Property Tax Bill Explained in Brevard County — Brevard County, Florida

A Brevard County property tax bill multiplies the taxable value set by the Brevard County Property Appraiser by the millage of each taxing authority, where one mill equals $1.00 per $1,000.00 of property value (Brevard County Tax Collector).

The Florida Department of Revenue writes the arithmetic in three lines: assessed value equals just value minus assessment limits, taxable value equals assessed value minus exemptions, and total tax liability equals taxable value times the millage rate (Florida Department of Revenue). On a Brevard County Tax Collector notice that total is built line by line, because BCPAO explains that each tax bill consists of the total of all millage applicable to the particular property and the taxes due to every taxing authority with jurisdiction over it (BCPAO).

BCPAO publishes its own worked example, with a round rate chosen for illustration rather than any actual Brevard levy (BCPAO):

The two offices split the job. The Brevard County Tax Collector, Lisa Cullen, CFC, states that the office of the Property Appraiser establishes the value of the property, while the Board of County Commissioners, School Board, City Commissioners and other levying bodies set the millage rates (Tax Collector). The Property Appraiser completes the roll, the Department of Revenue approves it, and the roll is then certified to the Tax Collector, who mails the notice to the owner's last address of record.

The Brevard County Tax Collector lists every body that can appear on a bill: the County General Fund and its districts, the school levies, each city and town, and independent districts such as the St. Johns River Water Management District (Tax Collector taxing authorities).

The county side includes the County General Fund, the Brevard Library District, Brevard Mosquito Control, Environmentally Endangered Lands and Water Areas, the Fire Control MSTU, the Law Enforcement MSTU, recreation districts and road and bridge districts, all reached at (321) 633-2153 (Brevard County Tax Collector). School lines appear as BPS Voted Teacher Pay and School by local board, by state law and by capital outlay, at (321) 633-1000. The list also carries the Florida Inland Navigation District, the Sebastian Inlet District at (321) 724-5175, the St. Johns River Water Management District at (386) 329-4500 and a Palm Bay Road (DBTP) line at (321) 952-3411. In South Brevard, the City of Palm Bay (321) 952-3411, the Town of Malabar (321) 727-7764 and the Town of Grant-Valkaria (321) 951-1380 each levy their own rate.

The Florida Department of Revenue's comparison table shows what those bodies adopted for fiscal year 2025-26, next to the prior year and the rolled-back rate (DOR Table 1, Brevard). Rates are in mills.

Two South Brevard towns kept their rates level from one year to the next: the Town of Malabar at 4.5000 mills and the Town of Grant-Valkaria at 1.3038 mills (DOR Table 1). School taxes are reported separately. The Florida Department of Education's 2025-26 summary budget for Brevard lists 3.0620 mills of required local effort, 0.7480 discretionary operating, 1.0000 voted additional operating and 1.5000 local capital improvement, for 6.3100 total school mills against a gross taxable value of $79,835,351,671 (FLDOE Brevard summary budget). Not every county district line reaches every parcel, so the rows above are not meant to be added into one Brevard rate; the bill for a specific Palm Bay or Malabar parcel shows exactly which levies apply to it.

BCPAO sets a market (just) value as of January 1, reduces it to an assessed value where an assessment cap applies, and the taxes are figured on taxable value, which is assessed value after exemptions (BCPAO).

The cap explains most of the gap on older homesteads. BCPAO traces it to Constitutional Amendment 10 in 1994, which limits the annual increase in a homestead's assessed value to the Consumer Price Index or 3 percent, whichever is less (BCPAO). The limit applies until the homestead is sold, when market value becomes the assessed value in a new base year. Section 193.155 of the Florida Statutes sets the same rule: the annual change may not exceed the lower of 3 percent of the prior year's assessed value or the change in the Consumer Price Index, and a Brevard homestead is reassessed at just value as of January 1 of the year following a change of ownership (F.S. 193.155). Other Brevard property has a looser cap: for all levies other than school district levies, the annual change in the assessed value of non-homestead residential property and of nonresidential property may not exceed 10 percent of the prior year's assessed value (F.S. 193.1554; F.S. 193.1555).

School and non-school taxable values can differ on the same Brevard bill. Under Section 196.031 of the Florida Statutes, the first $25,000 homestead exemption applies to all taxation, while the additional exemption of up to $25,000 on assessed value above $50,000 applies to all levies other than school district levies (F.S. 196.031). A Brevard homestead assessed above $50,000 therefore carries a higher taxable value on the Brevard Public Schools lines than on the county and city lines.

Non-ad valorem assessments on a Brevard County bill are set amounts not based on value, billed on the October 1 to September 30 fiscal year and separated from the ad valorem taxes by a bold horizontal line (Brevard County Tax Collector).

State law defines them by what they are not. Section 197.3632 describes a non-ad valorem assessment as one not based upon millage that can become a lien against a homestead, and the assessment roll is prepared by the local government and certified to the tax collector, which is how a Palm Bay fire assessment or a Port Malabar recreation charge lands on the same Brevard County Tax Collector notice as the millage (F.S. 197.3632).

The county's oldest assessments pay for garbage. The Brevard County Tax Collector dates Solid Waste Disposal to 1977, to operate the county landfill facilities used by property owners throughout the county, and Solid Waste Collection to 1982, for curbside trash and yard waste pickup in the unincorporated areas (Tax Collector). State Mandated Recycling followed in 1989 for unincorporated property. In unincorporated Brevard, questions on those lines go to Brevard County Solid Waste Management at (321) 633-2042.

Fire and stormwater fees follow. The Fire Services Special Assessment, implemented in 2006, pays for Brevard County Fire Rescue and is charged to all property owners in unincorporated Brevard, West Melbourne, Melbourne Village, Palm Shores and Grant-Valkaria, with rates based on the Property Appraiser's use code and the base square footage of the structures (Tax Collector). The Stormwater Utility Fee dates to 1990, and money collected in each district stays in that district to address runoff headed for waters such as the Indian River Lagoon and the St. Johns River.

BCPAO stresses that special assessments have nothing to do with the value of property or with the duties of the Property Appraiser; the governments that levy them ask for the fees to appear on the tax bill for convenience and cost savings (BCPAO).

The Truth in Millage (TRIM) notice that BCPAO mails in August is a preview rather than a bill, and Florida law requires its first page to read DO NOT PAY, THIS IS NOT A BILL (Section 200.069, Florida Statutes).

The Florida Legislature passed the TRIM Act in 1980 to show taxpayers which government is responsible for each tax and how much each taxing authority levies, and the property appraiser sends the notice (Florida Department of Revenue). Section 200.069 fixes seven columns that run from the taxing authority and the owner's taxes last year, through the taxes if no budget change is adopted and the rate if the proposed budget is adopted, to the date of each public hearing, and it defines last year's adjusted tax rate as the rolled-back rate (F.S. 200.069). BCPAO's Real Property Search links each parcel's TRIM notice from the Details tab.

The rolled-back rate is the yardstick. BCPAO quotes Section 200.065: it is the millage that, leaving out new construction and similar additions, would raise the same ad valorem revenue as the prior year (BCPAO). The current statute keeps that wording: the rate that will provide the same ad valorem tax revenue for each taxing authority as was levied during the prior year shall be known as the rolled-back rate, and the Brevard County Property Appraiser's certification of taxable value to each taxing authority carries instructions for computing it (F.S. 200.065). For fiscal 2025-26 the City of Palm Bay's rolled-back rate was 6.4071 mills and its adopted rate 6.7000, which the Department of Revenue table records as 4.6 percent above rolled-back; Brevard County BCC adopted 2.8643 against a rolled-back 2.7703 (DOR Table 1).

The notice opens the hearing season. The Department of Revenue calendar places tentative budget and millage hearings in September and October, final hearings in October and November, and value appeals to the value adjustment board within 25 days of the notice (Florida Department of Revenue), which in Brevard County puts the TRIM notice from BCPAO at the start of the only window to contest a value.

The Brevard County Tax Collector mails tax notices on or about November 1, allows discounts of 4 percent down to 1 percent for paying from November through February, and treats taxes unpaid on April 1 as delinquent (Tax Collector discount periods).

The schedule is exact. A 4 percent discount applies for the first 30 days after the original mailing date, then 3 percent in December, 2 percent in January, 1 percent in February and none in March, all based on postmark (Brevard County Tax Collector). The Brevard County Tax Collector schedule follows Section 197.162, which sets discounts of 4 percent in November or within 30 days after the original notice, then 3, 2 and 1 percent in December, January and February (F.S. 197.162), and Section 197.333, under which taxes are due on November 1 or as soon as the certified roll reaches the tax collector and become delinquent on April 1 (F.S. 197.333). On April 1 a 3 percent minimum mandatory charge is added, and unpaid accounts move toward the annual tax certificate sale.

Escrowed owners get a copy, not the original. When taxes are paid through an escrow account, the mortgage company requests the bill and the owner receives an informational notice; the Brevard County Tax Collector also points to Section 197.122, which makes it the owner's responsibility to know taxes are due even if no bill arrives (Tax Collector). A separate bill goes out for each property as the deed is recorded, and missing statements can be traced at (321) 264-6969 (Tax Collector).

Last verified: October 12, 2026, on the Brevard County Tax Collector website, with millage checked against the Florida Department of Revenue Table 1 for Brevard.