What the Homeowners' Exemption is
Every year your county taxes your home on the value it carries on the roll. The Homeowners' Exemption takes $7,000 off that value first, if the home is the one you live in.
It's state law, not a county program. In the State Board of Equalization's words, “The California Constitution provides a $7,000 reduction in the taxable value for a qualifying owner-occupied home.” With the local charges on most bills, that's about $70 to $85 a year.
Three things to know up front:
- It's only for the home you live in. The claim form says a home doesn't qualify if it “is, or is intended to be, rented, vacant and unoccupied, or the vacation or secondary home of the claimant.”
- You file once. “Once granted, the exemption remains in effect until terminated.” No re-filing each year.
- It's free. The claim is a one-page form from your county's Assessor. No one needs to file it for you: it carries your own signature.
First, check whether you already have it
New owners are mailed the claim form: Los Angeles, Sacramento and Contra Costa each say they send one after a purchase. Many owners never send it back.
Two places to look:
- Your annual property tax bill. It lists the exemptions on the home. Look for the Homeowners' Exemption, $7,000 taken off before the tax is figured.
- Our free check. Enter your address below and the site shows what the County's records say about the exemption on your home.
Still not sure? Your county's Assessor can tell you; the numbers are under Where to file. See it listed? You're set; there's nothing to re-file. Don't see it, and you own and live in the home? Keep reading.
Who qualifies
The claim form's rule: the exemption “is available to an eligible owner of a dwelling which is occupied as the owner's principal place of residence as of 12:01 a.m., January 1 each year.”
Broken out:
- You own it. An owner, a co-owner, or a buyer named in a contract of sale can claim. Only the owners (or their spouses) who live there may sign.
- You live in it as your principal residence on January 1. Not sure which home that is? The form says to consider where you are registered to vote, the address on your car registration, and “where you normally return after work.”
- Any kind of home counts: a house, a condo, a unit in a co-op, a manufactured home, a houseboat. One exemption per dwelling unit.
- One exemption at a time. A home with the Disabled Veterans' Exemption can't also have this one.
Just bought? The form says “a new owner must file a claim even if the property is already receiving the homeowners' exemption.” The prior owner's claim doesn't carry over to you. If you moved in within 90 days of buying, the exemption can also apply to your supplemental bill.
When to file
The claim form states it this way: “sign and file this form with the Assessor on or before February 15 or on or before the 30th day following the date of notice of supplemental assessment, whichever comes first.”
Filing late still gets you most of it. From the form's instructions:
- By 5 p.m. on February 15: “The full exemption is available.” The full $7,000 for the tax year that starts July 1.
- February 16 through 5 p.m. on December 10: “80 percent of the exemption is available.” That is $5,600 off for that year, about $60 saved, and the full $7,000 every year after.
So for the bill you have in hand for 2026–27, a claim filed by December 10, 2026 gets 80%, provided you owned and lived in the home on January 1, 2026. A claim filed by February 15, 2027 gets the full exemption starting with the 2027–28 bill. Either way, once it's on, it stays on.
New owners with a supplemental bill: the full exemption on that bill needs the claim within 30 days of the Notice of Supplemental Assessment; after that, 80%, through the last day to pay that bill's first installment without a penalty. The form's instructions spell out both.
How to claim it
The form is the Claim for Homeowners' Property Tax Exemption, BOE-266: the state's form, which each county's Assessor prints and collects. It's free, and it asks for:
- Your name and mailing address, and the address of the home.
- Your Social Security number, and your spouse's or co-owner's if they live there too. The form says it is mandatory, used to verify eligibility and to stop duplicate claims in other counties, and “not subject to public inspection.”
- Three questions: when you acquired the home, when you moved in, and whether you own another home in California that is or was your principal residence.
- Your signature, under penalty of perjury, and the date.
Can Jasmine Lane file it for me?
No. The claim needs your Social Security number and your signature under penalty of perjury, and we collect neither. We show you what the County's records say about the exemption on your home, explain the rules and the dates, and point you to the County's form. That's free for everyone, and it isn't part of anything we sell. The form itself takes a few minutes.
Where to file, county by county
Same form, same dates. Only the way in differs.
Los Angeles County
The Assessor puts the saving at “roughly a $70 annual saving off your property taxes.” Two ways to file, both free:
To check your bill, use the Treasurer and Tax Collector's bill lookup (by AIN, the Assessor's ID number) or the Assessor's Property Search. Questions: 213-974-3211 · toll-free 1-888-807-2111. Moving out? The County's cancellation form is EXM-76, on the same Assessor page.
Sacramento County
The Assessor puts the saving at “approximately $70-$80 in property taxes each year.” Both ways to file start on the Assessor's Homeowners' Exemption page:
One Sacramento rule to know: “Recording a deed (i.e. transferring the property into or out of a trust, adding or removing co-owner names, or recording a deed to make name changes) will automatically terminate the exemption for the upcoming fiscal year.” The Assessor then sends a new application to the new owner of record. Questions: the Exemptions Section, (916) 875-0710, 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., or ASR-HomeownersExemptions@saccounty.gov.
Contra Costa County
The County says the exemption “will reduce the annual property tax bill by at least $70 each year.” After a purchase, “Within several months of your home purchase the Assessor's Office will send you an application for the exemption.”
No application in hand? Download the Claim for Homeowners' Property Tax Exemption (PDF), sign it, and return it to the address printed on it: Contra Costa County Assessor, 2530 Arnold Drive, Suite 100, Martinez, CA 94553. Questions: the Exemptions Division, (925) 313-7481. The County's New Property Owners page covers the rest.
After it's granted
The exemption shows on your next annual bill as $7,000 off the taxable value. It renews on its own every year you live there.
When you move, tell the Assessor. The form puts it this way: if the home “later becomes ineligible for the exemption, you are responsible for notifying the Assessor of that fact immediately.” Leaving an exemption on a home you no longer live in can bring back the tax plus a 25% penalty under state law. The State Board of Equalization names December 10 as “the last day to terminate the Homeowners' Exemption without penalty.”
Not the same as a homestead
In Georgia and many other states, the tax break on your home is called a homestead exemption. In California, the tax break is the Homeowners' Exemption on this page.
A California homestead is something else: a civil law protection that may shield part of your home's equity from creditors. In the Los Angeles County Assessor's words, it “has no application in property assessment or taxation.” Declaring a homestead doesn't lower your tax bill, and claiming the exemption doesn't protect your equity.
Is the County's value itself too high?
The exemption trims $7,000 off whatever value the County uses. If the value itself is higher than your home was worth on January 1, 2026, that's a different fix: the Assessor's decline-in-value review, also free to file.
Each county runs it its own way, with its own form and dates. Our guides cover who it helps and how to file it yourself: Los Angeles County, Sacramento County and Contra Costa County.