If you want to check to see if you are charged the correct amount for your city taxes, get out your most recent Alameda County Tax Bill. On the right side at the top, there is a box labeled Fixed Charges and/or Special Assessments. These are city and other local taxes and fees.

The easiest one to calculate (and usually the largest) is the tax for the Berkeley Schools. It’s the 15th line down and it is displayed as SCHL ED PROGS/BSEP. Take the line item tax amount and divide it by 0.4336 (the tax rate). The result will give you the square footage value that the City of Berkeley uses to tax you for all of your/ or your tenants’ city services.

To find out the public record value that the Alameda County Assessor has for your home, you can call them at 510-272-3755, or you can try just googling your home’s address. Although sometimes Zillow or Redfin values are affected by input from Real Estate Professionals when they list property for sale or rent, so this is not always an accurate representation of the public record.

If your City Value is substantially larger than your public record value, then you may want to challenge the charges. Please start out by asking the Finance Department for a property card, which is a diagram of your home with measurements. You can reach them at finance@cityofberkeley.info. Once you receive this and if it appears to you that you are incorrectly charged for the size of your dwelling unit, you can ask for a refund with the City’s form

PSL-Claim-For-Refund-Form.pdf (berkeleyca.gov)

Please send us a message if you would like assistance with the process, or if you have any questions!