Tennessee Local Government Matching Property Tax Relief
A county or city may appropriate its own money to add to the state tax relief a disabled veteran already receives, up to the total tax actually paid. Whether it does is a local ordinance question, not a state one.
Also called: 67-5-701(j), local tax relief, county ordinance, city tax relief, matching, tax freeze.
Section 67-5-701(j) lets the legislative bodies of counties, municipalities and metropolitan forms of government appropriate local funds for tax relief for elderly low-income homeowners under 67-5-702, disabled homeowners under 67-5-703, and disabled veterans under 67-5-704. The ceiling is that in no event shall the total relief allowed by the state and the local government exceed the total taxes actually paid.
Two conditions come with it. The local ordinance must limit the extra relief to taxpayers who qualify under 67-5-702 through 67-5-704, and it must require that the taxpayer have previously applied for and obtained the state relief first. A local program cannot invent its own eligibility test or run ahead of the state application.
What that means for a veteran is that the answer to "how much do I get" is not fully knowable from state law. The state pays on the first $175,000 of full market value. A county or city may top that up, to nothing, to part of the remaining bill, or to the whole of it. Two veterans with identical ratings and identical houses in different counties can end up with materially different bills, and the difference is an ordinance neither the statute nor the Comptroller's brochure will name.
This catalog does not carry the local ordinances. The question to ask the county trustee, after the state application is in, is whether the county or the city has adopted a 67-5-701(j) appropriation and what it covers.
Subsection (l) of the same section lets a municipality contract with another collecting official in the same county to outsource the processing of tax relief applications, so the office that receives the paperwork is not always the office that decides it.
Separately from all of this, Tennessee has a property tax freeze program for homeowners sixty-five and older, adopted county by county and city by city. It is not a veterans program and it is means tested, but it is the other local lever a veteran over sixty-five may be able to pull, and it is administered by the same county trustee.
Thresholds
Thresholds for Tennessee Local Government Matching Property Tax Relief
Gate
Rule
Only where the local body has adopted it
Section 67-5-701(j)(1) is permissive. Counties, municipalities and metropolitan governments may appropriate funds for this; nothing requires them to.
The state application comes first
Subdivision (j)(2) requires the ordinance to limit relief to taxpayers who qualify under 67-5-702 through 67-5-704 and who have previously applied for and obtained the state relief.
Combined relief cannot exceed the tax actually paid
State and local relief together are capped at the total taxes actually paid on the property.
Out of date, a broken link, or something else wrong? Say what you found, and an editor checks it against the official source.
Disclaimer
VetTOC is not affiliated with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs or the Department of Defense. Information is for reference only and is not an eligibility determination. Verify with VA, the relevant state or territory, or an accredited VSO.