To find out how much you paid in property taxes, check three places in this order: your county’s online tax portal, your mortgage lender’s year-end records, and your closing documents if you bought or sold the home during the year. The county portal shows every payment the tax collector received against your parcel, usually with printable receipts. If your lender pays taxes from escrow, the amount also appears on Form 1098 and your annual escrow statement. Between those sources, most homeowners can pin down the exact figure in a few minutes at no cost.
Gather a Few Details First
The single most useful piece of information is your Assessor’s Parcel Number (APN), sometimes called a Property Identification Number (PIN). It’s a unique code the local government uses to track your parcel, and searching by APN avoids the mix-ups that come from common street names or shared owner names. You’ll find it on a previous tax bill, your deed, or your closing paperwork.
If you don’t have the APN, the property address and the owner’s legal name work on most county search tools. Know which tax year you’re looking for, and be aware that many jurisdictions bill on a fiscal year rather than a calendar year. A bill labeled “2025–2026” may cover payments made in parts of both calendar years, which matters when you’re matching records to a federal return.
Search Your County’s Tax Portal
Almost every county runs a free public search on the tax collector’s, treasurer’s, or assessor’s website. Look for a link called “Property Tax Search,” “Pay or View Taxes,” or “Public Records.” Enter your APN or address and the portal returns a summary of the property showing the assessed value, the tax billed, and any balance due.
From that summary, open the section labeled “Payment History,” “Tax Distribution,” or something similar. It lists every payment posted to your account with the date received and the exact dollar amount. Most portals let you print or download a PDF receipt, and that receipt is usually enough documentation for a tax filing, a refinance, or a dispute.
If a payment you made is missing, or one appears that you don’t recognize, call the tax collector’s office. You may be asked for a canceled check or a bank statement showing the debit. Counties have a process for tracing lost or misapplied payments, and some allow an affidavit when a payment was sent but never posted.
Check With Your Mortgage Lender
If your monthly mortgage payment includes an escrow for taxes and insurance, your lender is the one actually cutting the check to the county. Two documents from the lender show what was paid.
Form 1098, Box 10
Lenders must send Form 1098, the Mortgage Interest Statement, by January 31 of the following year. Box 10 is an optional field where the lender may report property taxes and insurance paid from escrow during the year.1Internal Revenue Service. Instructions for Form 1098 (12/2026) Not every lender fills it in. If yours leaves Box 10 blank, move to the escrow statement.
One important distinction: the figure that counts is what your lender actually sent to the taxing authority, not what you paid into escrow. Escrow accounts carry reserves, and deposits don’t always line up with disbursements, so the two numbers can differ.2Internal Revenue Service. Publication 530 (2025), Tax Information for Homeowners
Your Annual Escrow Statement
The annual escrow analysis breaks down every disbursement the lender made from your escrow account, including the dates and amounts sent to the county. This is the most detailed record you’ll get from the lender side, and it will show whether a payment was late or split into installments.
Most servicers also expose escrow activity through their online portal or app. Log in and look for an escrow or payment history section; it typically shows the same disbursement detail as the annual statement, but you can pull it up any time rather than waiting for the year-end mailing.
Check Your Closing Disclosure If You Bought or Sold That Year
A purchase or sale during the tax year almost always adds an amount that won’t appear on the county ledger or on Form 1098. Your Closing Disclosure (or a HUD-1 Settlement Statement on older transactions) shows the prorated property taxes split between buyer and seller at closing. On the borrower’s side, look under “Adjustments for Items Paid by Seller in Advance” for the prorated city and county taxes the buyer reimbursed the seller for.3Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. 12 CFR 1026.38 Content of Disclosures for Certain Mortgage Transactions (Closing Disclosure) The seller’s side carries the matching credit.
The settlement agent calculates that split from the number of days each party owned the home during the billing period. If you paid a prorated share at closing, keep the Closing Disclosure with your tax records; it’s part of what you paid in property tax for the year even though it never touched your escrow account or the county’s payment portal.
New buyers should also watch the mail for a supplemental tax bill. When a sale triggers a reassessment at a higher value, the county issues a separate bill for the difference between the old and new assessed value for the rest of the tax year. These bills often arrive months after closing and won’t appear anywhere on the original Closing Disclosure.
Request a Certified Record From the County
When the online portal doesn’t go back far enough, or you need a document that will hold up in a legal proceeding, contact the county treasurer or tax collector directly by phone, email, or in person. Ask for a certified tax history or statement of taxes paid for the years you need. The office pulls the file by APN or address and confirms every payment on record.
You can usually receive the document by mail, email, or over the counter. Some jurisdictions charge a small fee for certified copies, ranging from a few dollars up to about $25, depending on the county. A certified record is the version that carries weight in an audit, a lender dispute, or litigation.
The Amount You Paid Isn’t Always the Amount You Can Deduct
Once you have the number, be careful about carrying it straight onto Schedule A. The IRS lets you deduct state and local real property taxes levied at a uniform rate for the general public welfare.4Internal Revenue Service. Topic No. 503, Deductible Taxes Several charges that ride along on the same bill do not qualify: water, sewer, and trash service fees, and special assessments for new streets, sidewalks, or water and sewer systems.2Internal Revenue Service. Publication 530 (2025), Tax Information for Homeowners Assessments for maintenance or repair of existing infrastructure are deductible, but only if you can identify that portion separately.
Property taxes are deductible only if you itemize, and the combined state and local tax (SALT) deduction is capped for 2026 at $40,400, or $20,200 for married filing separately, with a phase-down that begins above $505,000 of modified adjusted gross income.5Internal Revenue Service. IRS Releases Tax Inflation Adjustments for Tax Year 2026 The deduction follows the date the tax was actually paid to the local government, not the date you were billed or the date money moved into escrow.2Internal Revenue Service. Publication 530 (2025), Tax Information for Homeowners