Fountain Hills, AZ tax rate: property tax and sales tax, explained

No. The Town of Fountain Hills doesn't levy a property tax of its own. According to the town's own property tax page, Fountain Hills "does not have a primary property tax," and any property tax the town levies would need voter approval first. The county's own 2026 tax rate table backs that up: it lists the town's rate at $0.0000 per $100 of assessed value, both primary and secondary.

I'm Jen Keene, a REALTOR® with eXp Realty Luxury in Scottsdale, AZ, and I'm the agent people call at every stage of their life. Fountain Hills is its own town, separate from Scottsdale, with its own council and its own tax structure. The town's own piece of your bill reads $0.00. That doesn't mean there's no bill at all.

Because the bill isn't just the town's. Maricopa County sends one combined property tax bill to every property in the county, including every home in Fountain Hills, and it folds in every taxing jurisdiction that reaches your address. The town's own page on taxing districts points to the Fountain Hills Sanitary District as one example: a separate special taxing district that levies its own property tax inside its boundaries. According to the county's adopted rate table, that rate was $0.8526 per $100 of assessed value for 2026 and $0.9007 for 2025, so it is a real line on your bill even though the town's is zero. Your school district (Fountain Hills Unified School District #98, not Scottsdale Unified), the county itself, the state, and the community college district can all show up on the same bill.

Two county offices handle it, and they do different jobs. The Treasurer's Office sends the bill, takes your payment, and can tell you what's owed. The Assessor's Office sets the value the tax is based on. "What do I owe and when" goes to the Treasurer. "Why is the value what it is" goes to the Assessor.

1. Go to treasurer.maricopa.gov. The tax search is right on the home page, and it covers every parcel in the county, including Fountain Hills.
2. Enter a parcel number if you have one. According to the Treasurer, you enter only the first eight numbers, followed by the letter if there is one.
3. No parcel number? Search by address or name. The Treasurer's search takes an address, a name, or a business name.
4. Once you're on the record, you can see what's owed and pay online. The Treasurer's payment page lists e-check, debit and credit cards, and digital wallets.
5. For the value itself, what it is, how it was set, or how to appeal it, go to mcassessor.maricopa.gov, which has its own search by address or parcel.

If you'd rather skip the paper bill, the Treasurer's home page says to use the eNoticesOnline authorization code from your tax bill to sign up for paperless billing.

The Assessor sets two values on every property in the county every year, Fountain Hills included. Full Cash Value is meant to track what the home would sell for. Limited Property Value is the number that actually gets taxed, and under Arizona's Proposition 117 it can rise by no more than 5% a year and can never be higher than Full Cash Value (A.R.S. 42-13301). For an owner-occupied home, Arizona law sets the assessment ratio at 10%, so the rates on your bill apply to 10% of the Limited Property Value.

Because the Town of Fountain Hills applies no rate of its own to that number, your bill is built entirely from the other jurisdictions on it: the county, your school district, the state, and any special district that reaches your address, like the Fountain Hills Sanitary District. Each one sets its own rate separately, which is why two homes in Fountain Hills can carry different totals even at the same assessed value.

Under Arizona law (A.R.S. 42-18052), the first half is due October 1 and becomes delinquent after 5 p.m. on November 1, and the second half is due March 1 and becomes delinquent after 5 p.m. on May 1. You can also pay the full year by December 31 and skip the second payment, and the Treasurer's calendar lists that date as the last day to pay the full year without interest. If the whole year's tax is $100 or less, it isn't split. It's due in full October 1 and becomes delinquent after 5 p.m. on December 31. Once a payment is delinquent, interest runs at 16% a year, simple interest, and a fraction of a month counts as a whole month (A.R.S. 42-18053).

This year: November 1, 2026 is a Sunday, and the same statute moves a weekend delinquency date to 5 p.m. on the next business day. So the first-half deadline for 2026 is 5 p.m. on Monday, November 2, and the Treasurer's calendar lists that date. The second half of this same tax year is due March 1, 2027 and would be delinquent after May 1, 2027, but May 1, 2027 is also a Saturday, so that delinquency date moves to 5 p.m. on Monday, May 3, 2027. AZFamily reported on September 30, 2026 that Maricopa County sent some bills later than usual countywide, with officials pointing to late changes to the levy and rates and problems rolling out a new computer system, and that you can view and pay online without waiting for the mailed bill. Check the Treasurer's calendar for the current dates.

The Assessor mails a Notice of Value before March 1 each year (A.R.S. 42-15101), showing your Full Cash Value and your Limited Property Value for the coming tax year. That notice is the one to read, because it's also when your appeal window opens.

You have 60 days from the date the Assessor mailed it to file an appeal (A.R.S. 42-16051), and the Assessor accepts appeals online. According to the Assessor, you can appeal the Full Cash Value and the classification, but not the Limited Property Value. Bring your own opinion of what the home is worth and something to back it up, like comparable sales, a recent appraisal, or photos of a condition issue the office wouldn't otherwise know about. A court appeal has its own deadline of December 15 (A.R.S. 42-16201), so ask the Assessor which year applies to you.

Notices go out before March 1, so by the time the fall tax bill arrives the 60 days on the notice has usually already run out. Open the notice when it comes.

Arizona's Senior Valuation Protection program lets a qualifying homeowner freeze their Limited Property Value for three years. According to the Maricopa County Assessor, at least one owner must be 65 or older, the home must have been your primary residence for two years, and household income from all sources must be under a limit the Assessor publishes, so check the current figure on the Assessor's Senior Valuation Protection page. The freeze has to be renewed every three years.

The Assessor's form says the program doesn't freeze your property taxes, it freezes the taxable portion of your property value. Since the Town of Fountain Hills already applies $0.00 to that value, the freeze won't change your town's piece of the bill, which is already zero. What it does freeze is the number your county, school district and any special district on your bill apply their own rates to, and each of those can still change its rate, so your bill can still move.

The application window runs from January 1 through September 1 each year, and the Assessor says a late application is processed for the following tax year. For 2026 that window has closed, and the Assessor says 2027 applications open after January 1, 2027.

According to the Town of Fountain Hills' own tax information page, the town's retail transaction privilege tax rate is 2.9%, and that rate has been in place since November 1, 2019, when it rose from 2.6%. The state and county add their own share on top: the town's tax page lists the combined state and county rate at 6.3%, for a combined total of 9.2% on a retail sale in Fountain Hills.

Fountain Hills is what the state calls a "program city." According to the town, that means the tax isn't collected by the town directly. It's reported to and collected by the Arizona Department of Revenue on form TPT-EZ or TPT-2, the same as most other Arizona cities and towns. The town's own page also lists separate rates for a few other categories: commercial rentals (2.9% local plus 0.5% county) and transient lodging on stays under 30 days (a combined 14.17%). Check the town's current tax information page before relying on any of those for a specific transaction, since rates and categories can change.

"No property tax" doesn't mean no bill. The town's own rate is $0.00, but the county, your school district and any special district on your parcel still bill you every year through the same combined notice.

One combined bill, several jurisdictions. The county, the school district, the state, and a special district like the Fountain Hills Sanitary District can all appear on one notice, and each sets its own rate.

An old mailing address. If the county has an old address on file, the Notice of Value and the bill can both go to the wrong place, and the 60-day appeal clock keeps running anyway.

Last year's bill as this year's answer. The Limited Property Value can move by up to 5% a year, and the districts can change their rates, so check the current figures rather than last year's.

The senior freeze deadline. The application window closes September 1, so apply early in the year if you think you qualify.

If you're buying, look up the actual bill for a specific property at treasurer.maricopa.gov before you write an offer, because that's a better number than a guess based on what a neighbor pays or what the town's zero property tax rate implies on its own. Here's where that fits into what your budget actually buys. Here's the rest of what buying in Fountain Hills looks like.

If you're selling, prorated property taxes up to the closing date are one of the lines at closing, and here's how closing costs work in Arizona. The Sanitary District's property tax is on the county bill and prorates like the rest. The sewer is billed separately: the district bills sewer user fees directly, quarterly, and availability fees annually, so those never appear on the county bill. Before closing, your title company sends the district an inquiry form to see what is owed, and it needs your close of escrow date and the new owner's information. Without them, the district says the previous owner may keep getting billed. If the date moves, the form has to be updated. The district's billing office can be reached at (480) 837-9444 or through az-fhsd.gov, and here is how selling in Fountain Hills works.

If you just need the number, go to treasurer.maricopa.gov and search by parcel, address or name. If you want to know why the value is what it is, mcassessor.maricopa.gov has your value figures and the appeal portal. For the sales tax rate on a purchase, the Town of Fountain Hills' own tax information page has the current figures.

If you're buying or selling in Fountain Hills and want help reading a specific bill or a Notice of Value, get in touch or call me at (480) 203-6605, and bring the parcel number or the address.