Beverly Hills Property Tax: Rates, Exemptions, and Deadlines

Beverly Hills property tax runs roughly 1.1 to 1.3 percent of a property’s assessed value each year. The one percent base rate is fixed by the California Constitution; the rest comes from voter-approved bonds and local assessments that vary by location.¹ Beverly Hills sits inside Los Angeles County, so the LA County Assessor sets your assessed value and the LA County Treasurer and Tax Collector sends the bill.

What Determines Your Bill

Proposition 13, passed in 1978, caps the base property tax rate at one percent of assessed value statewide.¹ On top of that, voters have approved school bonds, infrastructure bonds, and county service levies that add to your total rate. Every property is assigned to a tax rate area, a geographic zone defined by the overlapping local agencies and school districts at that location.² Two homes on the same Beverly Hills street can sit in different tax rate areas and pay slightly different totals.

Your annual bill also carries flat-dollar line items for things like Los Angeles County trauma and emergency medical services and local charges for refuse and sewer. Those don’t move with your assessed value. The bill itself shows your tax rate area number and a line-by-line breakdown of every charge.

How Your Assessed Value Is Set

What you actually pay depends far more on your assessed value than on your current market value. Under Proposition 13, when you buy a property or finish new construction, the assessor sets a “base year value” equal to the purchase price or construction cost.³ That value then grows by no more than two percent per year, no matter what the market does.

In Beverly Hills, where values have climbed sharply over decades, the cap creates large gaps between assessed and market values. A homeowner who bought in the 1990s might carry an assessed value of $600,000 on a home now worth $4 million. A new buyer of an identical house next door would owe tax on the full purchase price. That is the main reason two neighbors can have wildly different bills.

The two percent isn’t automatic. If market value drops below your factored base year value, the assessor must temporarily cut your assessed value to the lower market figure. That’s a Proposition 8 reduction.³ The assessor reviews these each year, and your assessed value can jump by more than two percent as it recovers toward the factored base year value. Once it gets back there, the regular two percent cap takes over again.

The Supplemental Bill New Buyers Miss

New owners often get caught off guard by a separate bill called a supplemental assessment. When a property changes hands or new construction is completed, the assessor recalculates the value as of that date and bills you for the difference between the old and new values, prorated over the months remaining in the fiscal year.⁴

The fiscal year runs July 1 through June 30. Close in October and your supplemental covers nine months; close in March and it covers three. Depending on timing, you may receive two supplemental bills: one for the current fiscal year and one for the next. If the new value is lower than the old one, you get a refund instead.

When and How to Pay

The annual secured bill splits into two installments:

First installment: due November 1, delinquent after 5 p.m. on December 10.
Second installment: due February 1, delinquent after 5 p.m. on April 10.⁵

If either date lands on a weekend or holiday, it shifts to the next business day.⁶ You’ll need your ten-digit Assessor’s Identification Number, which is printed on the bill and also searchable through the LA County Property Tax Portal if you’ve lost your paper copy.⁷

Online eCheck payments are free. Credit and debit cards carry a service fee of 2.22 percent, with a $1.49 minimum.⁸ On a $15,000 installment, that fee runs $333, so the bank-draft option is worth the few extra minutes of setup.

If you mail your payment, the envelope must carry a United States Postal Service postmark dated on or before the delinquency date. California’s Revenue and Taxation Code recognizes only the “post office cancellation mark” as proof of timely mailing.⁹ A private postage meter stamp won’t save you if the payment arrives late. Hand it over the counter at the post office or drop it in a USPS collection box with time to spare.

Penalties for Paying Late

The costs climb fast once a deadline passes:

Miss December 10: a 10 percent penalty is added to the first installment.⁵
Miss April 10: a 10 percent penalty plus a $10 administrative charge on the second installment.¹⁰
Still unpaid after June 30: the property is declared tax-defaulted, and redemption penalties of 1.5 percent per month (18 percent per year) begin accruing on the unpaid balance.¹¹¹²
Default for five years: the tax collector gains the authority to sell the property at public auction. For nonresidential commercial property, the timeline is three years.

Current-year taxes can’t be put on a payment plan. Once your property is in default for fewer than five years, though, a Five-Year Installment Plan of Redemption lets you pay off the back amount over time and keeps the property out of auction.¹³ It’s available only for residential or agricultural property.

Ways to Lower Your Bill

Homeowners’ Exemption

If you live in the home as your primary residence, file for California’s homeowners’ exemption, which trims $7,000 off your assessed value.¹⁴ That’s about $70 a year in savings at the base rate.¹⁵ Modest on a Beverly Hills bill, but you file once with the LA County Assessor and it stays in place as long as the home is your primary residence.

Decline-in-Value Appeal

If you think the market value of your home has fallen below its assessed value, you can request a decline-in-value review from the LA County Assessor between July 2 and November 30.¹⁶ The strongest evidence is recent comparable sales showing similar properties selling for less than your assessed value.¹⁷ You can find comps through the assessor’s website, real estate agents, or title companies. Many reviews settle without a hearing. If the informal review doesn’t go your way, you can file a formal appeal with the Assessment Appeals Board during the same window.

Property Tax Postponement

California also runs a program that lets qualifying homeowners defer tax payments entirely. You must be a senior, blind, or have a disability, with household income of $55,181 or less and at least 40 percent equity.¹⁸ The state pays the bill, and the deferred amount becomes a lien repaid when the home is sold. The filing window opens each October and closes in early February.

If You’re Moving or Inheriting a Home

Proposition 19, which took effect in April 2021, changed two things that matter here: it made the low assessed value portable for certain owners, and it tightened the rules on parent-to-child transfers.

Taking Your Tax Base to a New Home

If you’re 55 or older, severely disabled, or a victim of a wildfire or natural disaster, you can transfer your current home’s assessed value to a replacement home anywhere in California, up to three times. The replacement must be bought or built within two years of the sale. If the new home costs the same or less, your old assessed value moves straight across. If it costs more, the difference between market values is added to your transferred base year value. “Equal or lesser value” uses a sliding scale: 100 percent of the original sale price if you buy first, 105 percent within the first year after selling, and 110 percent in the second year.¹⁹

Inheriting a Family Home

The old parent-to-child exclusion let children keep a parent’s low assessed value whether or not they lived in the home. Under Proposition 19, the child must use the inherited property as a principal residence and file for the homeowners’ exemption within one year of the transfer.²⁰ Otherwise the property is reassessed to current market value.

Even when the child moves in, there’s a ceiling on what’s shielded. The exclusion covers the existing taxable value plus $1,044,586 (the figure for transfers between February 16, 2025 and February 15, 2027).²⁰ Market value above that combined amount is added to the new assessed value. In Beverly Hills, where inherited homes often sit well above the cap, this can mean a sizable tax jump even when the child moves in.

If Your Mortgage Has Escrow

Many owners never pay the county directly because their mortgage servicer collects taxes through an escrow (or impound) account and pays the bill when it’s due.²¹ Your monthly payment adjusts as assessed values and rates change.

Without escrow, the bill is on you. Miss it and your lender may pay the taxes to protect its collateral, then add the cost to your loan balance or force an escrow account onto your mortgage.²¹ Either path costs more than paying the county on time.

1
Justia. California Constitution Article XIII A Section 1 – Tax Limitation
2
State Board of Equalization. Tax Area Services Section
3
California State Board of Equalization. California State Board of Equalization – Taxpayers’ Rights Advocate Office
4
California State Board of Equalization. Supplemental Assessment
5
California Legislative Information. California Code RTC 2617
6
Los Angeles County Treasurer and Tax Collector. Press Release – Annual Secured Property Tax Bills
7
Los Angeles County Property Tax Portal. Annual Secured Property Tax Information Statement
8
Treasurer and Tax Collector. Payment Options
9
California Legislative Information. California Code RTC 2512 – Medium of Payment
10
Los Angeles County Treasurer and Tax Collector. Notice of Delinquency
11
California State Board of Equalization. Property Tax Calendar
12
California State Controller. County Tax Collectors’ Reference Manual – Chapter 5000
13
Treasurer and Tax Collector. Property Tax Installment Plans
14
Justia. California Constitution Article XIII Section 3 – Taxation
15
California State Board of Equalization. Information Sheet – Homeowners’ Exemption
16
Los Angeles County Assessor. Decline in Value
17
California Department of Tax and Fee Administration. Assessment Appeals Frequently Asked Questions
18
California State Controller. Property Tax Postponement
19
California State Board of Equalization. Proposition 19
20
California State Board of Equalization. Proposition 19 Fact Sheet
21
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. What Is an Escrow or Impound Account?