Walk It Through: The Tax Bill For A Widow
A homestead exemption at sixty-five, a late application after a death, and taxes that went unpaid.
A homeowner turned sixty-five last fall and learns about the homestead exemption.
Two things a person in this spot might do. Picking one shows what the law says about it.
One homeowner. The disabled veteran exemptions, valuation protests, and the tax deed itself are not worked through here.
A practice walkthrough, not a prediction of how any real one will go. Legal information, not legal advice.
Words this turns on
Terms with a legal meaning that is narrower than the everyday one. Each links to the definition and the authority behind it.
- HomesteadThe dwelling a person lives in, with its land, exempt from judgment liens and forced sale up to one hundred twenty thousand dollars in value.
- Homestead exemptionAn exemption from property tax on a percentage of a homestead's exempt amount, set by household income, applied for with the county assessor after February 1 and on or before June 30.
- Qualified claimantAn owner of the homestead during the year of the claim who was sixty-five years of age or older before January 1 of that year.
- RedemptionPaying the county treasurer the sum in the tax sale certificate with interest, later taxes and fees, to keep property sold for taxes. The right ends when the purchaser files an application for a tax deed.
- Tax deedThe deed a county treasurer issues to a tax sale purchaser of property not redeemed, after three months' notice to the owner and the waiting period the section sets.