If you own a home inside Winston-Salem city limits, your property tax is set at a combined city and county rate of about $1.1022 per $100 of assessed value for 2025. On a home assessed at $250,000, that comes to roughly $2,756 for the year. Bills go out in July, and you have until January 5 of the following year to pay without penalty.
What You’ll Actually Pay
Your tax bill combines two separate levies: one from Forsyth County and one from the City of Winston-Salem. For the 2025 tax year, the rates are:
- Forsyth County: $0.5352 per $100 of assessed value
- City of Winston-Salem: $0.5670 per $100 of assessed value
- Combined: $1.1022 per $100 of assessed value
To estimate your bill, divide your assessed value by 100 and multiply by 1.1022. A $400,000 home comes to about $4,409 a year.1Forsyth County Tax Administration. Forsyth County Tax Rates
Two things can shift that number. If your property sits inside Winston-Salem’s downtown Business Improvement District, an additional municipal service district charge of $0.09 per $100 pushes the combined rate to $1.1922. If you live in Clemmons, Lewisville, Tobaccoville, or another smaller Forsyth County municipality, you pay that town’s rate instead of the Winston-Salem rate, and if you’re outside any municipality you pay only the county rate plus a fire district levy that ranges from about $0.058 to $0.106 per $100.1Forsyth County Tax Administration. Forsyth County Tax Rates
The city council and county commissioners can adjust their rates each year during budget season, so expect the numbers to shift.
Your assessed value is supposed to equal fair market value. North Carolina law requires property to be appraised at its “true value in money,” which the statute defines as the price a willing buyer and willing seller would agree on.2North Carolina General Assembly. North Carolina Code 105-283 – Uniform Appraisal Standards Forsyth County reappraises every four years, most recently effective January 1, 2025, with the next cycle expected around 2029.3Forsyth County. 2025 Reappraisal That means many homeowners are seeing a new assessed value on their current bill for the first time.
When Your Bill Is Due and How to Pay
Forsyth County mails property tax bills in July. The bill shows a due date of September 1, but no penalty or interest attaches as long as your payment is postmarked or hand-delivered by January 5 of the following year.4Forsyth County. Forsyth County Tax Administration – Collections You effectively have the fall to pay, in one lump sum or in partial payments, as long as the full balance clears by January 5.5Forsyth County. Tax Administration – Property Tax Bills Have Been Mailed
You have four ways to pay:
- Online through the county’s tax bill portal at forsyth.cc, by credit card or electronic check (transaction fees apply)
- By mail to the Tax Collector’s office
- In person at the Forsyth County Government Center, 201 North Chestnut Street, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. on business days
- Drop box, available 24 hours on the Chestnut Street side of the Government Center
What Happens If You Miss the Deadline
On January 6, a 2% penalty is added to any unpaid balance for the month of January. After that, interest of 0.75% per month runs on whatever remains, which works out to roughly 9% a year.4Forsyth County. Forsyth County Tax Administration – Collections
If an account stays unpaid, the county has real enforcement tools. It can garnish wages and bank accounts, levy on personal property, intercept your North Carolina state income tax refund, and eventually foreclose on the home itself. Foreclosure doesn’t happen overnight, but once an account falls significantly behind the county does use these tools. If you can’t cover the bill, call the Tax Collector’s office before January 6 to discuss options rather than waiting for enforcement to begin.
How to Appeal If Your Assessment Looks Too High
If the value on your reappraisal notice or annual bill looks wrong, you can challenge it. The process runs through three levels, and you start at the bottom.
Informal Appeal
Your reappraisal notice includes an informal appeal form, and you can also file through the county’s eNoticesOnline portal. What you bring matters more than how you argue. A recent independent appraisal is the strongest single piece of evidence. A closing statement from a recent purchase, photographs of damage or deferred maintenance, repair estimates, and comparable sales from your neighborhood all help. Automated estimates from sites like Zillow or Realtor.com carry little weight by themselves but can support stronger documentation. For the 2025 revaluation, the informal appeal deadline was the last business day of June 2025; future revaluation deadlines are expected to follow a similar pattern.
Board of Equalization and Review
If the informal response doesn’t resolve things, file a written appeal with the Forsyth County Board of Equalization and Review. The board convenes each year between the first Monday in April and the first Monday in May, and in a revaluation year it can sit through December 1 to work through the extra volume.6North Carolina General Assembly. North Carolina Code 105-322 – Board of Equalization and Review You can present evidence, call witnesses, and subpoena documents with a reasonable basis. The board issues a written order confirming, reducing, or raising your value.
State and Court Review
If the board rules against you, you have 30 days from the mailed decision to appeal to the North Carolina Property Tax Commission. From there, the final step is the North Carolina Court of Appeals, decided on the hearing record.
Relief Programs That Can Lower Your Bill
North Carolina offers three property tax relief programs, all administered locally by the Forsyth County Tax Administration office. You can only claim one in a given year, and the application deadline for each is June 1 of the tax year.7North Carolina Department of Revenue. Application for Property Tax Relief Elderly or Disabled Exclusion Disabled Veteran Exclusion or Circuit Breaker Tax Deferment Program
Elderly or Disabled Homestead Exclusion
If you’re 65 or older, or totally and permanently disabled, you can exclude the greater of $25,000 or 50% of your home’s appraised value from taxation. To qualify, your prior-year household income must fall below the state’s limit, which is $38,800 for the 2026 tax year (based on 2025 income). The limit adjusts annually with Social Security cost-of-living increases.8North Carolina General Assembly. North Carolina Code 105-277.1 – Elderly or Disabled Property Tax Homestead Exclusion
On a $200,000 home, half the value ($100,000) exceeds the $25,000 floor, so the county would tax only $100,000. At the combined Winston-Salem rate, that drops the annual bill from about $2,204 to roughly $1,102.
Disabled Veteran Exclusion
Veterans with a total, permanent, service-connected disability, or who have received benefits under 38 U.S.C. 2101, can exclude the first $45,000 of appraised value. Unmarried surviving spouses of qualifying veterans also qualify. This program has no income cap.9North Carolina General Assembly. North Carolina Code 105-277.1C – Disabled Veteran Property Tax Homestead Exclusion
Circuit Breaker Tax Deferment
The circuit breaker caps your tax payment at a percentage of your income rather than removing value from the rolls. If your income is below the eligibility limit, your taxes are capped at 4% of income; between 100% and 150% of the limit, the cap is 5%. Anything above the cap is deferred, not forgiven. The deferred amount becomes a lien on the property, and the last three years of deferred taxes come due if you sell or stop qualifying. You must have owned and lived in the home for at least five consecutive years to apply.10North Carolina General Assembly. North Carolina Code 105-277.1B – Property Tax Homestead Circuit Breaker
Run the numbers on each program before applying, because the one that saves the most depends on your income, your home’s value, and your veteran status.
If Your Mortgage Escrows Your Taxes
Most homeowners with a mortgage don’t pay the county directly. The mortgage servicer collects roughly one-twelfth of the annual tax bill each month, holds it in escrow, and pays the county when the bill is due. Federal Regulation X limits how much cushion the servicer can keep and requires an annual escrow statement showing activity and the next year’s projection.11Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Escrow Accounts When the 2025 revaluation raised your assessed value, your monthly escrow payment will rise at the next analysis, and any shortage can be spread over 12 months or collected in a lump sum.
Verify that your tax bill actually got paid. If the servicer misses it, the county still looks to you as the property owner.
Federal Deduction for Property Taxes
If you itemize on your federal return, property taxes on your home are deductible under the state and local tax category, along with state income or sales taxes. For 2026, the SALT deduction is capped at $40,400 for single and joint filers and $20,200 for married filing separately. The full cap phases out at modified adjusted gross income above $500,000 ($250,000 for married filing separately) and reverts to a $10,000 cap at $600,000 and above. The deduction only helps if your total itemized deductions beat the standard deduction.12Internal Revenue Service. Publication 530 Tax Information for Homeowners
Charges for services, special assessments for local improvements, transfer taxes, and homeowners’ association fees are not deductible as property taxes, even when they share a bill.