Florida property tax answers · Updated July 2026
What is a TRIM notice in Florida?
The short answer
A TRIM notice (Truth in Millage) is the notice of proposed property taxes your Florida county property appraiser mails every August. It shows your assessed value, exemptions, proposed millage rates, and an estimated tax bill. It is not a bill, but it starts a hard clock: you have 25 days from its mailing date to petition the Value Adjustment Board if the value is wrong.
What the TRIM notice actually tells you
- Your just (market) value and assessed value as of January 1. These differ for homesteaded homes because the Save Our Homes cap limits how fast assessed value can rise.
- Your exemptions. Confirm the homestead exemption (up to $50,000 off assessed value) is applied; a missing exemption is often a bigger error than the valuation itself.
- Proposed millage rates from each taxing authority (county, school board, city, districts) and what your bill will be if they pass.
- The public hearing dates where those rates get adopted.
- Your appeal rights: the deadline to petition your county's Value Adjustment Board, which lands 25 days after the notice's mailing date.
The mistake most homeowners make
Because the TRIM notice is not a bill, most people glance at it and file it away. That is exactly backwards. The TRIM notice is the only moment in the Florida tax year when the assessed value is still contestable, by the time the actual bill arrives in November, the appeal window closed months earlier. Florida Statute 200.069 requires the notice to be mailed in August, and Statute 194.011 gives you 25 days from that mailing date to file Form DR-486 with the Value Adjustment Board. The Clerk of Court must receive the petition by the deadline, a postmark does not count.
The homeowners who win VAB petitions are the ones who already know their case before the notice lands. You can check your address now, free, against our database of all 67 Florida counties, 8.3 million parcels from the state assessment roll, and know your position weeks before the clock starts.
What to do when yours arrives
Read the assessed value, compare it to what similar homes in your ZIP are assessed at, and confirm your exemptions line by line. If the value looks high, the statewide appeal walkthrough covers the DR-486 petition, the $15 fee, and the special-magistrate hearing. If your assessed value is far below market because you have held the home for years under the Save Our Homes cap, an appeal likely saves you nothing, here is how to tell.
Know your number before the TRIM notice lands
Search your address and see how your assessment compares against similar Florida properties, free, no signup, about 30 seconds. The appeal window is only 25 days from the August mailing, so knowing your case in advance is the difference between filing prepared and missing it. If the record shows a gap, the $49 kit arrives with Form DR-486 pre-filled and the comparable evidence attached, ready to sign and file.
Check my Florida address · FreeFlat $49, one time, no contingency. The free check works year-round, well before TRIM notices mail.