Deadline nears for Montana homeowners to claim property tax rebate

Jonathon Ambarian

HELENA (KPAX) — Montana homeowners have one week left to claim a rebate of up to $675 on their property taxes.

The window to claim a state property tax rebate opened on Aug. 15, and to qualify, residents need to get their applications in by Sunday, Oct. 1.

Taxpayers must have owned and lived in a home in Montana for at least seven months last year to qualify. They will receive a rebate for their 2022 property taxes on their primary residence, up to a maximum of $675.

Leaders are encouraging those who haven’t applied yet to go to getmyrebate.mt.gov and fill out an online form.

You will need your home’s physical address, geocode, amount of property taxes paid last year and the names and Social Security numbers of the owner, spouse and dependents.

The Montana Department of Revenue has tools on the website to help taxpayers compile this information. MTN has also broken down some of the ways to find your property’s geocode.

Homeowners have been able to send in a paper application, but leaders warn that can add significant time, especially since some Montana communities have recently experienced slower mail delivery.

As of Friday, Sept. 22, the Montana Department of Revenue reported receiving roughly 200,000 claims for property tax rebates — about 79% of the total claims they expected. More than 179,000 rebates have been processed, for a total of around $118 million.

At the halfway point of the application period earlier this month, department leaders said they planned to focus their outreach on places that had lower rates of returned applications, including Petroleum, Carter, Powder River, Madison and Garfield counties.

Revenue is now sending all property tax rebates by paper check, as a way to reduce the risk of fraud by scammers.

In 2024, homeowners will again be eligible to claim another rebate of up to $675 on this year’s property taxes.