Exemptions
When and Where Do I File?
New applications for Homestead and other exemptions must be made in person. Applications can be made year round in the Palatka Office. From January 1st through March 1st, you can also apply in our satellite office.
Provisions can be made to serve totally incapacitated persons in their homes.
Persons who do not move or change residency and who received an exemption the year before, are mailed a homestead exemption renewal by the Property Appraiser each January automatically renewing their homestead exemption for the current year.
Residency Requirements
For each owner who resides on the property, the following information is needed to file:
- Social Security Number(s)
- Florida Driver’s License(s)
→ If you do not drive, you will need to have the Florida ID card obtained through the Tax Collector.
→ You cannot have a driver’s license from any other state. - Florida Motor Vehicle License Tag Registration or plate number
- Voter Registration Card issued in Putnam County, if you are registered. You cannot be registered to vote anywhere other than Putnam County. (Or) Declaration of Domicile
- Putnam County Mailing address
- If you are not a US citizen, you must provide a permanent residence card or contact our office for more information
*Important*
- Your license, vehicle registration and voter registration must show the address of the
property being homesteaded. - You cannot be receiving a residency exemption on any other property
- Mobile Home Owners – Bring the title or registration for your mobile home with you
“Save Our Homes” Law
The Homestead Valuation Limitation Initiative, also known as Amendment #10 or Save Our Homes, became law in 1992. It creates an annual assessment cap on properties which receive homestead exemption of 3% or the actual C.P.I. (consumer price index) whichever is less. Once property is sold, or is otherwise no longer eligible to continue to receive homestead exemption, the cap is removed and the property is assessed at full market value.
Crescent City Office – Mondays and Wednesdays Only
115 N. Summit Street
(386) 698-4284
Interlachen Office – Tuesdays and Thursdays Only
Hitchcock’s Plaza, SR #20
(386) 684-3383
The $ 25,000 exemption applies to all ad valorem tax levies, and means that if your home is appraised at less than $ 25,000 that you will not be billed for ad valorem taxes. Homestead Exemption does not apply to Special Assessments.
The filing deadline for all exemptions ins March 1st of the year for which they are being filed. Applications must be filed in person at our office. If you were otherwise eligible but missed the March 1st deadline due to extenuating circumstances, F.S. 196.011(8) allows you to request that the Property Appraiser grant exemptions through the TRIM period.
In 2000, the Putnam County Board of County Commissioners enacted ordinance #2000-24 which implemented a constitutional amendment approved by Florida voters in 1998 intended to provide tax relief for low income senior citizens. The new Ordinance provided for an additional tax exemption (which is applied to County general millage only) for certain eligible senior citizen home owners. In October 2003, they voted to increase this exemption from $ 20,000 to $ 25,000.
In order to be eligible for this new exemption, you must meet the following requirements:
- You must meet the requirements for the regular $ 25,000 Homestead Exemption.
- At least one owner living in your home must have reached the age of 65 before January 1, of the application year.
- The total annual adjusted household income of all persons living in your home last year must not have exceeded the current adjusted income limitation. Please check with our office to find out the current adjusted household income limitation.
In order to receive this new exemption, eligible homeowners must file in person between January 1 and March 1 with the Property Appraiser’s Office. Applications are available in our main office in Palatka. Applications can also be made in our satellite offices in Crescent City and Interlachen between January 1 and March 1.
In addition, before your application will be considered to be complete, Florida Law specifies certain financial records that must be provided by the applicants for all persons living in your home in order to prove household income levels. Some applicants will be required to submit Federal Income Tax Return Form 1040 and Wage Earnings Statement (W-2 Form). Other applicants (those who do not file income tax returns) must file a Social Security Statement Form (SSA 1099) and complete a Statement of Income. Since some of these records may not be available prior to your initial filing deadline of March 1, applicants will have until June 1, to furnish any previously unavailable financial records that are needed to complete your application.
SUPER SENIOR EXEMPTION
Additionally, if you meet the requirements above, have lived in your home for 25 years or more and the just value of the home is less than $ 250,000, you qualify for the Super Senior Exemption. The Super Senior Exemption exempts the assessed value of the homesteaded property in its entirety. This exemption applies to all taxing districts that have enacted it through local ordinance. Currently the following Taxing Authorities have passed ordinances enacting this exemption: Putnam County, City of Palatka, Crescent City, Town of Interlachen, Town of Pomona Park and Town of Welaka.
Please contact our office for further details on either of these exemptions.
Under Florida Law, certain religious, literary, scientific, and charitable properties defined as nonprofit in F.S. 196.196 are exempt from taxation. Also certain educational institutions and most government property is exempted.
The Legislature enacted Chapter 2018-118, Laws of Florida, (HB 7087)effective July 1, 2018. Section 15 updates the designated operations for which deployed servicemembers may qualify for the homestead exemption in Section 196.173, Florida Statutes. It specifies that Operation Enduring Freedom ended on December 31, 2014, and it removes from the list Operations New Dawn and Odyssey Dawn, which ended on December 15, 2011, and October 31, 2011, respectively.
The exemption is available to service members who were deployed during the preceding calendar year on active duty outside the continental United States, Alaska, or Hawaii in support of any of the following military operations:
- Operation Joint Task Force Bravo, which began in 1995.
- Operation Joint Guardian, which began on June 12, 1999.
- Operation Noble Eagle, which began on September 15, 2001.
- Operations in the Balkans, which began in 2004.
- Operation Nomad Shadow, which began in 2007.
- Operation U.S. Airstrikes Al Qaeda in Somalia, which began in January 2007.
- Operation Juniper Shield, Which began in February 2007.
- Operation Copper Dune, which began in 2009.
- Operation Georgia Deployment Program, which began in August 2009.
- Operation Spartan Shield, which began in June 2011.
- Operation Observant Compass, which began in October 2011.
- Operation Martillo, which began in January 2012.
- Operation Inherent Resolve, which began on August 8, 2014.
- Operation Atlantic Resolve, which began in April 2014.
- Operation Freedom’s Sentinel, which began on January 1, 2015.
- Operation Resolute Support, which began in January 2015.
- Operation Pacific Eagle, which began in September 2017.
The designated operations can change – please file an application and we will process it based on the latest information provided to the Legislature by the Department of Military Affairs.
To apply, complete the application form and submit it along with proof of the qualifying deployment(s) which includes dates of the deployment and other information necessary to verify eligibility for the exemption such as a letter from the servicemember’s administrative officer. You may e-mail your application and supporting information to hx-appraiser@putnam-fl.gov, fax it to (386) 329-0447, or hand deliver or mail it to the Putnam County Property Appraiser’s office (East Annex Bldg) at 312 Oak Street, Palatka, Florida 32177.
The deadline to file is March 1. Service members whose deployment spans over two calendar years must apply each year.
- Have applied for and been approved for Homestead exemption
- Provide totally and permanently disabled proof
- Documentation from the Social Security Administration stating that the applicant is totally and permanently disabled AND one (1) completed Physician’s Certificate of Disability.
- An applicant that cannot obtain the medical status determination because of ineligibility for social security or medicare benefits must provide documentation to that effect from the Social Security Administration and two (2) completed Physician’s Certificates of Disability from two different Florida licensed physicians that are not related or in the same medical practice.
- Provide In the Line of Duty Proof
- An ‘Employer Certificate’ that must contain (at a minimum):
- The title of the person signing the certificate;
- The name and address of the employing entity;
- A description of the incident that caused the injury or injuries;
- The date and location of the incident; and
- A statement that the first responder’s injury or injuries were:
- (I) Directly and proximately caused by service in the line of duty.
- (II) Without willful negligence on the part of the first responder.
- (III) The sole cause of the first responder’s total and permanent disability.
- It must be supplemented with documentation of the incident or event that caused the injury, such as an accident or incident report.
- An ‘Employer Certificate’ that must contain (at a minimum):
- For injuries caused by cardiac events: the certificate must include a statement from the first responder’s treating cardiologist for cardiac events that, within a reasonable degree of medical certainty (I) was not caused by a preexisting cardiac vascular disease and (II) the nonroutine stressful or strenuous activity directly and proximately caused the cardiac event that gave rise to the total and permanent disability.