Filing for home exemption can help cut property taxes

With home prices rising and elected officials digging deeper into the pockets of property owners to fund the rail, give yourself a much-needed tax break by filing for a home exemption or making sure you already have one.

The deadline to file an exemption for the next fiscal year is Sept. 30. It’s a quick and painless process that can end up saving you thousands of dollars during the ownership of your property. And you need to file only once.

The exemption essentially reduces property taxes by lowering the net taxable assessed value of your home. And values, which are set by the city, have been rising every year. They increased 5.9 percent on Oahu in 2017. The assessments for 2018 will be mailed Dec. 15.

Currently, the standard home exemption is $80,000 (or $120,000 for homeowners 65 and older). So a homeowner who lives and owns in a home assessed at $800,000 would pay taxes on a value of $720,000. That equals about $2,520 in property taxes annually. Without the exemption it would be $280 more.

There are also other special exemptions for veterans who are totally disabled due to injuries while on activity duty, Hansen’s disease patients who are confined because of the illness and people who are blind, deaf or totally disabled. There are also generous tax breaks for owners of properties on the Hawaii Register of Historic Places.

To qualify for a home exemption, it must be your principal home — not a second home or investment property. And you can only have one exemption. You also must have owned your home on or before Sept. 30, preceding the tax year for which you claim the exemption.

Keep this in mind if you’re currently in escrow and are scheduled to close in early October and the seller does not have an exemption. You should see whether there’s any chance you could close by Sept. 30 to be able to file an exemption. If you’re closing Oct. 1, you’ll have to wait another year to receive the tax break.

At signing, I always advise my buyers to file for the exemption as soon as taking ownership of the home, so they don’t push it off and forget. The exemption form usually comes in the escrow folder at signing. It pains me when I come across homeowners who have lived in their property for decades and never filed one.

On Oahu about 155,000 out of 250,000 residential properties have homeowner exemptions, which have been around for more than a century in Hawaii. The first home exemption was enacted in 1896 by the Republic of Hawaii. Back then the exemption was $300.

To file for an exemption, you’ll need to know your parcel ID (tax map key) number. This number can be found on your assessment notice, on your real state contracts or found online.

Home exemptions can be filed at www.realpropertyhonolulu.com or in person at any satellite city hall or the Real Property Assessment Division offices in downtown or Kapolei.

Go get your exemption today!

Jaymes Song is a top-producing agent with Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate Advantage Realty in Kahala. He can be reached at 228-3332 or JaymesS@BetterHawaii.com.