Columbus, October 25, 2007 – Governor Ted Strickland today announced that about 566,000 additional homeowners applied for the newly-expanded homestead exemption during a special sign up period earlier this year from July 2 to October 1.
The result is that as many as 788,000 homeowners stand to receive hundreds of dollars worth of property tax relief on bills payable next year. This figure includes about 222,000 homeowners who were already enrolled under the old homestead exemption law and did not need to reapply.
“The expansion of the homestead exemption offers meaningful tax relief for every senior citizen and permanently disabled homeowner in Ohio,” Strickland said. “County auditors and state officials have done a tremendous job reaching out to Ohio’s seniors and educating them about this additional tax relief available to them.”
The figures, based on an October 12 survey of county auditors throughout Ohio, show that roughly 97 percent of the homeowners thought to be eligible for the newly-expanded homestead exemption are in line to receive it. The department had estimated that about 775,000 senior citizens would be eligible as well as an additional 40,000 permanently and totally disabled Ohioans, for a total of 815,000.
The expansion of the homestead exemption was a key component of the two-year state budget bill signed into law on June 30 after passing the Ohio General Assembly with strong bipartisan support. The legislation generally allows all senior citizens and permanently and totally disabled Ohioans, regardless of income, to exempt $25,000 of the market value of the home they owned and lived in on January 1 from property taxes.
The exact amount of savings from the exemption will vary from community to community based on local tax rates. On average across Ohio, homeowners enrolled for the homestead exemption are expected to save about $400 next year.
Homeowners who missed the October 1 deadline to have the homestead exemption applied to their 2007 property tax bills (payable in 2008) will get a second opportunity to sign up during the normal enrollment period, which will begin January 8, 2008 and end June 2, 2008. For these late signups, county treasurers will either apply the full value of the 2007 exemption to the second-half property tax bill or award it in the form of a refund.
