Michigan Property Tax Exemption for a Surviving Spouse

Section 211.7b(1)(b) exempts real property used and owned as a homestead by the surviving spouse of a disabled veteran who, immediately before death, was eligible for the exemption. The exemption continues as long as the surviving spouse does not remarry. The clause that makes this better than most states' is the last one in the subdivision: the exemption applies to any property used and owned as a homestead by the surviving spouse, including homestead property acquired after the decedent's death. A widow who sells the family house and buys a smaller one keeps the exemption on the new house. In most of the states in this catalog the surviving spouse benefit is tied to the house the veteran lived in, and moving ends it. The two conditions to watch. The veteran must have been eligible immediately before death, so a spouse whose husband or wife died with a claim still pending at VA is outside the subdivision, however the claim is later decided. And title must be held solely by the surviving spouse; 211.7b(4)(b)(ii) says so expressly, which is a narrower ownership test than the veteran's own, since the veteran may hold jointly with a spouse. Remarriage ends it. So does ceasing to use and own the property as a homestead, and the 45-day rescission duty in 211.7c applies to the surviving spouse in the same terms as to the veteran. Like the veteran's exemption, this one continues without reapplication as to taxes levied on or after January 1, 2025, and like the veteran's it is applied for after January 1 and before December 31 at the local assessing unit on a State Tax Commission form, with the application open to inspection. A separate and smaller benefit may also be available and is easy to miss because it lives in the income tax act rather than the property tax act. The homestead property tax credit in 206.522(1)(d) has its own definition of an eligible widow or widower in 206.506, under which the widow or widower of a veteran who died in service has a taxable value allowance of $4,500 with no disability percentage requirement at all. It is worth far less than the exemption, but it reaches a survivor who cannot meet the "eligible immediately before death" test here.