Deadline to apply for local tax breaks approaches

Local residents have until April 15 to apply for property tax credits and exemptions, which are available to qualifying seniors, veterans, people with disabilities and those with home solar power.

With an exemption, a homeowner only pays taxes on a portion of their property value. A credit is slightly different, discounting a certain sum from the tax bill amount.

People who already receive credits or exemptions continue to get those benefits automatically, but anyone who thinks they may now qualify needs to apply to receive them before tax day. Information about the application process for Concord residents is available on the city’s website.

On Monday night, the Concord City Council will hold hearings and vote on proposals to raise the income ceiling for qualifying seniors and to increase the veterans tax credit by $100, or 25%.

In Concord, taxpayers who are over 65 as of April 1 in the tax year qualify for a tax exemptions if they make less than a set income limit – about $44,000 for singles and $63,000 for couples – and have less than $150,000 in other assets. Depending on their age, those seniors may see between $80,0000 and $223,000 subtracted from the property value used to calculate their taxes, with older residents getting larger exemptions.

According to a city report, 226 taxpayers currently receive this exemption. The City Council will weigh increasing the income limits to $45,500 and $64,000 for singles and couples respectively, about a 3% and 1.5% increase recommended by a council committee to align with increases to social security.

The council will also weigh bumps to the credits awarded to all veterans and veterans who served during certain conflicts from $400 to $500 for each. Another proposed increase would raise the disabled veterans credit from $2,000 to $2,500.

Other exemptions are available for people who are blind or who have solar power on their property.

Around $30 million of property value is exempted from city tax rolls through these tax breaks, most of that, around $26 million, stemming from the elderly exemption, according to a city report. That represents around $882,000 of potential tax revenue based on the overall tax rate, a sum that would be divvied up among the city, schools, county and state.

As with all tax exemptions, the difference is made up by other taxpayers.