Providing a property assessment adjustment for certain persons, applying income and age limitations, providing a penalty, and including retroactive applicability provisions

This bill allows adjustments to certain homesteads based on age and income limits. The bill provides for an adjustment in the assessed value of a homestead if the owner is a person who is or older and whose household income is $30,000 or less. If those qualifications are met, the assessed value of the homestead upon which property taxes are levied in a fiscal year is the same assessed value as for the previous fiscal year. The bill also authorizes an adjustment of the total property taxes due and payable on the homestead if the amount due exceeds the amount due in the fiscal year for which the homestead’s value was first adjusted under the bill. Assessed value is that value prior to any rollback being applied. The bill provides that a person who makes a false affidavit for the purpose of obtaining an adjustment, knowingly receives the adjustment without being legally entitled to it, or makes claim for the adjustment in more than one county without being legally entitled to it is guilty of a fraudulent practice and is subject to a criminal penalty. The bill applies retroactively to January 1, 2020, for assessment years beginning on or after that date and applies to claims filed on or after January 1, 2021, for the adjustments.