Residential Property Tax Relief Programs

Kansas has had some form of property tax relief program for certain residential property since 1970, when the Homestead Property Tax Relief Act was enacted. Today, Kansas has three such programs, each differing in their recipients and benefits.

This article summarizes the key elements of Kansas’ Homestead Property Tax Refund Act, Selective Assistance for Effective Senior Relief (SAFESR) program, and a newer “tax freeze” benefit option.

Homestead Property Tax Refund Act

Kansas became the sixth state to adopt a property tax “circuit breaker” program in 1970 with the enactment of the Homestead Property Tax Refund Act.

This program provides a refund of a portion of property taxes paid, up to $700. The refund amount is determined using a sliding scale where participants with higher incomes receive a smaller percent and participants with lower incomes receive a greater percent.

Taxpayers with incomes below $6,000 are entitled to 100 percent of their property tax or the cap of $700, whichever is lower. For each $1,000 increase in the income amount, the benefit amount decreases by 4 percentage points to $16,000 and 60 percent, at which point the sliding scale adjusts to 5 percentage points for each $1,000 of income until leveling off at 5 percent for all eligible incomes over $26,000.

This program requires participants to have household incomes of $40,500 or less as of 2023 (the actual amount is annually indexed for inflation) and to meet at least one additional eligibility criteria for someone in the household:

• Age 55 or above;
• A dependent under the age of 18; or
• Blind or otherwise disabled.

Selective Assistance for Effective Senior Relief

In 2008, Kansas enacted a simplified version of a circuit breaker program with a generally larger benefit and heightened eligibility thresholds.

This option required someone in the household to be age 65 or above and the household income to be equal to or less than 120 percent of the federal poverty level for a family of two people, which equaled $23,700 for 2023.

The benefit paid under this program is 75 percent of the total property tax paid, without the $700 limit applicable to the Homestead program, resulting in larger average refunds than the Homestead program but fewer eligible claimants.

“Tax Freeze” Option

In 2022, Kansas enacted a new approach to determining the amount of property tax relief afforded to eligible beneficiaries.

This option, which attempts to “freeze” taxpayers’ bills at the amount for the year in which they first became eligible for the program, grants a benefit that is the difference between the current year’s tax and the tax amount for the base year. Accordingly, the size of the benefit is typically linked to the length of time the taxpayer has been eligible for the program.

The base year is 2021 or the first year the taxpayer meets the eligibility criteria for the program, whichever is later.

The program requires participants to have household incomes of $53,600 or less, as of 2023 (actual amount indexed for inflation), and to be either age 65 or above or a disabled veteran with a permanent disability rating of at least 50 percent.

Provisions Applicable to Multiple Programs

Each program contains a provision prohibiting beneficiaries under the program from being eligible for either of the other two programs, meaning a taxpayer may only receive benefits under one program per year. However, taxpayers are able to participate in different programs in different years.

For all programs, household income is defined more broadly than taxable income is defined for individual income tax purposes, specifically including 50 percent of Social Security benefits, regardless of whether they are subject to tax and other income categories.

All programs generally require the claimant to be a resident of Kansas for the entire year and to own their home.

Each program has a residential valuation limitation of $350,000. However, this limitation only applies to the base year for the tax freeze option.

All programs provide an option for the refund amount to be automatically applied to the taxpayer’s property tax bill for the following year, thereby directly lessening the amount of property tax required to be paid in all years other than the first year of participation in the program.