Finding a Property's Tax District Number

For most counties, the tax district number is the first two or three characters of the parcel number except in Delaware and Muskingum counties. If you are looking at the properly formatted parcel number, often counties will separate the tax district and the rest of the parcel number with a dash. (For example, in Franklin county, a parcel number of 010-303343-00 means this parcel is in tax district 010). Each county auditor has the authority to dictate their own schemes in regards to whether or not the tax district is included in the parcel number. In reality, most auditors are consistent with one another in this regard, aside from the exception counties previously mentioned that have been discovered by the MLS.

For Delaware county, use the property's tax card to locate the tax district number.

For Muskingum county, you may consider calling the auditor directly. For many properties in Muskingum county, it is in fact the first few numbers of the parcel number, but their county auditor office has informed MLS that this is not always the case. For this reason, MLS recommends that you call this county's auditor office directly for the most accurate information.


Finding Corp Limits, Townships, and School Districts with Auditor Tax Rate Sheets

Your reference for Corp Limit is the tax rate sheets listed above. Other resources include the property card/property information on the county auditor website and Realist.

Informally, Corp Limit is specifying which city or village you pay taxes to in return for certain civil services such as but not limited to: fire service, police, roads, health, codified ordinances (rules), zoning, etc. Township is specifying the township you pay taxes in return for certain civil services.

The way you interpret the tax rate sheet is, if the description of the tax district of your property specifies either a city or village listed, this is your corp limit. (Cities or villages are commonly noted as "Bexley" or "City of Bexley" or "Village of Johnstown"). Something listed with LSD or CSD at the end of it is a local school district or city school district and NOT a corp limit). Likewise for Township, if the description lists a Township, you'll enter that township within Tempo.

A property will always have either a corp limit or a township and sometimes both. If a description does not list a noticeable city or village, you would select "None" on your Corp Limit field. Likewise, if a description does not list a noticeable township, you would select "None" on your Township field.

When using property tax cards as your reference, some auditors will identify properties that do not have a Corp Limit as "Unincorporated". If the property is unincorporated, you would select "None" in the corp limit field on your listing.

A Tax District ID is a mechanism to summarize township, city, and school district information among other services the Tax District ID implies.  For example, if a property is in tax district 010 within Franklin county, this indicates the property is in the Corp Limit of Columbus, there is no Township, and School District is Columbus City Schools. Some financial assistance requires you to be in a certain tax district as a requirement to apply.


What is the difference between Corp Limit and the City (Mailing Address) field?

Corp Limit specifies which city or village you pay taxes to for certain services such as but not limited to: fire service, police, roads, health, codified ordinances (rules), zoning, etc. City (mailing address) field specifies the city or village your nearest USPS post office is located in, where your mail is serviced from. The two can be different or they could be the same. For example it is entirely possible a property resides in the Corp Limit of Gahanna but their mailing city is Columbus. In general, the difference between these fields are where you get services from.

Your reference for Corp Limit is the tax rate sheets listed above. Other secondary resources include the property card/property information on the county auditor website and Realist. Your reference for the City (mailing address) field is the USPS website lookup tools. To determine if a city is acceptable in the City (Mailing Address) field, use the "Find a Zip Code" tool on the USPS website at http://www.usps.gov. This tool will tell you which city names are acceptable for a given zip code. If the city name shows up as acceptable to the USPS using this lookup tool given the zip code you have entered on your listing, the MLS considers it acceptable to use in the City (mailing address) field on your listing.