Why two Lincoln County properties can have very different tax bills

Two homes in Lincoln County can be worth about the same and still get different tax bills. The reason is usually not the house — it is the map.

A Colorado property tax bill is built from three parts: the property’s actual value, a state assessment rate that turns that into an assessed value, and the combined mill levy of every local district the parcel sits inside. That last part is where neighbors diverge. A home inside the town of Limon or Hugo, or inside a fire, school, water, or other special district, carries those districts’ levies. A ranch a few miles out on county land may sit in a different mix.

So when you compare two properties, you are really comparing two stacks of districts. One extra district, or one missing one, can move the bill.

Tax rates change year to year, so this note points you to the tools rather than naming a number. To see which districts a Lincoln County parcel falls in and how its taxes are figured, use the Colorado Division of Property Taxation and the county assessor.