5 Michigan Property Tax Breaks Homeowners Over 65 Never Apply For

Michigan’s Department of Treasury said this spring that homeowners were leaving hundreds of dollars on the table by skipping one property tax break.

These are the Michigan property tax breaks some homeowners over 65 never apply for.

Note: This is general information, not legal or tax advice. Eligibility rules, deadlines, and dollar amounts are subject to change, so confirm the current details with your local assessor’s office or the Michigan Department of Treasury.

1. Skipping the Poverty Exemption

Michigan’s poverty exemption can erase a homeowner’s entire tax bill, not just trim it.

It isn’t only for seniors.

Any homeowner whose income falls under their city or township’s guideline can qualify.

State rules say local guidelines can never be set below the federal poverty level.

Few groups land under that line more often than retirees living on Social Security alone.

You have to ask for it, in writing, through your local Board of Review, and a separate asset test applies on top of the income limit.

The board can’t waive that math for a sympathetic case, either.

The guideline is the guideline.

A 2020 law change cut the paperwork.

It lets a homeowner on a fixed income carry the exemption for up to three years before reapplying, instead of filing every single year.

2. Missing the Disabled Veterans Exemption

In Michigan, the Disabled Veterans Exemption wipes out a qualifying veteran’s entire property tax bill, not a percentage of it.

The full amount.

A veteran qualifies with a 100% rating for a permanent and total disability from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), a certificate for specially adapted housing, or a VA finding of individual unemployability.

An un-remarried surviving spouse keeps the exemption too, even on a home the veteran never owned.

This exemption carries no age rule.

But the math still points at older homeowners.

A Vietnam-era or Korean War veteran with a service-connected disability is well past 65 by now.

Many never filed at all.

For years, Michigan required veterans to refile the exemption annually, so some who once had it let it lapse without noticing.

Michigan dropped that requirement for 2025 forward.

Once your local assessor grants the exemption now, it stays in place on its own.

You only lose it if you rescind it, or the assessor finds a reason to revoke it.

A veteran only has to clear the paperwork once.

3. Skipping the Homestead Credit

This property tax break runs through Michigan’s income tax return, not the property tax bill.

It’s called the Homestead Property Tax Credit.

The state Treasury reported that nearly 1.1 million households claimed it last filing season, splitting close to $900 million and averaging $820 apiece.

Plenty still skip it.

A homeowner turning 65 gets a friendlier formula than everyone else, a formula that can hand back a bigger share of the tax bill on the same income.

Retirees living on Social Security alone often assume they have no reason to file a state return at all.

That’s exactly how retirees leave this credit unclaimed.

4. Ignoring the Summer Deferment

Michigan lets a homeowner push their summer tax bill down the road instead of paying it in July.

It carries no penalty and no interest.

Anyone 62 or older qualifies, as long as household income stayed under $40,000 the year before.

The same deferment covers homeowners who are totally disabled, blind, or a veteran’s widow or widower.

A homeowner over 65 clears that age bar without even checking.

The deferment doesn’t erase anything.

It just moves the due date, pushing a summer bill all the way to February 14 with nothing extra tacked on.

You have to file it with your local treasurer by September 15 each year, and it isn’t automatic.

Nobody mails a reminder.

A retiree who waits on a pension check or a required individual retirement account (IRA) withdrawal that lands in the fall can use that extra runway on purpose.

Many never find out the form exists until a neighbor mentions it.

5. Forgetting to Refile After a Move

Michigan doesn’t carry your tax exemption with you when you buy a new home.

You have to file for it again.

This rule applies at any age, but downsizing retirees forget it more often than other homeowners do.

Downsizing retirees sell a longtime house, buy something smaller, and forget that the new address needs a fresh Principal Residence Exemption affidavit.

It’s easy to miss.

File it by June 1, and the exemption covers that year’s summer and winter tax bills both.

If you miss that date but file by November 1, you still catch the winter bill.

If you miss both, the new house sits at the higher non-homestead rate until you correct it.

A closing agent handles a mountain of paperwork on moving day.

This affidavit is the one piece that regularly falls through the cracks between the title company and the local assessor.

The Local Guideline Gap

The state doesn’t run these breaks out of one office in Lansing.

Every city and township sets its poverty exemption guideline, as long as it never dips below the federal poverty level for that year.

A neighboring community can set its line higher and qualify more homeowners for the same exemption.

One township turned a homeowner down years ago.

Two exits down the highway, a different township said yes.

Asking twice costs nothing.

A homeowner who assumes one township’s answer applies everywhere is likely to leave a break unclaimed.