Recently, Grays Harbor County Assessor Dan Lindgren delivered a presentation to the County Board of Commissioners consisting of Georgia Miller, Rick Hole and Vickie Raines about the Senior Citizen and Disability Exemption program.
This initiative “allows senior citizens and/or disabled persons the ability to remain in their homes in spite of rising property taxes and added voted-in levies.”
“The Senior Citizen and Disability Exemption program is a property tax program that’s available to anybody in Washington state, not just Grays Harbor County, so it’s not a county specific program, it’s a statewide program,” Lindgren said.
According to the presentation, the program is designed for low-income property owners who are medically 80% disabled or more or at least 61 years of age with household income under $40,400 annually. You must own your own home and have lived in it for at least six months of the year prior to the current tax year and the property must be your primary residence. The program does not allow exemptions for vacation homes.
The presentation went on to state, “The exemption program is a gift, and these taxes are not repaid. The taxes that have been exempted are shifted to the other taxpayers in that district.”
There are three levels of exemptions for which residents may qualify:
Level C: income under $40,400 — Exempt from 100% of excess levies and Part 2 of the state school levy.
Level B: income under $35,350 — Exempt from regular property taxes on $50,000 or 35% of the valuation, whichever is greater, not to exceed $70,000, plus exemption from 100% of excess levies and Part 2 of the state school levy.
Level A: income under $30,300 — Exempt from regular property taxes on $60,000 or 60% of the valuation, whichever is greater, plus exemption from 100% of excess levies and Part 2 of the state school levy.
The Washington State Department of Revenue states, “Excess levies are imposed over and above regular property tax levies. Most excess levies require voter approval by a supermajority (60%).”
According to Lindgren, medical expenses can be deducted from your household income, further lowering the qualification threshold, which has allowed 1,000 more seniors to get into the program who wouldn’t have otherwise qualified.
“Most medical expenses can be deducted from your household income. This didn’t used to be the case, we as assessors went to bat at the Legislature a few years back to get medical expenses added to or subtracted from income because there were a lot of people who didn’t qualify for the program but they had a lot of medical expenses,” Lindgren said. “Their disposable income was really low and they were having a hard time paying their taxes.”
If you’re approved, the county assessor’s office will lock in the assessed value of your primary residence which will reduce the tax amount due over time based on the applicant’s level of income.
“All of that discount is based on the frozen value, effectively, what happens as values increase, the taxes on those seniors decrease,” Lindren said. “They’re actually getting more benefit as the real estate market increases.”
Currently, just over 4,000 seniors in Grays Harbor participate in this program.
For more information, visit: https://www.graysharbor.us/government/assessor/exemptions.php
