Taxes & Insurance in Surprise
Surprise sits in Maricopa County, with a well-documented city-level sales tax rate and a property-tax picture that varies meaningfully by ZIP. Arizona's real flat 2.5% state income tax applies statewide, and homeowners insurance costs vary by source and coverage level.
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Learn moreSurprise's combined sales tax rate: 9.1%, one of the higher West Valley rates in this dataset
Surprise's minimum combined 2026 sales tax rate is 9.1%: 5.6% Arizona state + 0.7% Maricopa County + 2.8% City of Surprise (Avalara, SalesTaxHandbook, retrieved 2026-08-24) -- consistently cited across multiple aggregators. This runs above Avondale's 8.8% and within the same range as Goodyear's 8.8%-9.3% (both built alongside this record in this dataset), reflecting Surprise's own comparatively high municipal add-on specifically.
Property tax runs a real, ZIP-dependent range
Ownwell cites Surprise's median effective property tax rate at 0.44% based on actual property records (retrieved 2026-08-24). Rates vary meaningfully by ZIP within the city -- driven by differing school-district and special-assessment-district levies: cited annual bills range from $1,190 (ZIP 85378) to $1,751 (ZIP 85387), with median effective rates of 0.52% in 85374 and 0.42% in 85379. Maricopa County's broader effective range is separately cited at 0.6%-1.3% depending on jurisdiction -- a wider-framed figure than the city-specific Ownwell median, both disclosed rather than reconciled.
Arizona's real flat 2.5% income tax
Arizona levies a real, flat 2.5% individual income tax, in effect since tax year 2023 (azdor.gov, retrieved 2026-08-24) -- the lowest flat rate of any state that levies one, but a real tax nonetheless. This is NOT a no-income-tax state, and this record deliberately does not frame it that way.
Homeowners insurance: a real statewide range, no Surprise-specific figure isolated this pass
Arizona homeowners insurance costs for 2026 were cited across a real range by statewide sources: roughly $2,309-$2,602/year depending on methodology and coverage level, with the Phoenix metro (including most of Maricopa County) running slightly above the statewide average at roughly $2,387/year (Insurance.com, MoneyGeek, NerdWallet aggregation, retrieved 2026-08-24). No Surprise-specific figure, distinct from the broader Phoenix-metro/statewide range, was isolated this research pass -- that gap is disclosed rather than papered over with an invented number; get a specific quote for any Surprise address.
Key takeaways
- Surprise's combined sales tax rate is 9.1% (5.6% state + 0.7% county + 2.8% city) -- above Avondale's 8.8% and within Goodyear's range, both elsewhere in this dataset.
- Property tax runs a real ZIP-dependent range: Ownwell's citywide median effective rate is 0.44%, with individual ZIPs ranging from 0.42% to 0.52%.
- Arizona's state income tax is a real flat 2.5%, in effect since 2023 -- NOT a no-income-tax state.
- Homeowners insurance carries a real statewide/Phoenix-metro range of roughly $2,309-$2,602/year; no Surprise-specific figure was isolated this pass -- a genuine, disclosed data gap.
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