Mayor invites Philadelphia homeowners to apply for yet-to-be-created homestead rebates

The city of Philadelphia is giving homeowners an opportunity to apply for a homestead break on their property taxes, even though it hasn’t been approved by City Council or the state. The move comes as many tax bills are expected to go up once properties are re-assessed to reflect current values.

The proposed homestead exemption would mean the first $15,000 of value would not be taxed.  Mayor Michael Nutter says because city council and the legislature haven’t approved it, he can’t say how much that would knock off property tax bills.

“It’s not possible for me to answer that question but I think the simple math here is that an assessment on $100,000  is going to be higher than an assessment of $85,000 of property value and there is a savings and so whatever the savings is at least where I come in West Philadelphia whatever the savings is savings and if you have an opportunity to get that savings we want to encourage folks to apply,” said Nutter.

Nutter says he’s feeling good that City Council and the state will approve it.

“We at least want to provide the opportunity to apply for something that is good and I get the impression that at least on homestead exemption there seems to be fairly decent consensus around the idea,” said Nutter.

The deadline to apply for the exemption is July 31.