Cass County, ND Property Tax: Mill Levies, Credits, and Discounts

Property tax in Cass County, ND is calculated by taking your home’s market value, cutting it in half to get the Assessed Value, multiplying by 9% for residential property to get the Taxable Value, and then applying the local mill levy — roughly 298 mills inside Fargo and the Fargo School District. Pay the full bill by February 15 and the county knocks 5% off. Otherwise, half is due March 1 and the rest by October 15.

How Your Bill Is Calculated

Every parcel is valued as of February 1 each year at True and Full Value, meaning what a willing buyer would pay a willing seller.¹ Mill levies never apply to that market number directly. The county runs it through two reductions first:

Assessed Value is exactly 50% of True and Full Value.
Taxable Value is 9% of the Assessed Value for residential property, or 10% for commercial.²

Take a home with a market value of $300,000. Half of that is $150,000. Nine percent of $150,000 is $13,500. That $13,500 is the figure the mill levy touches, not the $300,000 you’d see on a listing site. At roughly 298 mills (a mill is $1 per $1,000 of Taxable Value), the annual tax works out to about $4,029 before any credits.³

If your property record on file with the Cass County Assessor’s Office shows the wrong square footage or lists improvements that no longer exist, that error flows through every step and inflates the final bill.⁴

Mill Levies in Fargo and West Fargo

The consolidated mill levy on your statement is the sum of every taxing district with authority over your parcel: the county, your city, your school district, the park district, and any others. Each sets its own budget independently.

A property inside Fargo and within the Fargo School District faces roughly 298 mills. The same house in the West Fargo School District sees about 290 mills.⁵ Rural parcels outside any city generally land lower because fewer districts stack on top of each other.

Districts must hold public budget hearings, generally between early September and early October, before locking in the next year’s rates.³ That window is when the levy is still movable.

When to Pay and How to Get the 5% Discount

Property taxes become due on January 1 following the year of assessment. You have two options:

Pay the entire bill by February 15 and receive a 5% discount. On a $4,000 bill, that’s $200 off.²
Split into two installments: the first half by March 1, the second half by October 15. No discount if you split.⁶

Miss a deadline and penalties begin stacking. On the first installment, penalties hit on March 2, May 1, July 1, and October 15 against whatever is still unpaid.⁶ The second installment triggers penalties after October 15. On top of that, the county charges 12% annual simple interest, prorated by month, on delinquent balances.⁷

Payments go through the Cass County Finance Office online portal or by mail to the county offices in Fargo.⁵ The online system gives immediate confirmation, which matters if you’re paying close to a cutoff.

Credits That Can Lower What You Owe

Primary Residence Credit

North Dakota’s primary residence credit can reduce your 2026 property tax bill by up to $1,600. There is no age requirement and no income limit. One credit per household, and the property must be a house, mobile home, townhome, duplex, or condo you own and occupy as your primary residence. Homes held in trusts also qualify.⁸

Applications had to be submitted by April 1, 2026, with more than 156,000 North Dakota homeowners already filed by then.⁹ If you missed the deadline, call the Cass County Assessor’s Office and ask whether a late application can still be considered for the current year.

Homestead Tax Credit

If you’re 65 or older, or permanently and totally disabled, the Homestead Tax Credit under NDCC 57-02-08.1 adds another layer of relief. It is income-tested: total household income for the calendar year before the assessment date must be $70,000 or less after subtracting eligible medical expenses.¹⁰

Income up to $40,000: 100% reduction of your homestead’s taxable value, up to a maximum reduction of $9,000 in taxable value (equal to a True and Full Value of $200,000).¹
Income from $40,001 to $70,000: 50% reduction, up to a maximum of $4,500 in taxable value (True and Full Value of $100,000).¹⁰

For a qualifying homeowner with income under $40,000 and a home valued at $200,000 or less, the credit can wipe out the entire tax on the homestead. File annually through the Cass County Assessor’s Office.

Disabled Veteran Credit

Veterans with a service-connected disability rating of 50% or higher from the VA qualify for a credit under NDCC 57-02-08.8. It applies against the first $9,000 of taxable valuation on the homestead and equals the disability percentage. A veteran rated 70% disabled receives a credit worth 70% of the tax on that first $9,000 of taxable value.¹ Veterans with an individual unemployability rating totaling 100% also qualify, and surviving spouses of deceased disabled veterans can claim it as well. Bring discharge papers or a VA rating letter to the Cass County Assessor’s Office.¹¹

Special Assessments on Your Statement

Your tax statement may carry special assessments in addition to the regular property tax. These are charges for infrastructure that benefits your parcel directly: street paving, water mains, sewer lines, sidewalks. They split a project’s cost among the properties that gain from it, rather than funding general government.

Special assessments ride on the same statement and the same collection timeline, and the county applies the same penalties and interest to unpaid special assessments as it does to delinquent property taxes.¹² In fast-growing parts of Cass County, these line items can add meaningfully to the total. Read the itemization, not just the bottom line.

If You Think Your Assessment Is Too High

Start informally. Call the Cass County Assessor’s Office at 701-241-5616 and walk through your property record. Most disputes get resolved here, and the office can correct errors like wrong square footage, a misclassified property type, or improvements that were demolished but never removed.⁴ Before calling, pull recent sale prices of comparable homes nearby. Documented comparables carry far more weight than a general feeling.

If that doesn’t resolve it, there’s a three-tier formal appeal:

The City or Township Board of Equalization meets within the first 15 days of April.
The County Board of Equalization meets within the first 10 days of June.
The State Board of Equalization meets on the second Tuesday in August.¹³

You can skip the local board and go straight to the county, but doing so locks you out of appealing further to the state board. Think through that tradeoff before passing on the April meeting. To open a state-level appeal, contact the Property Tax division at propertytax@nd.gov or 701-328-3127 and complete the required questionnaire.¹³ The strongest appeals rest on objective evidence: documented record errors, recent comparable sales well below assessed market value, or physical condition issues the assessor missed.

If You Fall Behind

Penalties stack almost immediately after a missed deadline, and 12% annual interest runs on top, adding roughly 1% per month.⁷ The real risk shows up after four or more years of delinquency, when the county auditor is required by law to issue a notice of tax lien foreclosure on or before June 1.¹⁴ Once foreclosure completes, title transfers to the county.

If you can’t pay the full amount, call the Cass County Finance Office early. Partial payments slow the compounding, and getting current before the four-year window closes protects your ownership.

Farmland and Personal Property Work Differently

Agricultural land is not valued at market price. The state uses a productivity-based value tied to the land’s ability to produce income, and the Taxable Value rate for ag property is 5% rather than 9% or 10%.¹⁵ The residential formula at the top of this article doesn’t apply to cropland or pasture.

Most personal property is exempt from tax in North Dakota, so your car and household goods aren’t taxed. The narrow exceptions are business personal property for most entities, certain oil and gas facilities and utilities that pay a tax in lieu of regular property tax, and mobile homes.¹⁶ If you run a business with taxable equipment or inventory, that gets assessed and billed separately from any real estate.

1
North Dakota Legislative Branch. North Dakota Century Code 57-02 – General Property Assessment
2
North Dakota Office of State Tax Commissioner. Property Tax
3
North Dakota Legislative Branch. Interim Tax Relief Advisory Committee – Property Tax Calculation
4
Cass County, ND. Assessor
5
Cass County, ND. Property Taxes
6
North Dakota Office of State Tax Commissioner. Property Tax Deadlines
7
North Dakota Legislative Branch. North Dakota Century Code 57-20 – Payment and Collection of Taxes
8
North Dakota Office of State Tax Commissioner. Property Tax Credits
9
North Dakota Office of State Tax Commissioner. Eligible ND Homeowners Encouraged to Apply for Primary Residence Credit Upcoming April 1st Deadline
10
North Dakota Office of State Tax Commissioner. Homestead Property Tax Credit
11
Office of State Tax Commissioner. Application for Disabled Veterans Property Tax Credit
12
North Dakota Legislative Branch. North Dakota Century Code 40-24 – Special Assessments in Municipalities
13
North Dakota Office of State Tax Commissioner. State Board of Equalization
14
North Dakota Association of Counties. FAQ
15
North Dakota Office of State Tax Commissioner. Agricultural Property Tax
16
North Dakota Office of State Tax Commissioner. Property Tax Exemptions and Credits