Catherine Woolfork asked 13WMAZ if senior citizens over the age of 65 are exempt from paying school taxes in Bibb County.
We spoke with Bibb School Board member Lester Miller to verify if people over the age of 65 can avoid paying school taxes.
“Our senior citizens are the most needy and they live off of fixed incomes. Anything we can do to lower their taxes, I’m certainly interested in,” says Miller.
Miller says in Macon there are options for seniors when it comes to taxes.
“It would help them out substantially if they were aware of this, took advantage of this,” says Miller.
Miller says homeowners over the age of 62 who make less than $10,000 a year or get less than $64,488 in retirement are able to apply for an exemption.
“You'll take $10,000 off the assessed value and the millage rate would only be applied to that reduced value,” says Miller.
So we verified that, no, senior citizens over the age of 65 are not exempt of school taxes, but they can get those taxes lowered.
We also took a look at other counties in Georgia to see if they have school tax exemptions for school taxes.
The Houston County tax commissioner says they do not have any exemptions for school taxes.
However, farther north in Forsyth County, the tax assessor’s office says if a homeowner is 65 years or older they receive full exemption. Miller says that does not surprise him.
“They can certainly absorb the education that they have the tax dollars that they have, which we can’t do in middle Georgia,” says Miller.
Miller says it is possible that the school board could look into giving full exemptions for seniors in the next year’s budget.
