Portland Arts Tax Calculator

City of Portland Arts Education Tax

What changed for 2026

Portland voters approved the arts tax in 2012. It helps fund arts and music education for students in kindergarten through fifth grade and grants to local nonprofit arts organizations. City Council adopted changes in May 2026 that start with tax year 2026, with payments due April 15, 2027. The Revenue Division sums them up: fewer people will need to file or pay, and those who do will pay more. Instead of $35 on each adult resident with income, the tax now applies only above an income threshold, and the amount follows your Oregon filing status.

From Portland City Code 6.10.110 (tax years 2026 and later) and the Revenue Division's Arts Education Tax page. Dependent deduction: our reading of 6.10.140 with the 2026 HHS poverty guideline step of $5,680, a full step per dependent on a single return and a half step on a joint return.

Who owes it

You owe the 2026 tax if you are 18 or older, lived in Portland for more than 30 days during the year, must file an Oregon income tax return (Form OR-40 or OR-40-P) and your Oregon taxable income is over the threshold for your filing status. The threshold is $20,000 for single and married filing separately filers and $40,000 for married filing jointly, head of household and qualifying surviving spouse filers. The tax is not prorated, so a resident for part of the year who owes it pays the full amount. To check whether your address is in the city, look it up in Portland Maps: if the Jurisdiction shows Portland, you live in the city.

The amount is $50 for single, married filing separately, head of household and qualifying surviving spouse filers, and $100 for a married couple filing jointly. Couples filing jointly send one joint Arts Tax return; heads of household and qualifying surviving spouses also file a joint Arts Tax return but pay $50; married people filing separately each file their own.

How the income test works

The test starts from Oregon taxable income, the taxable income reported to Oregon on your state return. The City Code says no tax is imposed if that income, after allowable deductions, does not exceed the threshold. Two deductions matter. First, income the City cannot tax comes off: the Revenue Division gives Social Security, Oregon PERS, federal (FERS) retirement and VA disability benefits as examples. A single retiree with $31,000 of Oregon taxable income that includes $14,000 of PERS benefits is tested on $17,000 and owes nothing. Second, each dependent on your Oregon return lowers the income used for the test by a step of the federal poverty guidelines for the same year, $5,680 in 2026; joint filers take half a step per dependent.

For a single parent filing as head of household with $48,000 of Oregon taxable income, the test income is $45,160 with one child, $42,320 with two and $39,480 with three, so only the three-child household falls under the $40,000 threshold. A married couple with two children and $52,000 is tested on $46,320 and owes $100. You claim these deductions by filing an Arts Tax return, even though you owe nothing once you are under the threshold.

Before 2026: the $35 per person tax

For tax years 2012 through 2025 the code charged $35 on each income-earning resident who was at least 18, with no tax for filers in a household at or below the federal poverty guidelines. Low-income seniors and people with permanent disabilities could get a permanent filing exemption; from 2026 those permanent exemptions are no longer available, because anyone under the income threshold is exempt automatically. If you still owe a 2025 or earlier return, it is figured under the old rules.

Indexing from 2027, and paying

From tax year 2027 the $50 tax and the income thresholds are adjusted each year for inflation. Increases in the tax are rounded down to a whole dollar and increases in the thresholds down to a multiple of $500, and a decrease leaves the amounts where they were. The Revenue Division posts the new figures each November. The tax is due with your federal return, generally April 15; filing opens in late January, you can pay online, and you will also be able to file through participating tax software. An Oregon extension extends the Arts Tax return automatically but not the payment. A late payment carries a $15 penalty, plus $20 more if it is still unpaid six months later.

The City mails a filing reminder to known Portland households between February and March, but the tax is not added to property tax or water bills, because those bills cannot tell who in a household owes it. When you file, the City asks for your full Social Security number and year of birth so the payment is applied to the right person and nobody under 18 is billed. Since 2012 the tax has raised more than $150 million, which the City says funds arts teachers for about 28,000 elementary school children a year and more than $30 million in grants.

The arts tax sits beside Portland's larger income taxes: the Metro supportive housing services tax and Multnomah County's Preschool for All tax, explained in the Portland metro tax guide. For your full take-home pay, try the Portland salary calculator, Oregon salary calculator or Oregon salary after taxes, and see the Oregon statewide transit tax. Commuters across the Columbia can compare work in Oregon, live in Washington and work in Washington, live in Oregon, and local income tax by state covers other cities.