Manatee County property tax: millage rates, homestead exemption and a worked bill

At a glance

Manatee County property tax rates by district

Manatee's property appraiser publishes one summary sheet each year with a total millage for every ad valorem tax district. The district number on your parcel record decides which total applies, and in unincorporated Manatee that mostly comes down to which fire district serves the address. A mill is $1 of tax for every $1,000 of taxable value.

2025 adopted totals by district

What makes up the East Manatee Fire Rescue total

The 14.1600 total for district 0310 is built from the countywide levies (5.5493 for county operating, transportation, library and parks, plus 0.4833 voter-approved for children's services and environmental lands), the 0.6109 unincorporated MSTU, the school board's 6.3040, East Manatee Fire Rescue's 0.8500, and three regional levies: Southwest Florida Water Management District at 0.1831, the mosquito control district at 0.1400 and the West Coast Inland Navigation District at 0.0394. Everything except the school levies, 7.8560 mills, is the non-school share that the second homestead exemption and Amendment 3 reach.

What changes in 2026

The 2026 proposed sheet raises East Manatee Fire Rescue from 0.8500 to 1.0000 mills, trims the school total from 6.3040 to 6.2750 and cuts mosquito control to 0.1256, so district 0310 moves up to a proposed 14.2666. North River Fire goes from 0.5000 to 0.7500. Final rates are set at the September hearings, and the figures here are the proposals printed on the August 2026 TRIM notices.

Five years of change, 2021 to 2025

Most Manatee districts carry a lower total than in 2021. East Manatee Fire Rescue fell from 15.1621 to 14.1600, the basic unincorporated district from 14.3621 to 13.3100, Bradenton from 19.6488 to 18.4092 and Palmetto from 19.7183 to 19.1662. A lower rate does not always mean a lower bill, because assessed values can still rise within the Save Our Homes cap.

Worked example: a Manatee County tax bill with and without homestead

This example takes Zillow's August 2026 typical home value for Manatee County, $407,828, and the 2025 East Manatee Fire Rescue total of 14.1600. It assumes the appraiser's assessed value matches that figure, which is a simplification: just value is set as of January 1 and rarely equals a sale price. Taxable value times millage divided by 1,000 gives the tax, and the school and non-school parts are worked separately because the second exemption skips school levies.

Line by line

The $50,722 non-school exemption is the base $25,000 plus the 2025 inflation-adjusted second exemption of $25,722. On these numbers homestead is worth about $556 a year.

The same math on a Lakewood Ranch home

Zillow's August 2026 typical value for Lakewood Ranch was $585,199. In district 0310 that works out to about $7,730 with homestead ($3,531 school plus $4,199 non-school) and $8,286 without it. Most newer Lakewood Ranch villages then add a stewardship district assessment, covered below, so compare the whole bill, not the millage alone. See the Lakewood Ranch buying and selling guide for the rest of the local costs.

Running it at the 2026 proposed rate

At the proposed 2026 total of 14.2666 (6.2750 school, 7.9916 non-school) and the 2026 second-exemption maximum of $26,411, the same $407,828 home would come to about $5,251 with homestead and $5,818 without it. The appraiser's own estimator on each parcel page lets you plug in your exemptions.

Manatee County homestead and other exemptions

The statewide rules are in our Florida homestead exemption guide. This section covers how they work in Manatee.

Homestead exemption

You must be a permanent Florida resident owning and living in the home on January 1, and you file with the Manatee County Property Appraiser by March 1. The office prefers online filing, and the property must already be in your name before you start an online application. Your first application also covers the additional exemption on assessed value above $50,000.

What to have ready

The appraiser asks for Florida driver licenses or ID cards, the tag numbers of vehicles you own, a Manatee voter registration card or a declaration of domicile, a resident alien card if you are not a US citizen, and the full trust agreement or a recorded memorandum of trust if a trust holds title. Citizenship is not required.

Low-income senior exemption

Manatee County commissioners have approved $25,000 off county millage for qualifying owners aged 65 or older, and Anna Maria, Longboat Key, Bradenton Beach and Holmes Beach give a $25,000 exemption from city millage too. School and independent district taxes cannot be reduced by it. Household income must fall under a limit adjusted each year for inflation.

Applying for the senior exemption

Applications run from January 1 to March 1, and income paperwork (federal returns, W-2s, 1099s and similar records for everyone in the household) is due by June 1. You can file by mail or at the appraiser's office at 915 4th Ave. W., Bradenton, weekdays 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Ask the office for the current income limit before you apply.

Widow, widower, disability and veteran exemptions

The appraiser also accepts applications for widow's or widower's, disabled veteran, service-connected disability, total and permanent disability, blind, quadriplegic and wheelchair-confined exemptions. Call 941-748-8208 for the forms if you cannot print them.

Save Our Homes and portability in Manatee

Once homestead starts, your assessed value can rise by no more than 3% or the change in CPI, whichever is lower. The Department of Revenue lists that cap at 2.9% for 2025 and 2.7% for 2026. The Manatee appraiser's own example: buy and apply in June 2012, the exemption starts January 1, 2013, and the cap first applies in 2014.

What happens when a capped home sells

The exemption and cap stay through December 31 of the year of sale, then the assessed value resets to market value on January 1. Budget from your purchase price, not the seller's bill, because the appraiser warns buyers of capped homes to expect a higher bill the next year. Additions such as a pool are added at market value in the year they appear and capped after that.

Renting out a homestead

The Manatee appraiser treats renting the primary residence on January 1 as abandoning the homestead, so check with the office before listing a homesteaded house for rent. Moving your cap to a new Florida home under portability needs its own application by March 1.

Paying Manatee County property taxes

The property appraiser values the land and sends the TRIM notice in August, and the Manatee County Tax Collector, Ken Burton Jr, sends and collects the bill.

Discounts for paying early

For a single annual payment, the discount is 4% from November 3 to December 2, 3% from December 3 to 31, 2% in January and 1% in February. March brings no discount, and March 31 is the last day before taxes turn delinquent. In-person payments are due by 5 p.m. and online or postmarked payments by 11:59 p.m.

Quarterly installment plan

If last year's taxes topped $100 you can pay in four installments instead. The first is due June 30 (6% discount) or July 31 (no discount), then September 30 (4.5%), December 31 (3%) and March 31 (no discount). You must apply to join the plan.

Branches and appointments

In-person service needs an appointment. The East Manatee Branch at 10705 Technology Terrace, Bradenton, and the West Manatee Branch at 819 301 Blvd W both have drive-thru drop boxes for property tax payments, and both open Monday to Friday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. The tax collector posts accepted payment methods and in-person processing fees in its help center, so check those before paying by card.

If a payment is late

From April 1 unpaid taxes are delinquent and can pick up fees, interest and collection costs. For delinquent payments the office goes by the date it receives the money, not the postmark, and the bill can lead to a tax certificate sale.

Assessments on a Manatee bill that are not in the millage

The TRIM notice lists non-ad valorem assessments for services such as roads, fire, garbage, lighting, drainage, water and sewer from the county, a city or a special district. In the fast-growing east county, special districts can add more than a thousand dollars a year.

Lakewood Ranch Stewardship District

Most newer Lakewood Ranch villages sit in the Lakewood Ranch Stewardship District, created by the Legislature in 2005, which collects a bond debt service assessment and an operations and maintenance assessment on the Manatee and Sarasota tax bills. Its FY2026 schedule lists, for example, $671.30 of debt service plus $393.71 of O&M (net) for a Star Farms lot in one bond series, and $1,678.87 plus $678.04 for a 64-foot Wild Blue lot. Our Florida CDD fees guide explains how these differ from HOA dues.

University Park Recreation District

University Park's country club is owned by an independent special district. After litigation over up to $21 million of bonds ended in 2026, the district said an annual bond assessment of roughly $906 to $2,858 per property would appear on the 2026 bill, in place of a proposed one-time irrigation charge.

How to check a parcel

Open the latest bill on the tax collector's site and read every non-ad valorem line with its levying authority. For a district bond, ask whether the balance can be prepaid, since the stewardship district notes that bond assessments may be paid in full at closing.

Challenging a Manatee County assessment

Start by calling the property appraiser about the market value, classification or exemptions shown on your TRIM notice. An informal conference is optional and does not extend any deadline.

Value Adjustment Board petitions

Petitions go to the Manatee County Clerk of Circuit Court as clerk of the Value Adjustment Board, with a $50 filing fee. The deadline is 4:30 p.m. on the 25th day after the TRIM notice is mailed, and it is printed on the notice. For 2026 the value petition deadline was September 11, the same as the late-file deadline, and exemption denial petitions were due July 24.

What helps a petition

Bring recent comparable sales near January 1, photos of condition problems and repair quotes. Statewide VAB rules, including paying part of the tax while a petition is pending, are in our Florida property tax guide.

Amendment 3 on the November 2026 ballot

Amendment 3 would raise the homestead exemption from non-school taxes to $150,000 in 2027 and $250,000 in 2028, adjusted for inflation after that, and would cut the yearly assessment cap on non-homestead property from 10% to 5%. People who are not Florida residents on December 31, 2026 would get the existing exemption first, with the larger one starting in their fifth year of exemption. The Manatee appraiser notes that school taxes, Save Our Homes, portability and the senior, veteran and disability exemptions would not change.

What it could mean in East Manatee

For the $407,828 home above, raising the non-school exemption from $50,722 to $150,000 would remove $99,278 of taxable value at 7.8560 mills, about $780 a year before any rate changes. Stewardship and CDD assessments are not ad valorem taxes, so they would not shrink.

Manatee County property tax data

Median tax paid and home values

The Census Bureau's 2024 American Community Survey (1-year) puts the median real estate taxes paid by Manatee homeowners at $3,356, with a median owner-occupied value of $433,800 and a median household income of $81,395. The median is lower than the worked bill above because many owners have held capped homesteads for years.

A growing tax base

Census estimates put Manatee's population at 468,200 in July 2025, up from 399,711 at the 2020 base, an increase of about 17%. Almost all of that growth came from people moving in, since deaths outnumbered births in every year from 2021 to 2025. Zillow's typical Manatee home value was down 3.4% over the year to August 2026 but up 13.9% over five years. Compare neighbouring Sarasota County property tax if the home is near the county line.

Common questions

Sources

• Manatee County Property Appraiser: 2025 Summary of Millage Rates by Tax District
• Manatee County Property Appraiser: 2026 Proposed Millages
• Manatee County Property Appraiser: 2021 Final Adopted Millage Rates
• Manatee County Property Appraiser: Exemptions and Save Our Homes
• Manatee County Property Appraiser: Low Income Senior Exemption
• Manatee County Property Appraiser: Estimating Your Taxes
• Manatee County Property Appraiser: TRIM Notices
• Manatee County Property Appraiser: Value Adjustment Board
• Manatee County Property Appraiser: Amendment 3
• Manatee County Tax Collector: Current Property Taxes
• Manatee County Tax Collector: Installments
• Manatee County Tax Collector: Delinquent Property Taxes
• Manatee County Tax Collector: Plan your visit
• Florida Department of Revenue: Additional Homestead Exemption Adjustment (revised January 2026)
• Florida Department of Revenue: Save Our Homes annual increase table (revised January 2026)
• Florida Department of Revenue: Property Tax Benefits for Persons 65 or Older (PT-110)
• Florida Department of State: Proposed Constitutional Amendments, November 3, 2026
• Lakewood Ranch Stewardship District: FY2026 annual assessment schedule
• Lakewood Ranch Stewardship District: Annual non-ad valorem assessments
• University Park Recreation District: Your annual bond assessment (August 2026)
• University Park Recreation District: Florida Supreme Court clears the way for UPRD capital improvements
• Census Reporter: ACS 2024 1-year, Manatee County (B25103, B25077, B19013)
• US Census Bureau: County population totals and components of change, 2020-2025
• Zillow Research: Zillow Home Value Index (August 2026 data)