Do your taxes in CT go up if you finish your basement, especially if it has a walkout or if you add a legal bedroom or bathroom?

Hi Victoria,

Your taxes will go up if you add any additional living space, bedrooms, bathrooms, decks etc. Any improvements will raise your assessed value. The assessed value is what determines your taxes. 

Sure will if you pull a permit and do it the right way. 

Yes, absolutely @Victoria St. James . And unfortunately this isn't only a CT thing. 

However, depending on what your plan is for the next few years, you can sometimes time things just right so that you don't see tax hikes right away. For example, in some towns they only reassess every few years. So if you do the improvements right after the reassessment you may be off the hook for a few years. And if you plan to sell it within those few years, you could be off the hook for good, and still reap the benefits of the value add when you go to sell. 

That is my plan for a house hack right now. We'll see if it works!

Your taxes will definitely go up if you go through the proper channels when finishing your basement, Your town will tax differently based on How the basement is intended to be used. I finished a basement in a home I lived in a few years back. This town (Bristol, CT)  taxes a finished basement as one of two different finishes: one being rec room and the other as good finish. My basement was a higher quality finish, Built better than the rest of my house, however I was able to get a taxed only as a rec room by not installing heat in the basement.....There was a boiler in the basement which I actually built a room around however it does generate enough heat With the door open to satisfy that requirement in my basement.