Colonial Beach, VA: Property Tax Guide
Colonial Beach is a real, incorporated Virginia town — chartered February 25, 1892 — sitting on the Northern Neck peninsula in Westmoreland County, where the Potomac River, Monroe Bay, and Monroe Creek meet. Because it is an incorporated town rather than an unincorporated community, a property owner here typically owes real estate tax to two separate governments layered on top of each other: Westmoreland County and the Town of Colonial Beach itself. This page explains that general two-layer structure and how Virginia assesses real estate for tax purposes, without inventing a specific current rate, assessed value, or sample tax bill for Colonial Beach — those figures need to come from the Westmoreland County Commissioner of the Revenue and the Town of Colonial Beach directly.
How Virginia Property Tax Works: Assessed Value, Set Locally
Virginia real estate tax is a local tax, not a state one. Each locality's assessing office periodically appraises real estate at its assessed value, and the locality's governing body then sets an annual real estate tax rate, expressed in Virginia as a dollar amount per $100 of assessed value rather than as mills. Multiply the assessed value by that rate and divide by 100, and you get the annual bill for that layer of government.
For a Westmoreland County property outside any incorporated town, that is typically the whole story: one county rate, applied to the county's assessed value. Colonial Beach is different, precisely because it is one of Virginia's incorporated towns rather than an unincorporated stretch of the county.
Colonial Beach's Own Town Tax, Layered on Westmoreland County's
As an incorporated town with its own charter, its own town council, and its own municipal budget, Colonial Beach very likely sets and levies its own town-level real estate tax rate in addition to whatever rate Westmoreland County sets for the county as a whole. In practice, that generally means a property owner inside the town limits owes both layers on the same assessed value: a county rate that funds county government and county schools, and a separate town rate that funds town government and town services.
This page deliberately does not state what either rate currently is, how the two compare to each other, or what a combined bill would look like for a given assessed value, because no current, primary-source rate for either layer was confirmed in the research behind this page. The two-layer structure itself is a genuine, useful thing for a buyer to understand going in; the actual numbers belong to the Westmoreland County Commissioner of the Revenue's office and the Town of Colonial Beach's own town hall, and either or both should be contacted directly before budgeting a purchase around a specific figure.
A Distinctive Local Feature: The Riverboat on the Potomac
Colonial Beach carries a genuinely unusual piece of local economic history that sets it apart from almost anywhere else on this site. The Potomac River legally belongs to Maryland under that state's 1632 colonial land charter, with the boundary running along the mean low-water line on the Virginia shore. From 1949 to 1958, that quirk turned Colonial Beach into what the Saturday Evening Post dubbed "Las Vegas on the Potomac": casino operators built waterfront establishments and a gambling barge extending from the Virginia shore into Maryland's legal jurisdiction, where Maryland's permissive Charles County slot-machine law applied even though Virginia banned gambling on its own soil. Named casinos from that era included Little Reno, Jackpot, and Monte Carlo, and a barge called Pleasure Island. The boom ended in 1958 when Maryland outlawed the slots under pressure from Virginia legislators.
That same jurisdictional principle is still in active use today: Colonial Beach hosts a real, currently operating pier-based off-track-betting, restaurant, and lounge facility, the Riverboat on the Potomac, built on the same Maryland-jurisdiction logic that powered the 1950s casino era. As Mayor Robyn Schick has put it, once you cross onto that pier, you can bet as if you are in Maryland, because legally, you are. A working gaming and hospitality business inside town limits is a plausible contributor to the town's own tax and revenue base, but no specific figures on its assessed value, its tax contribution, its current betting offerings, or its hours were confirmed in the research behind this page — treat its existence as genuine local color and a real distinguishing fact about the town's economy, not as a substitute for an actual property tax rate or bill.
What This Page Does Not State, and Why
This page does not state a current Westmoreland County real estate tax rate, a current Town of Colonial Beach tax rate, an assessed value for any property, or a sample tax bill in dollars, because none of those figures were confirmed against a primary county or town source in the research behind this page. It also does not state any population figure beyond Colonial Beach's confirmed 2024 estimate of 4,038 residents, and does not speculate about future rate changes in either layer of government.
Before budgeting a purchase in Colonial Beach around a specific tax figure, confirm the current county rate and any applicable assessment with the Westmoreland County Commissioner of the Revenue's office, confirm the current town rate with the Town of Colonial Beach directly, and ask both offices how the two rates combine for a specific parcel. A local real estate agent or closing attorney working in Westmoreland County can also pull the actual current combined bill for a specific address.
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Get a Free Agent Referral →Independent research. No ads. No sponsored listings. Data sourced from: Wikipedia's entry on Colonial Beach, Virginia (incorporation date of February 25, 1892, location on the Northern Neck peninsula bounded by the Potomac River, Monroe Bay, and Monroe Creek, 2020 census population of 3,908 with a 2024 estimate of 4,038, and the current Riverboat on the Potomac off-track-betting, restaurant, and lounge facility); the Town of Colonial Beach's own official history page (background on the town's historic gambling era); and VPM's 2026 'Curious Commonwealth' feature on the town's 'Las Vegas on the Potomac' nickname, including a direct quote from current Mayor Robyn Schick explaining the Maryland-jurisdiction mechanic. Honest gaps disclosed rather than filled with invented figures: no current Westmoreland County real estate tax rate, no current Town of Colonial Beach town-level tax rate, no assessed-value figures, and no sample tax bill were confirmed via a primary county or town source in the research behind this page. Property tax rates and assessments are set and reviewed annually by the county and the town, and can change from year to year. Before making any purchase or budgeting a tax bill, confirm current figures directly with the Westmoreland County Commissioner of the Revenue's office, the Town of Colonial Beach, or a licensed Virginia tax professional. Nothing on this page is legal, tax, or financial advice.