Fewer homeowners receive age-80 exemption in 2013

While there has been an increase over the past five years in the number of Decatur residents who qualify for age-based homestead exemptions in their sixties and seventies, the number of property owners who qualify for the age-80 or “S2” exemption appears to be flat-lining or declining slightly.

This graph shows age and income-based exemptions with the bright green line at the bottom showing the trend for the number of residents with the S2 exemption:

All resident homeowners can qualify for a basic homestead exemption.  Homeowners in Decatur begin qualifying for additional property tax exemptions depending on their age and income after they turn 62.  Residents who are 80 or older as of January 1 may qualify for the S2 exemption which exempts them from paying school taxes if the federal adjusted gross income of the owner and the owner’s spouse is less than $40,000 a year.

About 210 residents received the S2 each year from 2008 to 2011, but that number fell to 197 in 2012 and 188 this year, suggesting that there may be somewhat fewer people remaining in their houses into their eighties, or that more elderly residents exceed the income limit for the age 80 exemption.