As we move forward into this holiday season I wanted to remind your readers of the property tax savings’ programs that my office has available for qualified recipients. I know this is not exactly an exciting topic and I have shared these with you before in earlier columns but saving money is always a good thing and I believe it’s worth repeating.
In fact, last year my office provided taxpayers with more than $700 million in savings through various exemptions and exclusions.
Let’s start with the easiest to access: the Homeowners’ Exemption (HOX) is available to anyone who owns their home and who occupies it as their principle residence as of January 1. It reduces your assessed value by $7,000, which will save you about $70 of your property tax bill every year.
To say this is an easy way to save money is an understatement, but nearly one in three homeowners in Los Angeles County do not take advantage of this tax savings program, leaving $30 million unclaimed each year. Across the County, an additional 435,000 families can be saving on their tax bills.
What about property tax savings for veterans? If you are a single veteran with assets of less than $5,000, a married veteran with assets of less than $10,000, or an unmarried surviving spouse of an eligible veteran, you may apply for the Veterans’ Exemption of $4,000, which is applied to the assessed value of your property.
The Disable Veterans’ Property Tax Exemption is for disable veterans blind in both eyes; with the loss of the use of two or more limbs; or when totally disabled as a result of injury or disease incurred while in active military service. Unmarried surviving spouses of certain deceased veterans may also qualify. The Low-Income Disabled Veterans’ Exemption provides additional savings if a disabled veteran (meeting above requirements) also meets low-income requirements.
I just wrote about this last month but it’s important to note that there is legislative movement to increase the savings with this exemption by allowing those that qualify to receive both the HOX and the veterans’ exemptions, thereby significantly increasing the savings.
There’s also disaster relief available through filing the Misfortune or Calamity application. Property that is damaged by a disaster, such as fire, flood or earthquake, or other calamity, which may include civil unrest, may qualify for a temporary reduction in taxable value. Physical damage to the property must be valued at least $10,000.
Then there’s the Decline-in-Value (also known as DIV or Prop 8), which allows for a temporary reduction in a property’s assessed value. This occurs when the current market value of a property is less than the assessed base-year value as of January 1. A DIV review may be requested through the Assessor’s Office and can be made online.
If you are a homeowner who is over 55, severely disabled or the victim of a natural disaster, you may be eligible to transfer your property tax base when you sell your home and buy a new one. This also allows qualified homeowners to buy a home anywhere in the state, it allows the transfer of the property tax base up to three times, and it allows you to transfer the tax base to a home of any value.
There’s also ways to save when protecting the environment. The initial purchaser of a building with an active solar energy system may qualify for an exclusion from assessment on that portion of the value attributable to the system. When adding a solar energy system to your current home, the new system is automatically excluded from assessment.
In June 2018, Proposition 72 was approved by California voters to exclude rainwater capture systems from assessments. Thanks to this measure, the initial purchaser of a property with a rainwater capture system may be eligible for an exclusion of the rainwater capture system assessment. When adding a rainwater capture system to your current home, the new system will be automatically excluded from your property’s assessment.
For more information about these programs and the actual dollar savings available for each one, please go to our new and improved website at assessor.lacounty.gov.
As we close out 2023, I want to wish everyone a happy Holiday Season as well as a safe and prosperous New Year. We’ll talk again in 2024 when your Assessor’s Office enters the digital age.
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Los Angeles County Assessor Jeff Prang has been in office since 2014. Upon taking office, Prang implemented sweeping reforms to ensure that the strictest ethical guidelines rooted in fairness, accuracy and integrity would be adhered to in his office, which is the largest office of its kind in the nation with 1,300 employees and provides the foundation for a property tax system that generates $24 billion annually.
