If you’re disabled or a senior living in Asotin County, you may qualify for a reduction or exemption in your property taxes, and the qualification numbers are about to change.
Governor Ferguson signed Senate Bill 6162, increasing the threshold for how much a person can earn and still qualify. The program is for people over 61 years old who live in the county at least 6 months per year. It also now includes disabled military veterans with at least an 80% disability rating, regardless of age.
Until this bill, the income threshold has been $42,000. To get down to that point, you can take deductions for prescriptions, in-home medical care, and a few others.
Assessor Jenny Rynearson has been a part of the legislative committee working to get this changed. She says having to do the work of finding prescription payments and track all the deductions has kept some people from using the program.
“It also creates a lot of work for my office, as far as sifting through all those receipts that somebody has to bring in along with their tax returns, social security earning statements, all of those kinds of things to see what qualifies and what doesn’t.”
Starting January 1st, the income threshold rises from $42,000 to $61,000 with standard deductions of $7,500. A couple, filing jointly, can take $15,000 of deductions. That means a disabled couple over the age of 61 can get a property tax exemption if they earn less than $76,000, without having to find and collect receipts.
Rynearson also says the decrease in paperwork will make the process much faster.
