Palm Beach homeowners will soon get a picture of how much they may owe in 2026 property taxes as the Palm Beach County Appraiser Office prepares to mail out preliminary tax-bill estimates to all county residents on Aug. 20.
Property taxes are a major deal for Palm Beach, where some property tax bills can easily run into the hundreds of thousands of dollars. The estimated value of Palm Beach’s taxable property is always near the top of the list when compared to other municipalities in the county.
This year, Boca Raton topped the chart with roughly $42.7 billion in estimated taxable value, compared to Palm Beach’s $37.7 billion, Palm Beach Property Appraiser Dorothy Jacks said during a recent presentation at Palm Beach Town Hall. But Jacks emphasized that Palm Beach was not far behind — and with a fraction of the taxable parcels that make up the much larger Boca Raton.
“Boca Raton has 45,000 parcels and you have 9,000 parcels,” she told the Town Council on Aug. 12.
She placed the estimate of the total “market value” of the property in Palm Beach at roughly $59.5 billion. The market-value estimates — which will be finalized this fall — are the starting point for figuring property taxes for 2026.
Once her office incorporated reductions from so-called “value cap” limits and property-tax exemptions, the town’s preliminary taxable value falls to $37.7 billion.
The values are assigned by Jacks’ staff to each real estate parcel based on market conditions as of Jan. 1 of this year, according a statement about the estimates released by the agency.
Palm Beach could soon see a larger discrepancy in the difference between their market values and the taxable values if voters approve in November a proposed constitutional amendment aimed at slashing property taxes.
The future of that amendment is up in the air, as a Tallahassee judge recently ordered the redrafting of Amendment 3’s title and summary language for the November ballot.
Tax-bill estimates to be released Aug. 20
Jacks’ appearance at the council came a little more than a week before her office is expected to mail the preliminary 2026 tax-bill estimates to the county’s taxpayers, including those in Palm Beach.
Those preliminary tax-bill estimates will reflect the Property Appraiser Office’s best predictions about tax bills, based on the estimated assessed values in the office assigned to every taxable property in the count. The forecast also factors any exemption or caps on those assessments.
“Although the Town of Palm Beach is geographically small, its contribution to Palm Beach County’s tax base is substantial,” Jacks told the Daily News on Aug. 7. “As residents receive their (preliminary tax-bill) notices, I encourage them to carefully review their property values, exemptions, proposed taxes and public-hearing information, and to contact our office with any questions about their value or exemptions.”
The tax notices property owners will receive are only estimates and the final amount may change, depending on the outcome of budget hearings to be held in September by towns, cities and other taxing authorities. Beyond estimates, the notice also includes a list of local taxing authorities and a schedule for each of their budget hearings.
In Palm Beach, the budget and accompanying tax rates will be considered by the Town Council during a special meeting on Sept. 8 before their expected adoption at another meeting on Sept. 17. Final tax bills must be mailed to property owners in time to meet a Nov. 1 deadline.
Owners who believe the notice’s market value of their property is inaccurate or is missing an exemption should call Jacks’ office to speak with an appraiser, according to the property appraiser’s website. Alternatively, property owners have until Sept. 14 to file a petition of objection with the state-authorized Value Adjustment Board.
Tax amendment under rewrites
During the Aug. 12 Town Council meeting, Jacks touched on the controversial constitutional amendment that has been discussed at multiple meetings by Palm Beach officials.
Amendment 3 would raise the homestead exemption on non-school taxes from $50,000 to $150,000 in 2027, and to $250,000 in 2028, Jacks said.
She said that portion of the amendment would not affect Palm Beach as much as it’s expected to impact less-affluent municipalities, if the change to the Florida constitution passes.
If it does pass, she said, many municipalities might have to raise their tax rates to compensate for the revenue losses.
But what’s likely to disproportionately affect Palm Beach, she said, is the amendment’s reduction of the annual assessment cap for non-homesteaded properties, which would drop from 10% to 5% for non-residential properties and homes that are not the owners’ primary residences.
“It may have a bit more of an impact here, because your (market) values do tend to rise more than the 5% threshold,” Jacks told the council. “In Palm Beach, you may see that (the drop in percentage would) have more of an impact, especially on your commercial properties and non-homesteaded residential (properties).”
According to a previous analysis by Town Hall staff, the assessment cap would amount to a $1.6 million reduction in the town’s property tax revenue in the amendment’s first year.
But Amendment 3 recently hit rough waters, when 2nd Judicial Circuit Judge David Frank in Leon County ordered Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier to redraft the amendment’s title and summary language for the Nov. 3 ballot. Responding to a lawsuit challenging the amendment’s language, Frank ruled the language advocated for the amendment’s passage rather than simply explaining what it would do.
“I think the new ballot language will be much more contemplative of what will happen, or what is being voted upon,” Jacks told the council.
The proposed amendment, she said, would not actually reduce taxes but rather change the amount of a property’s value being taxed. That change will ideally be reflected in the new language, Jacks said.
Jacks noted that the attorney general had a deadline of Aug. 13 to submit the new language. The plaintiffs then have up to 10 days after that date to file a challenge to the new wording.
Mayor Danielle Moore wondered whether voters would vote on the amendment should a challenge be upheld. According to the state, the ballot would need to be finalized by the end of August to make it to November’s ballot.
“It would be interesting if they didn’t get the ballot language out in time,” Moore said. “That would give municipalities a break.”
To that point, Jacks noted that Florida is already two years away from re-examining its property taxes as part of the Florida Taxation and Budget Reform Commission review, which is constitutionally mandated every 20 years.
“So, one idea could be to let (the amendment) go, and then really work on it in a much more thoughtfully, contemplative and holistic (approach) in 2028,” Jacks said. “That’s what we hope for.”
This report contains information previously reported by Jim Rosica of the USA TODAY Network – Florida Capital Bureau.
Diego Diaz Lasa is a journalist at the Palm Beach Daily News, part of the USA TODAY Florida Network. You can reach him at dlasa@pbdailynews.com.
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Daily News: What might Palm Beachers pay in property taxes? Notices mail Aug. 20
Reporting by Diego Diaz Lasa, Palm Beach Daily News / Palm Beach Daily News
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By Diego Diaz Lasa, Palm Beach Daily News | USA TODAY Network
