Kentucky 2024 Regular Session

Kentucky House Bill HB61 Latest Draft

Bill / Introduced Version

                            UNOFFICIAL COPY  	24 RS BR 236 
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AN ACT relating to the property tax homestead exemption. 1 
Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Kentucky: 2 
Section 1.   KRS 132.810 is amended to read as follows: 3 
(1) To qualify under the homestead exemption provision of the Constitution, each 4 
person claiming the exemption shall file an application with the property valuation 5 
administrator of the county in which the applicant resides, on forms prescribed by 6 
the department. The assessed value of property on which homestead exemption is 7 
claimed shall not be increased because of valuation expressed on the application 8 
form filed with the property valuation administrator, and whenever it becomes 9 
known that the valuation of property subject to the homestead tax exemption has 10 
been increased because of valuation expressed on the application form, adjustment 11 
shall be made the following year so that the total tax paid by the taxpayer is the 12 
same as if the increase had not been made. 13 
(2) (a) Every person filing an application for exemption under the homestead 14 
exemption provision must be sixty-five (65) years of age or older during the 15 
year for which application is made or must have been classified as totally 16 
disabled under a program authorized or administered by an agency of the 17 
United States government or by any retirement system either within or 18 
without the Commonwealth of Kentucky on January 1 of the year in which 19 
application is made. 20 
(b) Every person filing an application for exemption under the homestead 21 
exemption provision must own and maintain the property for which the 22 
exemption is sought as his or her personal residence. 23 
(c) Every person filing an application for exemption under the disability 24 
provision of the homestead exemption must have received disability payments 25 
pursuant to the disability and must maintain the disability classification for the 26 
entirety of the particular taxation period. 27  UNOFFICIAL COPY  	24 RS BR 236 
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(d) 1. Every person filing for the homestead exemption who is totally disabled 1 
and is less than sixty-five (65) years of age must apply for the 2 
homestead exemption on an annual basis, except as provided by 3 
subparagraph 2. of this paragraph. 4 
2. a. A service-connected totally disabled veteran of the United States 5 
Armed Forces; or 6 
b. A totally and permanently disabled individual found disabled 7 
under: 8 
 i. The applicable rules of the Social Security Administration; 9 
 ii. The applicable rules of the Kentucky Retirement Systems; or 10 
 iii. Any other provision of the Kentucky Revised Statutes; 11 
 shall document the disability at the time of application for the 12 
homestead exemption and shall not be required to apply for the 13 
homestead exemption on an annual basis. 14 
(e) [1. ]Only one (1) exemption per residential unit shall be allowed even 15 
though the resident may be sixty-five (65) years of age and also totally 16 
disabled, and regardless of the number of residents sixty-five (65) years of age 17 
or older occupying the unit. 18 
[2. The sixty-five hundred dollars ($6,500) exemption provided in Section 19 
170 of the Constitution of Kentucky shall be construed to mean sixty-20 
five hundred dollars ($6,500) in terms of the purchasing power of the 21 
dollar in 1972. 22 
3. Every two (2) years thereafter, if the cost of living index of the United 23 
States Department of Labor has changed as much as one percent (1%), 24 
the maximum exemption shall be adjusted accordingly.] 25 
(f) The amount of the homestead exemption shall be equal to fifty percent 26 
(50%) of the first two hundred fifty thousand dollars ($250,000) in assessed 27  UNOFFICIAL COPY  	24 RS BR 236 
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value for the property on which the homestead exemption is claimed. 1 
(g) The real property may be held by legal or equitable title, by the entireties, 2 
jointly, in common, as a condominium, or indirectly by the stock ownership 3 
or membership representing the owner's or member's proprietary interest in a 4 
corporation owning a fee or a leasehold initially in excess of ninety-eight (98) 5 
years. The exemption shall apply only to the value of the real property 6 
assessable to the owner or, in case of ownership through stock or membership 7 
in a corporation, the value of the proportion which his or her interest in the 8 
corporation bears to the assessed value of the property. 9 
(h)[(g)] A mobile home, recreational vehicle, when classified as real property as 10 
provided for in KRS 132.751, or a manufactured house shall qualify as a 11 
residential unit for purposes of the homestead exemption provision. 12 
(i)[(h)] When title to property which is exempted, either in whole or in part, 13 
under the homestead exemption is transferred, the owner, administrator, 14 
executor, trustee, guardian, conservator, curator, or agent shall report such 15 
transfer to the property valuation administrator. 16 
(3) Notwithstanding any statutory provisions to the contrary, the provisions of this 17 
section shall apply to the assessment and taxation of property under the homestead 18 
exemption provision for state, county, city, or special district purposes. 19 
(4) (a) The homestead exemption for disabled persons shall terminate whenever 20 
those persons no longer meet the total disability classification at the end of the 21 
taxation period for which the homestead exemption has been granted. In no 22 
case shall the exemption be prorated for persons who maintained the total 23 
disability classification at the end of the taxation period. 24 
(b) Any totally disabled person granted the homestead exemption under the 25 
disability provision shall report any change in disability classification to the 26 
property valuation administrator in the county in which the homestead 27  UNOFFICIAL COPY  	24 RS BR 236 
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exemption is authorized. 1 
(c) Any person making application and qualifying for the homestead exemption 2 
before payment of his or her property tax bills for the year in question shall 3 
be entitled to a full or partial exoneration, as the case may be, of the property 4 
tax due to reflect the taxable assessment after allowance for the homestead 5 
exemption. 6 
(d) Any person making application and qualifying for the homestead exemption 7 
after property tax bills have been paid shall be entitled to a refund of the 8 
property taxes applicable to the value of the homestead exemption. 9 
(5) In this section, "taxation period" means the period from January 1 through 10 
December 31 of the year in which application is made, unless the person 11 
maintaining the classification dies before December 31, in which case "taxation 12 
period" means the period from January 1 to the date of death. 13 
Section 2.   This Act shall become effective only upon the ratification, in the 14 
regular election of November 5, 2024, of an amendment to Section 170 of the Kentucky 15 
Constitution permitting the General Assembly to determine the amount of the property 16 
tax homestead exemption. If such an amendment is not ratified, this Act is void. 17