Pay your tax bills very soon if you want to get the slight early payment discount the county offers. There is a much shorter window to do so this year.
Guilford County property owners who’ve been wondering exactly how much they’ll owe in property taxes this year don’t have to wonder anymore.
The county’s 2026 property tax bills are now available online, and the paper versions are expected to begin arriving in mailboxes during the week of Aug. 10.
That’s considerably later than usual – but it’s actually somewhat earlier than county officials feared earlier this summer.
Property owners can now look up their bills and pay them through Guilford County’s online “Pay It” portal.
Those who pay by Monday, Aug. 31 will receive the county’s traditional 1 percent early-payment discount. Bills that remain unpaid after Tuesday, Jan. 5, 2027 will be considered delinquent.
Taxpayers can also pay by mail, by phone or in person at the county tax offices in Greensboro and High Point.
Checks sent by mail should be made payable to the Guilford County Tax Department and mailed to Guilford County Tax Department, PO Box 70939, Charlotte, NC 28272-0939.
In-person payments can be made at 400 W. Market St. in Greensboro or 325 E. Russell Ave. in High Point.
Guilford County accepts cash, checks and credit or debit cards – although processing and transaction fees may apply to card payments.
Payments can also be made by phone at 336-203-7795.
The Tax Department is also reminding residents to be wary of scams: Guilford County won’t call taxpayers seeking payment unless a bill is delinquent, and county representatives will verify the tax bill number.
(The county also doesn’t accept gift cards as payment for property taxes.)
For more information, taxpayers can visit GuilfordCountyNC.gov/Tax or call 336-641-3363.
The arrival of the bills ends an unusually complicated tax season for Guilford County.
For years, Guilford County’s tax bills have normally gone out around the middle of July. This year, county officials originally expected the bills to be mailed around July 10.
But then the North Carolina General Assembly threw a major wrench into the process. Guilford County had just completed its 2026 countywide property revaluation and had spent months preparing the fiscal 2026-2027 budget based on the new values.
However, lawmakers passed Senate Bill 889, the Property Tax Reappraisal Moratorium, which prevented Guilford County and a group of other counties that conducted revaluations this year from using those new values for 2026 property tax bills.
The new state law was signed into effect on June 19.
That meant Guilford County suddenly had to go back to the old 2025 property values and redo much of the work that had gone into both the budget and the preparation of tax bills.
The change came particularly late in the county budget process.
Normally, the Guilford County Board of Commissioners adopts its budget in mid-June. This year, commissioners had to continue working on the spending plan after the state legislation changed the property values on which the county could levy taxes.
The commissioners finally adopted the revised $889.2 million General Fund budget at a special meeting on Thursday, June 25. The deadline for a new budget was July 1.
The new county property tax rate is 78.95 cents for every $100 of assessed property value – an increase of 5.9 cents from last year’s 73.05-cent rate.
Even though the tax rate went up, the bills arriving this month are based on the same assessed property values used for the 2025 tax bills rather than the new 2026 revaluation figures property owners received earlier this year.
But don’t get your hopes to high” Those new revaluation figures haven’t disappeared. Plus, your tax bill will be higher this year.
Under the state law, the 2026 reappraisal values are scheduled to be used for property tax bills next year. Guilford County won’t conduct another reappraisal in 2027, and the next countywide reappraisal is scheduled for 2032.
The late change also created a potential problem with the county’s 1 percent early-payment discount.
County officials warned in June that, if the bills weren’t mailed until the middle of August, taxpayers would have only a short period to receive their bills and make payment before the Aug. 31 discount deadline.
The county said at the time that state law didn’t allow commissioners simply to move that deadline.
County officials estimated that the 1 percent discount saves taxpayers about $3.8 million each year.
The Tax Department has now gotten the bills online with more than three weeks remaining before the deadline, and mailed copies are expected to follow during the week of Aug. 10.
So, after an unusually long and complicated trip through Raleigh and the Guilford County budget process, the 2026 property tax bills are finally here.
