It depends on the county: many bill once or twice a year, a few quarterly, and in Nevada the fiscal year runs July 1 to June 30 with bills mailed in July and four installments due the third Monday in August and the first Mondays in October, January and March.
There is no national due date, and there is not even a state one in most states, because property tax is collected by counties on their own calendars. What is consistent is the shape: the taxing authority sets a fiscal or tax year, mails one bill covering it, and names either a single due date or a set of installments. Missing one is not usually catastrophic on day one, because almost every jurisdiction has a grace period before a penalty attaches.
The three common shapes
Annual: one bill, one due date, common in smaller counties. Semiannual: two installments roughly six months apart, the pattern across much of the midwest and the mid-Atlantic. Quarterly: four installments, used in Nevada and in parts of the northeast, and the gentlest on a household paying the tax directly.
The other variable is whether the bill covers a calendar year or a fiscal year, and whether it is issued before or after the period it covers. Those two decide the proration when a house sells, which is a different question from when the money is due.
Nevada's four installments
The fiscal year is July 1 to June 30. The county treasurer mails the bill in July, and the tax is payable in four installments (NRS 361.483):
- First installment: the third Monday in August.
- Second installment: the first Monday in October.
- Third installment: the first Monday in January.
- Fourth installment: the first Monday in March.
The grace period, and what late costs
An installment is not penalised the day it is due. NRS 361.483 gives 10 days from the due date, and the penalty attaches only if the installment is still unpaid after that. The penalties then escalate with how many installments are outstanding: 4 percent when one is unpaid past the grace, 5 percent when two are, 6 percent when three are, and 7 percent of the full amount when the whole year is unpaid after the March installment's grace expires. Interest accrues on top once the bill goes delinquent.
A bill of $100 or less is not split at all: it is due in full at the August date. The exact penalty schedule and any waiver the treasurer can grant are the treasurer's to state, and unpaid taxes eventually become a lien that outranks the mortgage, which is a longer story on its own page.
If your loan escrows, you do not pay these
Most mortgages collect roughly a twelfth of the annual tax with each payment and hold it in an escrow account, and the servicer pays the treasurer on the due dates. The owner's job is to check that it happened, which the treasurer's parcel record shows, and to read the annual escrow analysis when it arrives, because a tax increase is the usual reason a payment changes.
A loan without an escrow account puts the four dates back on the owner. So does a paid-off house, and that is where the missed installment usually happens: the bill stops being invisible and starts being one of four dates nobody has in a calendar.
Questions people ask
What happens if you miss a property tax installment?
In Nevada nothing for 10 days, then a penalty of 4 percent of that installment, rising as further installments go unpaid. The account is delinquent rather than in foreclosure, and paying the installment plus the penalty clears it.
When do property tax bills come out?
In Nevada the treasurer mails them in July for the fiscal year that starts July 1. Elsewhere it depends on the county's tax year, but a bill normally arrives four to eight weeks before its first due date.
Can you pay property taxes in one payment instead of installments?
Yes. Nevada's installments are a floor, not a ceiling, and the whole year can be paid at the August date. Bills of $100 or less have to be paid in full then anyway.