly payment when your value or the millage moves, which is the call I get every fall from clients who bought the year before.
Paying direct means calendaring both dates yourself. Taxes are delinquent if not paid by the due date, and the Tax Commissioner adds interest and penalties in accordance with O.C.G.A. 48-2-40 and 48-2-44, with delinquent properties also subject to tax liens. I am not going to guess at your penalty; call 912-652-7100 for a current payoff.
Think your assessment is too high? The appeal process
The Board of Assessors issues a Notice of Assessment for real property every year, and you have 45 days from that notice to file an appeal. You are appealing the value, not the tax rate, and filing with the Board of Assessors costs nothing. The notice is not a bill.
The county’s brochure lists three appeal methods, and you have to declare which one you are choosing in your initial written appeal:
- Board of Equalization, with a further petition for review to Superior Court.
- Arbitration, which requires you to submit a certified appraisal of the property within 45 days, which the Board of Assessors may accept or reject, with a further petition to Superior Court if you are still dissatisfied.
- Hearing Officer, available for non-homestead real property with a fair market value of $500,000 or more, or certain wireless property with an aggregate value greater than $500,000, for appeals on value or uniformity, again with a further petition to Superior Court.
An appeal can also be based on taxability, uniformity, or the denial of an exemption, not just value, and the Board of Assessors currently notes you can apply for a homestead exemption right up until that 45-day window closes. One Chatham-specific warning worth reading twice: the Board says that if your property already has 299C value protection and you file an appeal, that freeze may be removed, and your value could then go up or down as a result.
“Before anyone files, I pull two or three real comparable sales and we look at them together. If the comps do not support a lower number, an appeal is just paperwork, and in Chatham it can cost you a freeze you already had.”
Alex Rodino
What your payment really includes (a note for buyers)
The listing price is not the payment, and in Chatham County the tax line moves more between two streets than buyers expect. Two similar houses a mile apart can differ by hundreds of dollars a year purely on city limits, and the seller’s current bill reflects the seller’s exemptions and their Stephens-Day base year, not yours.
That last point is the one that costs people. I had a buyer under contract on a Savannah home who budgeted from the seller’s tax figure on the listing, then watched his escrow analysis reset the following year once the county was working from his numbers instead of the previous owner’s. Nothing went wrong. He just budgeted from the wrong line. Until your own filings are approved, budget from the full unexempted math above and treat anything better as upside.
Comparing areas? Pooler and Richmond Hill sit in different tax pictures than the Historic District, and Richmond Hill is in Bryan County entirely, with its own rates. Selling rather than buying? My guide to capital gains tax when selling a home in Georgia covers that side.
Buying in Savannah or Chatham County? I walk every client through the real monthly payment, taxes included, before they write an offer. Call me at 912-351-8935 or text 912-210-8967. No pressure, and I usually respond the same day.
Not tax advice: I am a real estate agent, not a tax professional or attorney. Rates and rules change, and the example above is illustrative, not an estimate of your bill. Confirm your parcel with the Chatham County Tax Commissioner at 912-652-7100 or the Board of Assessors at 912-652-7271.
Frequently asked questions
These are the questions I get most from buyers and new Chatham County owners.
How much is property tax in Chatham County GA?
There is no single amount, because your bill depends on which jurisdictions your parcel sits in and which exemptions you carry. Using the published 2026 rates and no exemptions, a $335,000 home inside Savannah works out to about $5,432 a year across county, transit, school, and city millage, and about $4,729 unincorporated. Both figures are illustrations, not quotes. Exemptions and the local sales tax credit lower a real bill.
How is property tax calculated in Chatham County?
Fair market value times a 40% assessment ratio, minus exemptions, times the millage rate of each taxing jurisdiction. The City of Savannah states the formula as fair market value times assessment rate, minus exemptions, equals taxable value, then taxable value times millage rate equals taxes due. The Chatham County Tax Commissioner defines a mill as $1 per $1,000 of assessed value. The Board of Assessors sets the value; the Tax Commissioner bills and collects.
What is the millage rate in Chatham County for 2026?
There is no one rate. Chatham County’s published 2026 notice sets General Maintenance and Operations at 10.518 mills, the Special Service District at 6.502 mills, and Chatham Area Transit at 0.940 mills. Savannah-Chatham schools carried a combined 17.331 mills forward with no change, and the City of Savannah put forward 11.749 mills, unchanged from 2025. Confirm the final adopted rate for your jurisdiction before relying on it.
When are Chatham County property taxes due?
Real property is billed in two installments. The Chatham County Tax Commissioner states that the first bill is mailed by April 1 and is due June 1, and the second bill is mailed by September 15 and is due November 15. Personal property is due annually by November 15. The City of Savannah bills separately, in April with payment typically due mid-June and in September with payment typically due mid-November.
Do I pay both city and county property taxes in Savannah?
Yes, and you receive two separate bills. The Chatham County Tax Commissioner’s bill legend notes that Savannah and Thunderbolt send their own tax bills, so a Savannah homeowner pays the county, transit, and school millage on the county bill and the city millage on a separate City of Savannah bill. Paying one does not clear the other. Unincorporated owners pay the Special Service District rate instead of a city rate.
How do I appeal my property tax assessment in Chatham County?
File a written appeal with the Chatham County Board of Assessors within 45 days of the date on your annual Notice of Assessment. You must declare your appeal method in that initial filing: Board of Equalization, arbitration, or, for qualifying higher-value non-homestead property, a hearing officer. Each path allows a further petition for review to Superior Court. Appeals can be based on value, taxability, uniformity, or the denial of an exemption.
Does Chatham County have a homestead exemption?
Yes. Chatham County owner-occupants can receive the standard Georgia homestead exemption plus the local Stephens-Day exemption, and additional exemptions exist for qualifying seniors, disabled homeowners, and disabled veterans. All of them are granted by the Board of Assessors, not the Tax Commissioner, and they appear as codes in the exemptions box on your bill. If that box is blank on your primary residence, call the Board of Assessors at 912-652-7271.
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