How to Look Up Your NYC Property Tax Bill (2026 Guide)

Where do you actually look up an NYC tax bill?

The official tool is the Property Tax Bills and Payments portal, run by the NYC Department of Finance (DOF). Search by address or BBL, and you’ll get quarterly or semi-annual statements, the current bill, and payment history going back several years. Searching by address has a formatting quirk: drop ordinals like “st,” “th,” or “nd” from the street number, and spell out directionals (“West” rather than “W”). If the address search still comes up empty, the building’s marketing address sometimes differs from its legal one, so switch to a BBL search instead.

DOF also runs the newer Property Information Portal, which pulls tax bills, the Notice of Property Value (NOPV), and other property details into one dashboard. Either one works. The Property Information Portal is nicer to look at; the Bills and Payments portal is faster if you already know the BBL.

Don’t know the BBL? The NYC Property Tax System lookup converts a street address to a BBL in a single search, and the same number carries over to ACRIS.

Why does the assessed value on your bill look nothing like what your apartment is worth?

Because in NYC it isn’t supposed to. In most places, assessed value closely tracks market value. NYC does something stranger: it takes a fraction of market value depending on your property class, and that fraction is where the confusion starts.

Class 1 (mostly one-, two-, and three-family homes) gets assessed at 6% of market value. Classes 2, 3, and 4 (co-ops, condos, larger rentals, utilities, commercial) get assessed at 45%. A $1,000,000 class 1 house appears on paper with an assessed value of roughly $60,000.

That’s not a typo, and it’s not your house being undervalued. It’s the formula. If you’ve ever seen an NYC tax bill and thought “there’s no way this place is only worth what this line says,” you’re reading the assessed value, not the market value. There are two different numbers on the same page, and DOF genuinely could label this better.

There’s a second layer: transitional assessed value. NYC phases in large jumps in assessment over five years instead of all at once, so the number your tax is actually calculated on can lag behind the “current” assessed value shown elsewhere on your notice. This is also why two nearly identical apartments in the same building sometimes carry different tax bills: one owner bought recently, and the phase-in hasn’t caught up yet.

The full breakdown of both numbers arrives once a year on your Notice of Property Value (NOPV), before the tax bill itself.

What are exemptions and abatements, and why does your bill have both?

They sound interchangeable. They’re not, and the difference is where the math happens.

An exemption reduces your assessed value before the tax rate is applied. Less taxable value, smaller bill, calculated earlier in the process.

An abatement reduces the final dollar amount of tax owed after the rate has been applied. Same effect on your wallet, different point in the calculation, and that’s exactly why line items with both types on the same bill can look inconsistent if you’re trying to eyeball the math yourself.

The exemptions and abatements you’ll actually see on an NYC bill:

• STAR (School Tax Relief): for an owner-occupied primary residence under the income cap. Reduces assessed value, shows up as a STAR exemption line.
• Cooperative and Condominium Tax Abatement: for owner-occupied co-op and condo units, applied by the building’s managing agent, not filed individually by each owner. Cuts 17.5% to 28.1% off the tax bill, depending on the average unit value in the building. A building can’t have this abatement and 421-a, J-51, or a few other commercial benefits at the same time. See the Cooperative and Condominium Tax Abatement page for eligibility.
• 421-a: a construction-era abatement for newer residential buildings, phasing out over a set number of years. If you bought new construction and your tax bill jumps noticeably a few years in, this is usually why.
• J-51: a renovation-driven abatement for buildings that did qualifying rehab work or were converted from commercial to residential use.

DOF publishes property-class-specific guides that walk through every line a bill can carry, worth skimming once: the Class 1 guide and the Class 2 guide cover homes versus co-ops and condos, respectively.

How do you check your payment history, not just the current bill?

The same Property Tax Bills and Payments portal holds your statement history. Pull it up by BBL or address, and you’ll see every quarterly or semi-annual statement, whether it was paid, and whether anything is currently overdue.

This matters more than it sounds like it should. Buyers checking a property before closing and owners disputing a late fee both need this history, and it’s the one place DOF keeps it official and up to date, unlike a title report, which is only accurate as of the date it was pulled.

How does your tax bill connect back to ACRIS?

Through the BBL. It’s the one identifier that runs through everything the city tracks about a property, tax bills, ACRIS deed and mortgage records, DOB filings, HPD violations, all of it point back to the same borough-block-lot number.

Once you have a property’s BBL from a tax bill, you can drop it straight into ACRIS to pull the deed history, mortgages, and liens on record. Conversely, if you’re starting from an ACRIS deed search and want the current tax standing, use the BBL on that document to search the tax portal. Same number, two different city systems, one property.

For the full walkthrough of what ACRIS holds, deeds, mortgages, and liens, searchable by BBL or address, see our ACRIS guide.

FAQ

Where do I find my NYC DOF property tax bill online?
Through the Property Tax Bills and Payments portal or the Property Information Portal, searchable by address or BBL. Both are official DOF tools.

Why is my assessed value so much lower than what I’d sell my home for?
Because NYC assesses class 1 homes (one-, two-, and three-family) at 6% of market value, and classes 2 through 4 at 45%. It’s a fraction of the market value by design, not a mistake on your bill.

What’s the difference between an exemption and an abatement on my bill?
An exemption lowers your assessed value before the tax rate is applied. An abatement lowers the tax amount after the rate has already been calculated. Same savings, different stage of the math.

How do I check if my property has unpaid taxes or liens?
Payment history and current balance are both in the Property Tax Bills and Payments portal. For recorded liens specifically, cross-check ACRIS using the same BBL.

Does my BBL change if I refinance or sell?
No. The BBL is tied to the physical lot, not the owner or the loan. It remains consistent across sales, refinances, and most renovations, which is exactly what makes it useful for linking tax and ACRIS records over time.