Property tax in Calloway County, Kentucky

Who sends the property tax bill in Calloway County, and how do you pay it?

The bill comes from the Calloway County Sheriff's Office (tax office). The value it is based on is set by a separate office, the Calloway County Property Valuation Administrator (PVA), which is who to ask if the value looks wrong. For how to look up and pay the bill, go to the county's own payment information.

The City of Murray bills its own property tax separately, so owners inside the city get a city bill from Murray City Hall as well as the sheriff's bill. The sheriff takes cash, check or money order at its office at 701 Olive Street in Murray, by mail, or through a 24-hour drop box on the west side of the building; do not mail cash. Card payments are taken only online, through an outside payment site. A returned check costs $50. Not receiving a bill does not cancel the tax; call the sheriff's tax office if yours has not arrived.

When are property taxes due in Calloway County?

For the 2026 bill, Calloway County has one due date: December 31, 2026. Kentucky sends one bill a year, with no installments. The sheriff applies the 2% early payment discount to payments postmarked by November 15, later than the November 1 date in state law. November 15, 2026 is a Sunday, and the county has not said whether a Monday payment still gets the discount, so pay in person by Friday, November 13, or make sure a mailed payment is postmarked by November 15. State law makes the face amount due by December 31, 2026, a Thursday; the sheriff has not published its own 2026 face amount deadline. The schedule printed at the top right of your bill and on the payment stub, showing the amount due by date, is the one that applies. Under state law an unpaid bill carries a 5% penalty for the first month after the face amount period ends and a 10% penalty after that, and the sheriff then adds a collection fee equal to 10% of the tax plus 10% of that penalty, 21% in all. On the regular state schedule that means 5% in January 2027 and 21% from February 1, 2027. Unpaid bills go to the Calloway County Clerk after April 15, 2027, where interest of 1% a month plus a county clerk fee and a county attorney fee are added, and the unpaid bill can be sold to a third-party buyer.

From Calloway County's published schedule, checked September 23, 2026. The county had not posted a calendar labeled for this cycle when we checked, so these dates come from state law and the county's standing schedule; the date on your bill is the one that binds you.

Estimate the property tax on a home in Calloway County

Enter a home's market value for a ballpark at Calloway County's average effective rate of 0.65% (Census). The real bill depends on the home's assessed value, the millage where it sits and any exemptions.

Property tax in Calloway County at a glance

Effective rate = median real estate taxes paid divided by median home value. Source: U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey 5-year estimates.

How does Calloway County compare in Kentucky?

Among Kentucky's 120 counties, Calloway County has the 77th highest effective property-tax rate: 76 rank higher and 43 rank lower. That is on the lower side for Kentucky. Nationally, it ranks 2074th of 3135 US counties by effective rate. See every Kentucky county ranked.

How much do homeowners in Calloway County actually pay?

The median is only the middle bill. Across Calloway County's 9,738 owner-occupied homes, 6% pay $3,000 or more a year in property tax, 19.5% pay at least $2,000, and 31.3% pay under $800. Another 5% report paying no property tax at all, which usually means an exemption covers the whole bill.

Owners with a mortgage pay a median of $1,403 and owners without one pay $958. Owners who have paid off a home have usually held it longer, and in states that cap how fast an existing owner's assessment can rise, long-held homes carry lower assessed values. Census table B25103.

How does the Calloway County property tax bill compare with local incomes?

The median property tax bill of $1,195 is about 1.8% of the median income of Calloway County homeowner households, $66,745 a year. That compares two middles, so a retiree in a long-held home can pay a far larger share. 63.9% of Calloway County's occupied homes are lived in by their owners; renters pay property tax too, just folded into rent.

Have property taxes gone up in Calloway County?

Yes. The median bill went from $971 in 2015-2019 to $1,195 in 2020-2024, a 23.1% rise. Over the same span the median home value moved 33.4%, from $137,300 to $183,200. Bills rose more slowly than values, which is what assessment caps and falling millage rates do: the county is taxing a smaller share of each home's worth.

Two Census ACS 5-year periods with no survey years in common, in each period's own dollars. A change counts only if it exceeds the combined 90% margin of error.

Property tax in counties next to Calloway County

Calloway County borders 5 counties, 2 of them across the state line.

How is a home assessed in Calloway County?

Kentucky assesses homes at 100% of market value in every county, Calloway County included. How Kentucky assesses and reappraises homes.

Is there a homestead exemption in Calloway County?

Only for older and disabled owners. Kentucky's homestead exemption is age and disability based; an owner-occupant under 65 who is not totally disabled gets none. That is the Kentucky rule, and it applies in Calloway County. Kentucky's exemptions and relief programs in full.

Calloway County does not add relief programs of its own beyond the Kentucky ones (checked September 23, 2026).

How to appeal your Calloway County property assessment

In Calloway County you appeal to the Calloway County Board of Assessment Appeals (appeals are filed with the Calloway County Clerk). The deadline: First ask the PVA for a conference, before the tax roll inspection period ends. That period normally begins the first Monday in May and ends the third Monday in May. If the conference does not settle it, file a written appeal with the Calloway County Clerk no later than one workday after the inspection period ends, normally the third Tuesday in May. The window for 2026 assessments has passed; the next one normally opens in May 2027. How to file. Checked September 23, 2026 against the official appeal rules.

How Kentucky's appeal process works, including the next level if the first one turns you down.

Kentucky rules from primary state sources, reviewed September 7, 2026; sources on the Kentucky page.

Work out your own numbers

• How much house can I afford?

  Your income, debts and down payment against the 28/36 rule lenders actually use, with Calloway County's tax rate to hand.

• Mortgage calculator

  Monthly payment with principal, interest, tax and insurance, plus what an extra payment saves you.

• Kentucky income tax

  Brackets, standard deduction and what Kentucky actually taxes.

• Sales tax in Calloway County

  The other local tax: combined state and local rate for this county.