ABSTRACTThis paper examines the shift from current market value assessment to acquisition‐based assessment as mandated by a little‐noticed provision of California's 1978 Proposition Thirteen. The distributional effects of the reformed property tax system are studied for a 300‐house, ten‐neighborhood sample in Davis, California. Micro‐area tax inequalities for similar properties greatly increased from 1978 to 1985. By 1988, however, intra‐area and inter‐area inequalities in tax payments were diminishing slightly due to a low inflation rate and increased property turnover (resales). Because of its social policy consequences, acquisition‐based assessment is an element of California's tax revolt that other jurisdictions sho