If you close on a Roswell home this fall, whose tax bill are you paying for, and in what year was it calculated?
Right now the honest answer is complicated. Fulton County mailed its 2026 property tax bills on August 15, but called them temporary. They were built on preliminary 2026 values and 2025 millage rates, and the county said a refund or a revised final bill would follow once final rates were set. Roswell set its own 2026 rate on September 28. City bills are expected in mailboxes before the end of October, with payment due no later than December 31, 2026. A buyer closing in the next few weeks is signing a contract while the actual numbers are still being printed.
The timing is a small part of the story. The bigger part is that a Roswell listing's tax history belongs to the seller, and in Roswell a seller's bill can sit well below what a new owner will see. The reason showed up in this fall's millage debate, in a single footnote from the city.
What a fall closing in Roswell actually settles
Under the standard Georgia REALTORS® purchase and sale agreement, known as form F201, taxes are prorated as of the closing date. When the proration relies on an estimated bill, the party who came out short pays the other once the actual bill is issued. The same form makes the buyer responsible for the sale year's property tax after closing. GAR's forms portal lists a June 1, 2026 revision of F201, so the exact wording in your contract is the one that controls. When the current bill isn't available yet, the prior year's bill is a common starting point for the estimate. The seller's share is credited to the buyer at closing, and the buyer pays the bill when it arrives.
For an October or November closing in Roswell this year, the order of events looks like this:
- June 19: Fulton County publishes 2026 assessment notices. The appeal deadline for most owners was July 31, 2026.
- August 15: Temporary Fulton bills go out at 2025 millage rates.
- September 28: Roswell City Council adopts 5.232 mills for tax year 2026.
- Late October: Roswell city bills mail, due within 60 days and no later than December 31.
- April 1, 2027: Fulton's filing deadline for a 2027 homestead exemption. Eligibility depends on owning and living in the home on January 1.
The homestead filing is where the seller's tax history stays behind with the seller.
The exemption that starts over at the deed
In 2018, Roswell, Alpharetta and Milton each got a local floating homestead exemption approved. In Alpharetta's description, reported by Appen Media, the base is "the initial assessed value at 2018 or at time of homestead, if later," and it rises each year by the lesser of 3 percent or CPI. In practice, the city's millage applies to a value that grows slowly for as long as the same owner stays.
Fulton County runs a separate 3 percent floating homestead exemption of its own. The statewide floating exemption created by HB 581 works the same way in principle. The statute says it applies only to qualifying homesteads and does not carry over to the next owner.
A sale breaks the chain. Fulton's homestead guide says that when ownership changes on the deed, the new occupying owner has to apply again. Under the "if later" rule, the new owner's base is the assessed value when they file, which is today's value, not 2018's. A seller who homesteaded early has had years of value growth kept out of the taxable base. A buyer's floating exemption starts at the current number.
So a listing that shows a modest annual tax figure is accurately reporting what the seller paid. It doesn't tell you what you'll pay.
The footnote that shows how large the gap has become
Roswell's 2026 millage process started with a proposal to roughly double the rate and ended with something close to last year's rate. The steps in between explain the mechanism.
The city first advertised 7.732 mills, up from 4.949 in 2025, to cover about $18 million in capital needs it identified for FY26. That list included road resurfacing, fleet replacement, rising health insurance costs and the final year of the full-time Fire Department transition. Appen Media reported that all 34 public comments at the September 14 meeting opposed the original figure. Council then advanced a reduced 5.9-mill starting rate on a 4-2 vote. On September 28, Council adopted 5.232 mills, again 4-2.
The city published this comparison for a $575,000 home, which carries an assessed value of $230,000. The figures are the city portion only, before exemptions:
| Rate considered | Mills | City tax on a $575,000 home |
|---|---|---|
| 2025 adopted rate | 4.949 | $1,138 |
| 2026 rollback rate | 5.288 | $1,216 |
| First-reading rate, Sept. 14 | 5.900 | $1,357 |
| Advertised rate, Sept. 3 | 7.732 | $1,778 |
| 2026 adopted rate, Sept. 28 | 5.232 | about $1,203 |
The rollback rate is the line to focus on. Georgia defines it as the rate that would raise the same revenue as the year before. In 2026 Roswell's rollback rate came in above the prior year's rate. The city's own footnote says taxable value "fell, mostly due to increase in floating homestead exemptions."
In other words, floating exemptions have grown large enough that Roswell's taxable digest shrank. Just to bring in last year's revenue, the city needed a higher rate. The adopted 5.232 mills sits slightly under that rollback rate. The maintenance and operations portion stayed at 4.049 mills, which the city calls its lowest level in 18 years. Debt service rose to 1.183 mills from 0.9 after the April 2025 issuance of the second tranche of voter-approved bonds.
Roswell's Mayor and Council can set the rate, but the exemptions decide who pays it. Long-held homesteads apply the rate to a slowly rising base. A recent buyer applies it to a base reset to the current market. Both owners pay the same 5.232 mills. Their bills can differ widely.
Appen Media's earlier reporting quoted the Georgia Municipal Association making the same point about floating exemptions in general. A city's results depend on its digest and "how often homes sell."
Why the city fight was over the smallest slice
Roswell's slice is a minority of a resident's total property tax bill. The city puts its share at about 16.3 percent, with Fulton County Schools at about 56.2 percent and Fulton County at about 27.6 percent. The September debate was about the city's share. The reset at the deed shows up in other parts of the bill as well. Fulton's floating exemption follows the same homestead rules, and the county's flat exemptions also require a new filing after a sale. Fulton's guide lists $30,000 off assessed value for county taxes and $2,000 off school taxes under the basic homestead exemption.
For buyers comparing Roswell with other North Atlanta suburbs, the city millage rate tells you little by itself. A better question for any listing is what the bill looks like when the floating exemption starts over at the price you're paying. The city's pre-exemption figures give a reasonable starting point for the Roswell portion.
A few questions buyers raise
Does the new 5.232 rate apply to a fall 2026 closing?
Yes, it is the city rate for tax year 2026. Since F201 makes the buyer responsible for the sale year's taxes after closing, any proration based on an estimate gets trued up once the actual bill is issued.
Will the bill arrive in my name or the seller's?
Fulton County mails bills to owners at the addresses the Board of Tax Assessors supplies. Georgia law firms describe this differently, and the county's published pages don't settle it. Look up the parcel yourself through Fulton's property tax lookup instead of waiting for a bill to show up in the mail.
Is anything else on the November ballot that touches Roswell?
A countywide TSPLOST renewal goes to voters on November 3, 2026. It includes 18 proposed Roswell transportation projects and an estimated $85 to $95 million for the city if approved. It is a sales tax, so it has no effect on millage or homestead exemptions.
All of this is general information about how Roswell and Fulton County taxes work. It is not tax, legal or financial advice, so please confirm your own figures and filing deadlines with Fulton County, your closing attorney or a tax professional.
When we price a Roswell home or write an offer, the tax figure we work from is the one a new owner will face, not the one in the seller's history. If you'd like that number estimated for a specific address before you sign, the team at Savvy Realty Group can go through it with you line by line. Contact Us.
