Cities: Skylines Tax Office Unlock Guide

The Tax Office Unique Building in Cities: Skylines
Tax Office
Cost to Build ₡18,000
Upkeep Cost ₡320/week
Tourism Value 50
Entertainment Value 50
Noise Pollution 10

The Tax Office is a level 3 unique building in Cities: Skylines.

To unlock it, you’ll need to do three things:

  • Construct a water treatment plant
  • Have an electricity production of 1,000 MW (all at once, not accumulated over time)
  • Reach the Boom Town population milestone (between 650 to 2,600 population, depending on the map)

This unlock is simple enough, but the second requirement can be quite costly. Especially if your city isn’t large enough to justify that much electricity production in the first place.

Once unlocked, you can build the Tax Office from the level 3 unique building tab for ₡18,000. It provides 50 entertainment value and produces 10 noise pollution.

The Tax Office is a requirement for the Fusion Power Plant monument.

Step 1: Constructing a Water Treatment Plant

Simply build a water treatment plant from the Water & Sewage menu.

Only the basic water treatment plant counts for this; similar facilities like the eco inland water treatment plant do not.

The Water Treatment Plant from the Water & Sewage build menu. / Cities: Skylines
The Water Treatment Plant from the Water & Sewage build menu.

You do not need to keep the water treatment plant operational for the unlock; it only needs to be built. So feel free to keep it switched off and disconnected if you prefer to use other sewage treatment options.

Step 2: Producing 1,000 MW of Electricity

This second part is a little more complicated, unless you have a very large city that already uses that much power in the first place.

For reference, this city of 31,000 residents only uses about a third of that. / Cities: Skylines
For reference, this city of 31,000 residents only uses about a third of that.

But even if your city isn’t quite that size yet, this should be no problem if you have plenty of money to spare (just remember to keep the new buildings switched off until your city starts requiring the additional power).

You’ll have different power production facilities available to you depending on how late in the game you are; they’ll vary in terms of initial cost, max production per building, upkeep, and pollution.

SCROLL
Building Unlocked at Build Cost (₡) DLC Max Output (MW)
Coal Power Plant Start 19,000 None 40
Wind Turbine Start 6,000 None 8
Advanced Wind Turbine Boom Town 12,000 None 20
Wave Power Plant Boom Town 14,000 High Tech Buildings 20
Geothermal Power Plant Busy Town 65,000 Green Cities 80
Oil Power Plant Busy Town 50,000 None 120
Solar Updraft Tower Big Town 90,000 Green Cities 240
Hydro Power Plant Small City varies None varies*
Solar Power Plant Grand City 80,000 None 160
Nuclear Power Plant Colossal City 200,000 None 640
Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion Plant Colossal City 250,000 Green Cities 480
* The build cost and power output of the Hydro Power Plant will depend on a number of factors such as the width of the body of water it’s built across, depth, and the strength of the current.

Take note that if you’re playing with the day/night cycle on, the solar updraft tower and solar power plant will produce less power at nighttime.

Liz Villegas

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Liz is a writer and photographer with a love for building and strategy games. Her spare time is often split between lifting, reading, drawing, annoying her dog Mr. Porky Butt, and squinting at stat tables on the wiki pages of whatever game she's currently playing.

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