Through The Roof

Montana property tax after HB 231

What changed for 2026, what you can still do about it, and what is not worth fighting. Every claim here is cited to the statute, and the numbers that reset each reappraisal cycle are held in one place so this guide cannot quietly go stale.

The enrollment guide

Everything bearing on the March 1, 2027 claim deadline — who qualifies, what each claim is worth, and who has no lever at all.

1. 01
   Your taxable value went up. Here is what actually changed.

   Montana taxable values jumped for 2026 and most of it is not an error. HB 231 made the reduced rates opt-in: the 0.76% rate that used to apply to everyone now requires an application. What changed, what you can still do, and what is not worth fighting.

2. 02
   The homestead reduced rate: who qualifies, and how to claim it

   The Montana homestead reduced tax rate takes a principal residence off the 1.9% default and onto graduated bands starting at 0.76%. The four tests, the ownership rule that disqualifies LLCs outright, the real application window, and what happens if you miss it.

3. 03
   The long-term rental rate is not 1.1%

   Nearly every summary calls Montana's long-term rental reduced rate a flat 1.1%. The statute gives a qualifying rental the same graduated bands as a homestead, starting at 0.76% — and the flat rate applies to multifamily units only.

4. 04
   Your house and a warehouse are in the same tax class

   Montana sorts property into seventeen classes, and class four is the default bucket holding nearly every house, cabin, rental, shop and lot in the state. What it covers, what escapes it, why classification follows use rather than owner, and the one class change that is usually worth more than any rate argument.

5. 05
   How a Montana taxable value is actually built

   Market value, classification, statutory rate, mills, bill. Five steps from a building to a tax bill — and only the first two can ever be contested. Worked through with the graduated bands, and how to tell a rate change from a value change.

6. 06
   The bands are cumulative, not a lookup

   Montana's reduced-rate bands fill in order like tax brackets. Reading them as a lookup — finding your band and applying that rate to the whole house — overstates the taxable value on a larger home by thousands, and sends people into appeals with nothing to argue.

7. 07
   Second homes and cabins: the four options

   There is no relief program for a Montana second home as such — HB 231 left cabins and short-term rentals at the 1.9% default deliberately. The four options, costed: pay it, convert to a long-term rental, move in, or sell. Plus the seasonal lease most owners miss.

8. 08
   Vacant land: why no reduced rate exists, in any year

   Both Montana reduced rates require a dwelling, so a vacant residential lot qualifies for neither in 2026 or any future year. The honest answer — plus the one lever that does exist for bare ground, which is classification, and which has no deadline.

9. 09
   Can you still fix 2026?

   The 2026 application window closed March 1 — but an owner who was eligible for the homestead rate and never applied can recover one year by informal appeal to the Department of Revenue, by May 31, 2027. There is no long-term-rental equivalent.

10. 10
    The 28-day test that disqualifies short-term rentals

    Montana's long-term rental reduced rate requires tenancies of 28 days or more, for at least 7 months of the claimed year. A property booked solid every week of the year fails. The question is not whether it is rented — it is whether any tenancy ran under 28 days.

For commercial owners

The claim deadline above does not apply to commercial property — there is no election on that side at all. What there is instead:

1. 01
   Commercial property: no form to file, and a reform that cut both ways

   There is no homestead or rental claim on the commercial side — no election of any kind. What the rate actually is, where the six-times threshold sits, why HB 231 raised small commercial parcels while cutting larger ones, and the one question above the threshold that is genuinely unsettled.

Still to come

Ahead of the June 2027 reappraisal notices and their 30-day appeal clocks: reading a Classification & Appraisal notice, the three appeal ladders and which one you are on, the county-board filing that is easy to miss, what actually wins a value appeal, and the classification errors that can be corrected at any time. After that, why “the mills will adjust” is only half true.

Verified against MCA Title 15 as of September 17, 2026. The median residential value ($386,000) and the band edges derived from it are recalculated every two years with reappraisal — the next reset is in 2027. Up The Creek Research LLC is a public-records research firm, not a law firm, an accounting firm or an appraisal firm; this guide explains what the statute provides and is not advice about your particular situation. See our Disclaimer & Terms.