How is my Fulton County Homestead Exemption determined? Good Question!

Have you ever looked closely at your Fulton County tax bill?  In the table showing the tax calculation is a column for “Exemptions”.  If you’ve filed for a homestead exemption, you should have at least $30,000 for a standard exemption, but you may have much more.  There are also exemptions available for senior citizens, veterans, disabled persons, etc.  But if you don’t fall into any of these categories, you may still have a higher exemption due to the Homestead Fair Assessment Act.  This bill was passed by the Georgia senate as SB 610 back in 2004 to keep property taxes from increasing faster than the rate of inflation. 

 Basically, when you file for your homestead exemption, the county sets a base year equal to the previous year’s assessed value.  Each year thereafter the base year is increased by the lesser of the CPI rate or 3%.  The difference between the assessment in future years and the CPI-increased base year is the additional homestead exemption you receive.  So if your home’s assessed value increases faster than the base year, you get an additional exemption to offset the tax increase. In 2018 based on the millage rate for the operations portion of the tax bill, for every thousand dollars of homestead exemption, you save about ten dollars in taxes.

 * Note that this exemption only offsets the operations portion of the tax bill, not the bonds or school taxes. Additionally, if your assessment increases due to an improvement to your home, the initial assessment increase attributable to the improvement is not eligible for the exemption.