Property Tax

Watch for a Taxpayer Statement from the Polk County Auditor

Residents will soon receive their taxpayer statement from the Polk County Auditor regarding the upcoming public hearings on the proposed property tax levy for the city, county and school district. This mailing is required by legislation passed in 2023 and amended in 2024. As a result, this marks the second year that counties must distribute these notifications, which must be mailed to property owners by March 15. 

Key information included in the taxpayer statement: 

• Current year’s property tax dollars levied 
• Next year’s effective property tax dollars, adjusted for property valuation changes 
• Next year’s proposed property tax levy dollars 

The bottom section of the statement provides an explanation regarding any increase in property tax collections. 

Additionally, the statement includes a comparative analysis of the current and proposed property tax amounts for both $100,000 residential and $300,000 commercial properties.

Taxpayers should note that for the first time the calculations assume a 10% assessed valuation increase for all property classifications. This assumption does not impact the vast majority of property owners for assessment year 2024.  In most cases the actual assessed valuation will remain unchanged from the previous year.  Exceptions include new construction, existing properties that made improvements, annexation or reclassified property.

This means that while the mailed taxpayer statement will show a 12.64% property tax increase for residential properties and a 13.98% property tax increase for commercial properties, the actual property tax increase for residential properties is 2.4% and 0.79% for commercial properties.

While the letter from the Polk County Auditor serves as an informative resource, property owners may obtain a more precise estimate of their current and proposed City of Ankeny tax obligations on the Iowa Department of Management’s website: https://dom.iowa.gov/local-government/citizen-property-tax-guide (scroll down to the Citizen Property Tax Estimation Tool, Fiscal Year 2025 - 2026). Please note that the calculator does not take into account individual property tax exemptions or credits.