Mike Belcher turned on his ringer and apologized as he sat down to testify. His wife was due to go into labor and he didn’t want to miss a call.

The lawmaker, a Wakefield Republican, has a strong concern that doesn’t affect his young family just yet – older New Hampshire residents losing their houses due to rising property tax bills. 

“I do not want to see our seniors being evicted from modest homes they already own because they can’t afford outrageous taxes being levied,” he said.

With that, Belcher proposed a solution: a broad sweeping property tax exemption for homeowners over the age of 72.

House Bill 101, which Belcher sponsored with Loudon Republican representative Mike Moffett as a cosponsor, introduces an elderly home exemption that local communities could vote to adopt.

It would deduct $530,000 from a property’s assessed value – the current median home price in New Hampshire – for homeowners 72 or older. In other words, anyone with a home below this amount in communities that enact the exemption would not pay local property taxes. 

Unlike other tax exemptions or credits where income is a factor for eligibility, the only two qualifying requirements for Belcher’s plan are that a resident has lived in New Hampshire for at least 10 consecutive years and owned the property for at least two years.

“This bill is designed to create a light at the end of the tunnel,” he said. “It is an effort to create a set of circumstances tied to advanced age under which you would no longer have to pay a yearly rent check to the government just to keep the home that you probably already own outright.”

Belcher knows the proposition is generous and would prove costly to local coffers. Yet he sees a clear trade-off: older family members would be incentivized to age in place at home, as opposed to a county nursing home facility or more expensive private retirement community.

The average life expectancy in New Hampshire is 78.5 years old, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention based on 2021 data, the most recent available.

With that, the age requirement of 72 years old was intentional, said Belcher.

“It almost seems arbitrary, except there was an awful lot of research in order to try to balance the desire to limit the tax of an elderly person so they can stay in their home versus the immediate impact to local revenues,” he said.

New Hampshire already offers a senior exemption – with different deductions available for residents who qualify beginning at 65 years old. Residents over the age of 65 – or those receiving Social Security disability – who have owned a home for at least five years can also defer payment of their tax bill for an annual rate of 5 percent with one caveat – the deferred taxes can not exceed 85 percent of the property value.

With exemptions, though, it’s up to local communities to adopt how much should be forgiven and set income guidelines beyond the state’s suggested metric of $13,400 for a single person and $20,400 for a married couple. 

Bow offers one of the most generous elderly exemptions statewide – with deductions starting at $122,000 for homeowners over the age of 65. Income eligibility also exceeds the state baseline with residents needing to make no more than $38,500 if single and $50,000 if married.

In 2023, the town of Bow exempted $4.78 million in taxes through the elderly option. As a whole, communities around the state reduced assessments by $1.13 billion for qualifying homeowners, according to data from the Department of Revenue Administration.

Rep. Eleana Colby, a Bow Democrat and vice chair of the town select board, questioned Belcher how his proposal would add to the billion dollars of property already exempt. 

That estimate is hard to predict, due to the numerous hypothetical factors at play, said Belcher. First, a town has to vote – either by a city council or by warrant at Town Meeting – to adopt the exemption. After that, homeowners must apply and be approved to receive the benefit.

“I have no doubt that it would increase it,” he said. “By exactly how much, I don’t know.”

To Brodie Deshaies, a legislative advocate for the New Hampshire Municipal Association, said giving towns like Bow the power to adopt or refuse these exemptions is the type of local control the association typically supports. But that doesn’t mean they support every local option.

With Belcher’s proposal, the inevitable shift in local tax distribution for towns that chose to adopt the exemption is cause for concern.

“There would be a large tax burden shift from those who would now be exempted from paying property taxes to those who will have to continue to pay property taxes,” Deshaies said.

State law in New Hampshire allows for homeowners to lose ownership of their properties if they don’t pay their taxes for three years. A Monitor analysis of 10 years of tax deed transfers – where municipalities claimed ownership of a property – found that nearly 4,000 properties were impacted from 2013 to 2023.

But homeowners impacted were often in the same circumstance – they had retired, paid off their mortgage and were living on a fixed income. After a medical incident or family death, their income shifted and they fell behind, risking ownership of their property, which was often their only asset of value.

This is the scenario that Belcher is trying to avoid with his bill, guaranteeing the right for aging New Hampshire residents to retain ownership of their property regardless of their income in retirement.

But to Deshaies, the trade-off of paying taxes is an inherent part of life.

“Tax exemptions are popular. No one likes paying taxes,” he said. “But we recognize we have to pay taxes for basic services that society needs to function.”

Tax credits, exemptions and deferrals

Property tax deferrals: Applications for tax deferrals are due February 28 and application materials can be found online at: https://www.revenue.nh.gov/sites/g/files/ehbemt736/files/documents/pa-30_pro.pdf or requested by calling the Department of Revenue Administration at 603-230-5001. Town and city offices may also have copies available upon request.

Property tax abatements based on hardship or poverty: Property taxes may be reduced or waived (“abated”) by a town or city if the taxpayer is able to show an inability to pay taxes.

The deadline for applying for an abatement with the assessors or Selectmen is March 1 following the final tax bill for the year. The assessors or Selectmen may also abate prior year’s taxes for good cause.

Applications are available through the Board of Land and Tax Appeals: https://www.btla.nh.gov/sites/g/files/ehbemt601/files/inline-documents/sonh/abatement.pdf or by calling the Board of Tax and Land Appeals at 603-271-2578. Town or city offices may have copies available upon request and some municipalities mail to and require taxpayers to complete an inventory form by April 15 of the preceding year as a precondition to an abatement request.

Tax exemptions and credits: The deadline for applying for tax exemptions or credits (including exemptions for older homeowners and credits for veterans, and optional exemptions for people who are legally blind, deaf/hearing impaired, or who have other disabilities) for 2025 property taxes is April 15, 2025.

Applications can be found through the Department of Revenue and Administration: https://www.revenue.nh.gov/resource-center/current-year-forms-and-instructions under property or by emailing Forms@dra.nh.gov or calling the Forms Line at (603) 230-5001.

Homeowners who need advice about property tax relief can contact 603 Legal Aid by submitting an online application at www.603LegalAid.org or by calling (603) 224-3333 between the hours of 9 a.m. and 2 p.m., Monday through Thursday.