SCARBOROUGH — The town of Scarborough announced that the deadline to apply for a local property tax exemptions is extended to May 17 due to the declared state of civil emergency.
Information on the town’s website is available for the local exemption as well as those provided by the state including the Maine homestead exemption, the Maine veteran’s exemption and blind exemption.
The Maine veteran’s exemption requires that an applicant is either age 62 or older and served during a recognized war period, receives 100 percent disability from the VA, is a paraplegic veteran, or is a surviving spouse, minor child or widowed parent of a veteran.
For the Maine homestead exemption, the town’s website states, “The State of Maine offers a homestead exemption for property owners who claim their residence in Maine. You must have owned homestead property in Maine for 12 months. This is currently a $25,000 reduction to your taxable value. The actual impact on your tax bill depends on the mill rate.”
The state also offers an exemption to tax-paying residents who are legally blind, Scarborough’s website said.
For the local property tax exemption, applicants are required to be age 62 or older as of the application deadline, a town resident for at least 10 years as of the application deadline, and the applicant’s household must have an Adjusted Gross Income of less than $50,000, the town’s website said.
“To qualify, your annual property tax burden must exceed 5 percent of the household AGI,” the town said. “For mobile homes, we consider rent paid in addition to your tax burden. Applicants who qualify will receive up to $750 at the end of the year.”
The new due date, May 17, is 30 days after the civil state of emergency ends, but if this is extended, then the applications due date may change as well, the town said.
For more information and links to applications are at scarboroughmaine.org/departments/assessing/tax-relief.
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