Photo: DeSoto County Tax Assessor Jeff Fitch presents his reassessment of real property in the 2025 update during Monday’s Board of Supervisors meeting. (Bob Bakken/desotocountynews.com)
DeSoto County property owners…. get ready for some sticker shock when you see your new assessed valuation. Just don’t blame Tax Assessor Jeff Fitch, the state is making him do it.
Fitch told the board in presenting the real and personal property rolls that the county saw an increase of 24.59 percent, or $686 million in increased assessed value this year.
The Department of Revenue (DOR) is requiring counties to assess property closer to its fair market value. It’s a directive facing all Mississippi counties, not just DeSoto County.
“It’s been weighing heavily on me that I have got to put this burden on the taxpayers,” Fitch said. “The state did it wrong in that they only put (the mandate) on real property. They didn’t do it on land or personal property. I can’t figure out a way to stay flat.”
Property owners will be getting their reassessments and have the month of July to appeal them to the county. But because of DeSoto County’s success in attracting more people to move in and the growth of businesses in the county, real property is now to be assessed closer to the fair market value, which has risen tremendously over past years.
“The Mississippi Department of Revenue has mandated that we change our pricing manuals as well as change our index to get closer to the fair market value,” Fitch later told DeSoto County News. “Where we were running 56 percent of market value before, they wanted us at least 85 percent of market value. So we had to make those changes for the 2025 tax year.” The DOR would have preferred 100 percent, but Fitch stuck with the minimum of 85 percent.
Assessment and tax rate determine taxes. When the assessment goes up, the tax rate goes down.
Property owners will see the new assessments in their December tax bills, which would be due in February of next year. Reassessment cards are now being sent and property owners have the month of July to file an appeal.
Those who have an escrow account won’t realize it until their mortgage company contacts them, Fitch said.
“That’s what bothers me the most, because these folks won’t know until after the fact, when the mortgage company pays their taxes for the previous year,” he said. “They’re going to want that money plus the estimate for the upcoming 2026 tax year. They’re just going to have to be ready for that increase.”
The assessor said he is confident the county will do what it can to “stay flat,” as he called it, but cities and the school district make their own separate decisions on tax rates and millages.
“We do our best to keep everybody’s taxes as low as possible,” said Fitch. “We’re a very blessed county. We have plenty of industry to offset the residential cost, so we do our very best for you (taxpayers).”
The tax assessor noted that property owners over age 65 or are disabled and they have the homestead reflecting that, their taxes will not go up. Those rates are frozen and depending on where the millage rate goes, they will actually fall if the millage falls.
The Board of Supervisors can drop their millage rate when budget discussions start later this fall to offset the huge jump from assessed values, and Fitch expects to happen. The conservative fiscal philosophy used by county officials has meant that taxpayers have not seen a millage increase for 21 consecutive years.
“We’re going to try and reduce the millage as much as we legally can,” Fitch said.
