The Property Tax Break Central Ohio Seniors Forget to Claim

Franklin County reset every property value this year. For an older homeowner on a fixed income, the more consequential number is not the new appraisal — it's whether anyone ever filed the one-page form that shields $29,000 of it from tax.

By Ray Kessler, Certified Senior Advisor · Published September 14, 2026

A New Value Notice Arrived in June. Most Families Filed It in a Drawer.

Ohio law requires county auditors to reset property values every three years, alternating between a full reappraisal and a triennial update driven by neighborhood sales data. Franklin County's turn came in 2026. The Auditor's office launched a Know Your Home Value site in January, mailed tentative values to owners in June, offered property value review sessions with appraisal staff from July through September, and will finalize values in December.

News coverage of the tentative figures put the countywide residential average at roughly nine to ten percent higher, with considerably wider swings by community — well short of the jolt of the 2023 reappraisal, but not nothing to a widow in Whitehall or Grove City living on Social Security and a small pension.

Here is the part that gets lost in the alarm, and it matters: a ten percent increase in value does not produce a ten percent increase in the tax bill. Ohio's tax reduction factors, in place since 1976, hold the dollar revenue of most voted levies roughly steady as values rise, so the effective rate falls as the valuation climbs. Unvoted inside millage and certain other charges are not held down that way, and newly passed levies are calculated on the new values, so bills do generally move up. But the relationship is much weaker than the headline percentage suggests, and families who panic about the appraisal and ignore the credits have their attention in the wrong place.

The credits are where the real money is. And the largest one for an older homeowner is routinely left unclaimed — not because people are turned down, but because nobody ever told them it existed.

The Homestead Exemption: What It Actually Does

Ohio's homestead exemption is a statewide program that shields part of a home's appraised value from taxation. It is not a deferral, not a loan, and not something that gets recaptured when the house is sold. It shows up as a credit on the property tax bill.

For qualifying seniors and permanently and totally disabled homeowners, the exemption covers the first $29,000 of the auditor's appraised value. The Franklin County Auditor's own worked example: an eligible owner of a home appraised at $100,000 is billed as though the home were worth $71,000.

What that is worth in dollars depends entirely on where the house sits, because school and local levies differ sharply between, say, Bexley and Canal Winchester. There is no single statewide savings figure, and any website quoting one is guessing. The Franklin County Auditor publishes an estimated reduction schedule by tax district number, which is the honest way to find out what the exemption is worth at a particular address.

To qualify for the senior and disabled persons exemption, a homeowner must:

Own and occupy the home as their primary residence as of January 1 of the year they apply. Property held in a revocable or irrevocable living trust still counts — a settlor occupying the home as of right under the trust is treated as an owner, and an individual trustee who otherwise qualifies can receive it too. This matters in central Ohio more than people expect, because a great many families that did estate planning in the 2000s hold the house in trust and assume that disqualifies them. It does not.

Be 65, or turn 65, by December 31 of the year they apply — or be totally and permanently disabled as of January 1, certified by a licensed physician or psychologist on form DTE 105E — or be the surviving spouse of someone who was receiving the exemption at the time of death, where the surviving spouse was at least 59 on the date of death. That last clause is the one that quietly rescues households: a 61-year-old widow whose husband had the exemption can keep it, and many never learn that.

Meet the income test. For the 2026 application period, total income in 2025 must not exceed $41,000 for applicant and spouse combined. "Total income" here means modified adjusted gross income — Ohio adjusted gross income plus any business income deduction from the Ohio Schedule of Adjustments. The threshold is inflation-adjusted annually; for a late 2025 application the figure was $40,000 of 2024 income.

Two important exceptions to the income test. Homeowners who received the exemption for tax year 2013 are grandfathered and are not means-tested at all — they confirm that status on form DTE 105G. And the disabled veterans' exemption described below has no income test whatsoever.

The Enhanced Exemption for Disabled Veterans

A veteran discharged under honorable conditions who holds a 100 percent service-connected disability rating — or total compensation at the 100 percent level based on a determination of individual unemployability — qualifies for an enhanced exemption shielding $58,000 of appraised value, with no income limit and no age requirement. The same enhanced amount applies to surviving spouses of public service officers killed in the line of duty: peace officers, firefighters (paid or volunteer), first responders, EMTs and paramedics.

An eligible surviving spouse of a disabled veteran keeps the exemption until the year after remarriage, provided they occupied the homestead at the veteran's death and acquired ownership of it.

Applications go on form DTE 105I and must include a copy of the DD214 plus the VA award letter showing the 100 percent rating. Central Ohio has a large veteran population and this exemption is under-claimed here for the same reason as the main one: the people entitled to it were never told. If there is a veteran in the household, it is also worth reading our guide to VA benefits and senior care in central Ohio, because the property tax break is usually the smallest of the benefits on the table.

The Owner Occupancy Credit Is a Different Thing — Claim Both

Families conflate these constantly. The owner occupancy credit, formerly the 2.5 percent supplemental rollback, has no age, disability or income requirement. It applies to a residential parcel occupied by its owner, is limited to one property in Ohio, and never applies to a rental. It is claimed on form DTE 105D.

Most owner-occupants in the region already receive it, and it is itemized on the tax bill. But it is worth taking two minutes with a parent's actual bill to confirm it is there — particularly if the house was recently retitled into a trust, transferred between spouses, or moved out of and back into. Administrative reductions have a way of falling off during paperwork events, and nobody sends a letter to say so.

Deadlines, and the Three Timing Traps

The deadline for real property is December 31 of the year for which the exemption is sought. This is the single most useful fact in this article, because it means a central Ohio family reading this in September still has time to act for the current year.

Three traps are worth naming.

You can reach back one year. A homeowner who should have had the exemption last year can file a late application for the immediately prior year on the same DTE 105A by checking the "late application" box. Whether the credit arrives as a reduction on the next bill or as a refund depends on whether those taxes have already been paid. This is genuinely free money for a household that turned 65 two years ago and never filed.

You do not reapply every year — but you must report changes. Once granted, the exemption continues. The auditor mails a continuing application each January, which only needs to be returned if something changed: the home was sold, it is no longer the primary residence, income rose above the limit, or disability status changed.

The exemption does not move with the person. This is the trap that catches downsizers. When a parent sells the Clintonville house and buys a condo in Dublin or Westerville, the exemption does not transfer. They must reapply at the new address, beginning in January of the year after the move — and because eligibility is tested as of January 1, the credit does not attach at the new home right away. Grandfathered homeowners still have to reapply to keep their grandfathered status. Anyone planning a move should factor a gap year into the budget rather than discovering it on a tax bill.

Processing takes time. Applications requiring income verification through the Ohio Department of Taxation are not checked until May, once most returns have been processed. A decision certificate follows within about thirty days of processing, and a denial can be appealed to the Board of Revision on form DTE 106B within sixty days of notice.

What Happens When a Parent Moves Into Care

This is the question that brings most families to this topic, and the answer is more forgiving than people assume.

The test is domicile, not physical presence. The Ohio Department of Taxation's guidance to county auditors is explicit that domicile turns on intent plus the actions supporting it, and that auditors must judge each case individually. A person who enters a facility to recover from a hip replacement, intends to go home and does go home has never changed domicile — the property stays eligible throughout.

Where the exemption is lost: a person who moves into a nursing home intending from the outset never to return, in which case the home cannot qualify for the year after the year of the move; or a person who intends to return but never actually does, in which case the auditor has to determine when that intention was abandoned.

Two practical instructions follow. First, do not try to manage this by saying as little as possible. The auditor's office is making a factual determination, not hunting for violations, and a family that explains an actual short-term rehabilitation stay is in a far better position than one that goes quiet and gets reassessed later. Second, understand that this is a small piece of a much larger decision about the house, which usually has Medicaid, capital gains and family-equity dimensions attached to it. We cover that separately in what happens to the house when a central Ohio parent moves into care.

And if the house is being kept and rented to help pay for care, be clear-eyed: renting it out ends both the homestead exemption and the owner occupancy credit, because both require owner occupancy. That is not a reason to avoid renting it — the rent is usually worth far more than the credits — but it belongs in the arithmetic rather than arriving as a surprise.

If the New Value Looks Wrong

Franklin County's property value review sessions with appraisal staff ran July through September, which is the informal path and the easier one. The formal path remains open well past that. The Board of Revision's filing season for tax year 2026 opened August 25, 2026 and closes March 31, 2027.

A complaint entitles the owner to a hearing before the three-member board, where recent appraisals or comparable neighborhood sales can be presented. Filing is free. Complaints can be e-filed, mailed or hand-delivered to 373 S. High St., 20th Floor, emailed to bor@franklincountyohio.gov, or faxed to 614-525-6252. No attorney is required for a home deeded to an individual, though one is strongly recommended if the property is held by a trust or business entity. Seeking a reduction of more than $50,000 in appraised value triggers required notice to the school district, though the board's own FAQ notes that school boards historically do not file against owner-occupied homes. A favorable decision will often carry forward until the next triennial.

One more feature worth knowing about: tender pay. An owner with a pending complaint may tender to the county treasurer the tax based on the value claimed in the complaint rather than the billed value, though interest applies to any shortfall if the board decides against them.

Who to Call, County by County

The homestead exemption is a state program administered by each county auditor, so the rules are identical across the seven counties this site covers while the phone number and the person who answers are not.

Franklin County Auditor — homestead line 614-525-3240, general office 614-525-HOME (4663). Homestead applications can be filed electronically or in person at 373 S. High St., 19th Floor, Columbus. The office also runs periodic homestead application clinics.

Delaware County Auditor — (740) 833-2900, 145 N. Union St., Delaware.

Fairfield County Auditor — (740) 652-7020 for homestead assistance, 210 E. Main St., Lancaster.

For Licking, Madison, Pickaway and Union counties, contact the county auditor's office directly for that county; each administers the same DTE 105A application. If you are not sure which office to call, or would rather have someone else make the first call, the Central Ohio Area Agency on Aging at 1-800-589-7277 is staffed to route exactly this kind of question across its eight-county region at no charge.

One note on research: several county auditor pages and a great many third-party "property tax help" sites still publish the older $25,000 and $50,000 figures, which are the original statutory base amounts before annual inflation indexing. The current amounts are $29,000 and $58,000. When a number on a website disagrees with the county auditor's own homestead page, believe the auditor.

Where This Fits in Paying for Care

It would be dishonest to oversell this. A few hundred dollars a year off a property tax bill does not fund assisted living, and no family should read a tax credit as a care plan. What it does do is extend the runway — it is one of a handful of adjustments (alongside the county senior levy services that fund in-home help in most central Ohio counties, and a properly reviewed Medicare plan during open enrollment) that together keep an older homeowner solvent in their own house for longer. Stacked, they are not trivial.

Two closing points. First, this is tax administration, not tax advice — we are not accountants or attorneys, and a household with a trust, a rental, a recent transfer or an unusual ownership structure should take the question to a professional rather than to a website. Second, the exemption is one of several things easier to arrange before a crisis than during one, which is the same argument we make about powers of attorney and advance directives.

If you are reading this in September, you still have until December 31 for the current tax year. Pull up your parent's most recent tax bill and look for the homestead credit line. If it is not there and they are over 65, that is one form and one phone call — and it is the rare piece of paperwork in senior care that pays you back every year for the rest of the time they own the house.

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