Senior Property Tax Exemption Online Portal

About the Program

Category: Information Technology (Best in Category)

Year: 2021

For decades, Washington State allowed low-income senior citizens to apply for a property tax exemption to reduce their tax burden and stay in their homes. Unfortunately, it was a single, fixed economic formula regardless of the dramatically different costs of living across the state. After successfully lobbying the state to index the formula by the Average Median Income (AMI) in each county, the King County Assessor’s office launched in 2020 an online portal to make it easier and faster for seniors to apply for this program. The portal gives seniors the option of applying online, in much the same way that Americans electronically file their income taxes, and it allows department staff to process and respond to applications much faster. The purpose of the program is to help us achieve one of our ongoing objectives: helping more eligible seniors take advantage of this program. The outcomes were remarkable – a more than 300% increase in application, even in the age of COVID-19.