Percent and Decimal Word Problems: Property Taxes Life Skills

Property Taxes: What they are, rates around the world, what they are used for, and how to calculate them! A great way to practice percent to decimal conversions, decimal operations, and rate and ratio learning!

This two-page life skills and math worksheet is a quick and easy personal financial literacy activity for your middle or high school students.

The Handout portion introduces your students to:

• Important vocabulary and definitions: property tax and a home’s assessed value.

• A variety of global property tax rates (ranging from 0.08% – 2.64%) in locations in the United States, Canada, and even Europe. A prompt about why rates vary (lower rates where property is expensive and higher rates where property is cheaper) is also included.

• What the money collected from property tax revenues is used for: from schools to sewers and roads to emergency services including fire fighters.

The Worksheet portion has real-world math practice for your class:

1. Students are taught how they can calculate an annual property tax amount using percentages converted to decimals. First, they practice converting between percents and decimals.

2. Then, they multiply a home's assessed value by the property tax percentage (written as a decimal) in the municipality.

3. 10 practice math questions are included for your students to work on.

4. Finally, they will research the local property tax rate in their area: great real-life learning!

A COMPLETE ANSWER KEY INCLUDED- so there is no guesswork when marking!

Grades to Use With:

This lesson is designed for any students in grades 7-12 who understand percent to decimal conversions, ratios and rates, and decimal operations (specifically multiplying a large number by a decimal).

It could be used in high school family and consumer science class, business or economics, applied math, or even life skills classes.

If you enjoy this lesson, check out others in my store:

Income Tax

Sales Tax

Capital Gains Tax