The Homestead Exemption in Ohio

Every owner-occupied homestead (and qualifying manufactured or mobile home) gets the owner-occupancy reduction: 2.5% of the taxes levied by qualifying levies. A county board of commissioners may, by resolution, authorize an additional partial exemption of up to 2.5% on the same property without a separate application. The separate, larger "homestead exemption" is limited to owners who are 65 or older, permanently and totally disabled, disabled veterans, or certain surviving spouses (see the senior, veteran and disability fields). A homestead is a dwelling owned and occupied as a home by an individual domiciled in Ohio.

The owner files an application with the county auditor of the county where the homestead is located (occupants of a housing cooperative file with the cooperative's nonprofit corporation, which submits them to the auditor). An approved application is a continuing application for each year the dwelling remains the applicant's homestead; each January the auditor sends a continuing application to report changes, which need not be returned if nothing affects eligibility or the amount. An owner who stops qualifying must notify the county auditor. The owner-occupancy reduction under a county resolution requires no separate application.

For real property, the homestead application must be filed on or before December 31 of the year for which the reduction is sought; for manufactured homes, it is filed in the year before the reduction year. A late application for the prior tax year may be filed with the original application, and if the auditor confirms it, the reduction is refunded as an overpayment.