howto  Process Exemption -- the more complicated situations

These are the more complicated situations.  Read Process Exemptions: the Simple Situations if you need to. You will process these complicated situations very much like you do the simple ones.

What if? Dad is 83, Mom is 82, and they own lots of land.

Dad and Mom are elderly and do not exceed the income limit.  They qualify -- but for what?  If your county exempts only the one acre for the home site and the home itself, things are not so simple.

First, the appraiser should have separated out the home site.  They do that by setting up a land segment for the acre you would exempt.  The rest of the acreage is in other segments.

Next, you should type 'S' instead of 'A' next to parcel on the List Assets screen.  The List Assets screen shows total assessed value for the Parcel ID(s) owned by your owner.  When you type 'S' next to one of these lines and press Enter, another screen will appear.  We'll call it the Selective Assets screen.  

Instead of one line for each parcel, it shows one line for each improvement and each land segment.  Type the Exemption Code on the land segment that represents the home site and on the house itself.  There is a space in the column to the right. Press Enter.  Check the screen.  Then press F13=Update to save the information.  Back out with F12=Previous.

If you were to look at the exemption code on the real parcel, it would show four asterisks.  That means that you applied assets selectively -- to see the detail, you have to drop down to the land segment and the improvement summary level.

In another situation, the taxpayer might own two parcels, a vehicle, and some other personal asset. He has previously qualified for an 'AG' exemption on one of the parcels. The asterisks indicate that he has also qualified for another exemption (preferential treatment) but that the exemptions have been applied at the improvement/land segment level.

What if? Dad is 83 but Mom is 52.

NOTE: We understand that counties handle this situation differently.  Some counties would give Dad the full exemption.  Other counties would give Dad half the exemption he would be entitled to if Mom were 82 years old. These instructions are for the half-exemption situation.

In this situation, only half the assessed value is exempted.  Your ONETax Administrator should have set up a code that tells ONETax to exempt half the assessed value.  If the fully exempt code is 'ELD' or 'E100', then the half-exempt code might be 'ELDH' or 'E50'.  Select the code that fits the situation.  The two half-exempt codes will exempt up to $10,000 and up to 25% of the assessed value -- instead of the up to $20,000 and up to 50% exemptions.

What if? Dad is 83 and owns the asset with his three sons.

By the way, all the sons are less than 65 years old.  In this situation, only one-quarter of assessed value is exemptible.  Therefore, your administrator should set-up exemption codes for up to $5,000 and up to 12.5% of the value.

What if? Dad is 83 and has three sons, one of which is disabled.

Take the afternoon off.  Well, not really.  You might want to give Cox and Company a call on this one.