Kansas Homestead Property Tax Refund

The homestead property tax refund act dates to 1970 and predates the freeze in 79-4508a by half a century. It refunds part of the property tax on a claimant's homestead, computed by deducting an income-based amount from the claimant's property taxes accrued, on a table the director of taxation prepares. Section 79-4502(e)(1) lists who may claim it, and two of the five categories are military. A disabled veteran, meaning a Kansas resident rated 50 percent or more on the definition in 79-4502(i), is a claimant. So is the surviving spouse of a deceased member of the armed forces who died in the line of duty during a period of active service, and that category carries no rating and no disability at all. The other three categories are a person having a disability, a person fifty-five or older, and a person with one or more dependent children under eighteen living at the homestead. Note the age. Fifty-five, not sixty-five. The homestead refund reaches a decade earlier than the freeze in 79-4508a does, which matters for a veteran who is fifty-five, rated below 50 percent, and therefore outside every veteran-specific route. The ceiling is the thing to understand before deciding between programs. Section 79-4509(a) provides that where property taxes accrued exceed $700 for a household in any one year, the amount is deemed to have been $700. The refund is computed against that deemed figure, so the most the program can ever return is a fraction of $700 and the size of the actual tax bill above $700 is irrelevant. Subsection (b) exempts the 79-4508a claim from that ceiling. Income is the older, broader definition in 79-4502(a), and it is worth reading because it is unusual in both directions. It sweeps in maintenance and support money, cash public assistance, the gross amount of any pension or annuity from any source, all dividends and interest whether or not in adjusted gross income, workers compensation, and the gross amount of loss-of-time insurance. It counts no more than 50 percent of social security payments. And it expressly excludes veterans disability compensation and disability payments under the federal social security act. A veteran living substantially on VA compensation may show a very low income here. The income threshold is indexed: for tax years after 2004 the upper limit is increased each year by the federal cost-of-living adjustment under section 1(f)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code. A surviving spouse of a disabled veteran who was receiving benefits under the disabled veteran category at the time of the veteran's death continues to receive them until remarriage. Where a homestead is occupied by two or more people who could each qualify, they choose between themselves who the claimant will be, and if they cannot agree the matter goes to the secretary of revenue, whose decision is final.