Homestead Act Example In Salt Lake
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To help develop the American West and spur economic growth, Congress passed the Homestead Act of 1862, which provided 160 acres of federal land to anyone who agreed to farm the land. The act distributed millions of acres of western land to individual settlers.
In Utah, the homestead exemption applies to real property, including your home or mobile home. You may also protect water rights that you own, if the water is used for domestic or irrigation purposes. In order to use the $30,000 exemption to protect your home, it must be your primary personal residence.
You may be eligible for the primary residential exemption if you occupy your home for 183 consecutive days or more in a calendar year. The exemption applies to your house and up to one acre of land. Apartments, condos and mobile homes also qualify.
Homestead tax exemptions usually offer a fixed discount on taxes, such as exempting the first $50,000 of the assessed value with the remainder taxed at the normal rate. With a $50,000 homestead exemption, a home valued at $150,000 would be taxed on only $100,000 of assessed value.
You must notify the county when you have a primary residential property on which you have claimed the homeowner's exemption and to which you are no longer entitled. You must also report on your Utah income tax return that you no longer qualify for the homeowner's exemption on your primary residence.
The Utah State Constitution, Article XIII, § 3, allows County Assessors to exempt from taxation 45% of the fair market value of residential property and up to one acre of land. Statute defines residential property, for purposes of the exemption, to be a primary residence.
