State certifies Dover tax rate; tax bills to be mailed soon

posted on 12/9/2022

The New Hampshire Department of Revenue Administration (DRA) certified the City of Dover’s property tax rate for fiscal year 2023 (tax year 2022) Wednesday, Dec. 7, at $19.84 per $1,000 assessed valuation.

The Finance Department is preparing for tax bills to be mailed out Friday, Dec. 16, with the first half of the tax bill due Tuesday, Jan. 17, 2023. The second half of the tax bill would be due Thursday, June 1, 2023.

The tax rate set by the DRA represents a decrease of $1.86 or an 8.6% decrease over the prior year.

“It should be noted that the overall tax rate would have been $1.18 more than last year’s rate if assessments had remained unchanged given solely the budgetary impacts of $0.16 for the City portion of the tax bill, $1.02 for the School portion and $0.00 (no impact) for the County,” City Manager J. Michael Joyal, Jr. said to the City Council in an email. “The certified rate for this year was instead significantly reduced due to the overall increase in assessed value of 14.3% realized from the combination of increased market value and the new construction value added within the community this past year.”

The average residential property is now assessed at $418,706 ($368,141 last year), which includes all single-family, multi-family units, condos and manufactured housing, with a tax bill increase of $318 or 4.0%. The average single-family residential property assessed at $471,406 ($413,518 last year) has a total tax bill of $9,353, an increase of $379 or 4.2%.

To calculate property tax for a specific parcel, multiply the tax rate ($19.84) by the assessed value and divide by 1,000. Find assessed values for all property parcels in Dover at www.dover.nh.gov/government/city-operations/finance/tax-assessment/assessment-reports/.

There are four components of the tax rate: the city portion, local education portion, state education, and Strafford County. The tax rate of $19.84 is broken down as follows:

• City: $7.22, a decrease of 80 cents over the previous year;
• Local education: $9.66, a decrease of 27 cents over the previous year;
• County: $1.94, a decrease of 19 cents over the previous year;
• State education: $1.02, a decrease of 60 cents.

The tax rate for the city is typically set by mid-November but was delayed this year due to the School Department’s submittal of required documents to the state. The city cannot produce and issue tax bills for the current tax year until the Department of Revenue Administration (DRA) certifies the city’s tax rate; the DRA cannot set a tax rate until a municipality submits all required documents to the state.

For more information, contact the Finance Department at 603-516-6030.