About Taxes

What does the Assessor do?

The Assessor is required by the Louisiana Constitution to list, value, and enumerate all property subject to ad valorem taxation on an assessment roll each year. The "ad valorem" basis for taxation means that all property should be taxed "according to value". The assessed value is a percentage of "Fair Market Value" or "Use Value" as prescribed by the Constitution.

What the Assessor does not do.     

The Assessor does not raise or lower taxes. The assessor does not make the laws which affect property owners. The Constitution of the State of Louisiana, as adopted by the voters, provides the basic framework for taxation, and tax laws are made by the Louisiana Legislature. The rules and regulations for assessment are set by the Louisiana Tax Commission. The tax dollars are levied by the taxing bodies, such as the police jury, school board, library, and are collected by the Sheriff's Office as Ex-Officio Tax Collector. The assessor's office has nothing to do with the total amount of taxes collected. The assessor's primary responsibility is to find the "fair market value" of your property so that you may only pay your fair share of the taxes. The amount of taxes you pay is determined by a "tax rate" applied to your property's assessed value. The "tax rate" is determined by all the taxing agencies within a district, city, or parish, and those rates fixed by the Constitution. They include school districts, police juries, law enforcement districts, etc. The tax rate is the basis for the budget needed or demanded by the voters to provide for services such as schools, roads, law enforcement, etc. Tax rates are simply those rates which will provide funds to pay for those services.     

The Assessor does not collect taxes.     

By Constitutional law the Sheriff of each parish has been established as the Agency to Collect and distribute the property taxes to the various agencies in each Parish. The Washington Parish Tax Collector is responsible for mailing the tax notices and collecting the taxes based on the assessments and the millage rates. The annual parish tax notices are mailed out in November and are due by December 31 of that year. Each municipality within the parish is responsible for mailing the tax notices and collecting the taxes based on the assessments and the millage rates for that municipality. The municipality sets these millage rates or tax rates. The different governing bodies within the parish set millage rates for the parish. These governing bodies include the Washington Parish School Board, Washington Parish Sheriff, Washington Parish Council, and several others. Also, there may be additional millages set for the individual Fire Districts, Recreation Districts, etc. that depend on where the property is located.