Montana
Questions and answers about Montana’s new second-home tax
In an effort to lower property tax bills for homeowners and landlords who provide long-term rental housing, the state Legislature and Gov. Gianforte passed major tax relief legislation this year. As it’s implemented this year and next, the package will scale back taxes on most houses being used as primary residences while offsetting those cuts with higher taxes on most other residential properties starting in 2026.
As we cover the new tax policy, which the Montana Department of Revenue expects to boost second-home taxes by 68% on average, the MTFP newsroom is fielding many, many questions from readers. We’re compiling the most frequent ones — and the best answers we currently have — below.
We’ll update this story periodically as other questions roll into our inboxes and as officials release additional information on how the specifics of the new tax policy will work. As always, we’d love to hear comments and questions at news@montanafreepress.org.
Q: When will the second-home tax take effect?
Interim rates will lower taxes for many residential properties on the tax bills sent by county treasurers this fall. However, the second-home tax won’t be implemented until 2026 tax bills, when it will raise taxes on most residential properties that don’t qualify for a “homestead” exemption.
Proponents had initially wanted to make the second-home tax effective this year, but added provisions for an interim year after negotiations on it dragged into the final days of the legislative session, missing the February deadline Gianforte had initially said would be necessary for the revenue department to implement the full policy this year.
Q: Who is eligible for the lower residential homestead rates?
A: Two types of residential property owners: Homeowners who live in their homes at least seven months a year and landlords who rent homes out on long-term leases for at least seven months a year. Long-term means leases that last at least a month, like the leases used for resident rental housing but unlike the terms for Airbnb-style short-term rentals.
Q: Will there be more property tax rebates?
Yes. The Legislature also authorized a round of $400 rebates for homeowners, which will be available this year and apply against last year’s tax bill. Those follow the $675 rebates the Legislature authorized for homeowners in each of 2024 and 2023.
The new tax law requires the revenue department to mail a notice about the rebates to potentially eligible property owners by June 30. Eligible homeowners who meet the same seven-month occupancy standard that will be used for the eventual homestead exemption will be able to claim the rebate by applying between Aug. 15 and Oct. 1 this year.
Q: Do I need to apply to avoid paying the second-home tax?
Yes. When it takes full effect in 2026, the new law will assess higher taxes on any residential property that doesn’t qualify for the homestead exemption. Homeowners and landlords will need to apply to the revenue department for the exemption that will qualify them for lower rates.
Once homeowners are qualified for the homestead exemption, they will remain qualified until they sell the property, move elsewhere or apply for a homestead on a different residence. Landlords will need to periodically reapply to certify properties are still being used as long-term rentals.
Additionally, homeowners who qualify for a property tax rebate this year will be automatically qualified for the homestead exemption going forward.
Q: How do I apply?
As of May 2025, the revenue department hasn’t yet published the necessary forms, but homeowners and landlords will be able to apply either by mail or online. The new law specifies that the application deadline for 2026 tax bills will be March 1, 2026.
The applications will ask property owners to formally declare that they’re using a property as either a principal residence or long-term rental. If the department discovers a taxpayer has fraudulently claimed the benefit, the law specifies that they will have to pay a penalty of three times the amount saved and be subject to potential criminal prosecution under a state law that can n result in a $500 fine and a jail term of up to six months.
Eligible homeowners and landlords who fail to apply for the homestead rates initially may be able to receive refunds if they appeal successfully after receiving higher tax bills.
Q: I’ve heard there’s an exception for homes on agricultural land?
Yes. The tax package’s long-term rates place residential structures on agricultural land at their current levels regardless of whether they qualify as principal residences, an exemption intended to shield worker bunkhouses and other secondary residences in farm complexes from the second-home tax. That provision also means that second homes — including many high-value ones — located on qualified agricultural properties will be largely shielded from the second-home tax.
Separately from the second-home tax debate, revenue department officials and some lawmakers have expressed concern that it may be too easy to qualify undeserving properties for an agricultural status under current law, a process that currently requires reporting only $1,500 a year in agricultural income. A bill that would have tightened the qualification requirements for the agricultural designation, introduced separately from the property tax relief package, failed to pass the Legislature this year.
Q: What if I run an Airbnb out of part of my home? Will that keep me from qualifying for the homestead exemption?
You’ll probably be fine. The bill doesn’t explicitly address this situation, but the definition of “principal residence” included in the law focuses on whether a taxpayer owned and occupied a given residential property for at least seven months of the year. It also says you can’t claim more than one property as a principal residence, but doesn’t say anything about what you’re doing with a property other than living on it.
Q: Will family cabins pay the second-home tax?
A: Unless they qualify for the homestead reduction, yes. The new law doesn’t distinguish between family cabins owned by Montana residents and luxury real estate owned by out-of-state residents.
Q: Why doesn’t the second-home tax apply only to out-of-state residents?
Because that would likely be struck down by the courts as unconstitutional discrimination. As legislative attorneys studying tax issues for lawmakers have noted in the past, the U.S. Constitution includes several provisions that have been interpreted as limiting how much power states have to discriminate against nonresidents, particularly with regards to freedom of movement and economic activity. For example, a 1975 ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court barred New Hampshire from imposing higher income taxes on nonresident commuters.
There is some legal nuance involved — the Supreme Court, for instance, ruled in 1978 that Montana could charge nonresidents higher hunting license fees because hunting is a recreational activity involving a state-owned resource. Even so, most legal analysts seem to think lawmakers are on much firmer ground by pegging their definitions to how much time a property owner spends living on or renting a given property, rather than their state of residence.
Q: Will the tax relief force local government budget cuts?
No — at least in theory. The way the state’s property tax system works means that most local taxes “float” to collect a given budget amount. As such, tax bills will generally shift around so lower homeowner taxes are offset by higher taxes on other types of property, primarily businesses under the interim rates for this year, then a combination of businesses and second homes in future years.
The legislation also includes a provision intended to avoid short-term revenue reductions for taxes defined in terms of non-floating mills, a category that encompasses voter-authorized local taxes in some parts of the state.
The other wrinkle is that two of Montana’s municipalities, population-121,000 Billings and population-350 Sunburst, have provisions in their charters that could keep taxes from floating to accommodate the downward valuation shifts produced by the relief legislation. That’s caused particular angst in Billings, the state’s largest city, and spurred lawmakers to include a provision in the tax legislation that purportedly overrides those charters to keep revenues constant. It’s unclear, however, whether that override attempt would survive a court challenge, so the bill includes another provision specifying the state will backfill municipal revenues to 2025 levels if the override clause is struck down.
Q: Where can I read the full second-home tax legislation?
This is actually quite tricky. The new tax policy was passed as two conjoined bills with some redundant language and convoluted coordinating clauses for reasons that have to do with arcane legislative politicking.
If that doesn’t scare you off, start with Senate Bill 542 (text here). However, disregard SB 542’s sections 4 and 14, which were adjusted by provisions in House Bill 231 (its sections 29 and 27, respectively). Note that other coordinating language in HB 231 (its section 31) nullifies most of HB 231’s other contents to avoid redundancy with SB 542.
Q: I tried reading the bills and … how exactly do they provide me with tax relief?
We feel your pain.
Here’s a short answer: Lawmakers are adjusting statewide property tax rates to dial back the tax values for homestead-eligible residential properties. Montana’s property tax math translates your taxable value to your share of the collective bills for schools, roads, law enforcement and other local government services. So scaling down tax values for primary residences while boosting them second homes will shift taxes away from homeowners without defunding services.
The shift will also raise taxes for some business properties — particularly this year, as the interim rates reduce taxes for primary residence before the second-home tax revenue is available next year. The measure does include a provision intended to limit the impact on smaller business properties.
As for a longer answer? Stay tuned — we’re working on something.
Q: How much will my taxes change?
By the time the second-home tax is fully implemented in 2026, projections from the revenue department estimate the average owner-occupied home will see taxes decrease by 18% and the average long-term rental property will see a 22% decrease.
However, actual changes will vary place to place depending on factors including the composition of the local tax base and how specific counties, cities and school districts are managing their budgets. Bills for individual properties will also depend on shifts in the formal tax valuations due from the revenue department in the coming weeks.
We wrote a separate story about the department’s projections, including visual breakdowns for different property types and county-by-county figures. It’s available here: How Montana’s new second-home tax could shift your property tax bill.
Have questions about the second-home tax and homestead? We’d love to hear from you — and plan to update this piece as new questions pop up and new information becomes available. Reach out at news@montanafreepress.org.
LATEST STORIES
Montana’s American Indian Caucus touts historic success in 2025 legislative session
The state’s American Indian Caucus is a group of about a dozen Native American lawmakers who work together to advance legislation they say is good for Indian Country. This year, the group saw historic success in advancing their priority bills.
Questions and answers about Montana’s new second-home tax
In an effort to lower property tax bills for homeowners and landlords who provide long-term rental housing, the state Legislature and Gov. Gianforte passed major tax relief legislation that will scale back taxes on most homes being used as primary residences while offsetting those cuts with higher taxes on most other residential properties starting in 2026. The MTFP newsroom is fielding many, many questions about new tax law from readers. Here are the most common ones — and the best answers we currently have.
Plaintiffs from landmark Held case file constitutional climate case against Trump, federal agencies
The federal lawsuit Eva Lighthiser and her co-plaintiffs filed on May 29 challenges three executive orders that Trump issued during the first three months of his second term in the White House. The plaintiffs argue that the orders have suppressed climate science and slowed the transition to renewable energy sources in favor of fossil fuels, “thereby worsening the air pollution and climate conditions that immediately harm and endanger Plaintiffs’ lives and personal security.”
In these Montana towns a stranger rarely stays a stranger for long. Shopkeepers in Philipsburg know their regulars by name. Bigfork neighbors fill the same theater seats every summer. Livingston locals still swap trail tips with visitors over coffee. The welcome here comes from people who greet newcomers like they belong. These eight communities show what small-town Montana hospitality looks like up close.
Whitefish
Whitefish sits within an hour of Glacier National Park, and that proximity shapes everything about the town. Central Avenue runs on covered Old West walkways lined with local shops, restaurants, and galleries, and the crowd shifts with the seasons as skiers give way to summer hikers.
Glacier National Park draws visitors with hundreds of miles of hiking trails, alpine lakes, and the scenic Going-to-the-Sun Road. Closer to town, Whitefish Lake offers public beaches, boat rentals, paddleboarding, and fishing during the warmer months. When winter arrives, Whitefish Mountain Resort becomes the area’s main attraction, with ski runs, snowboarding terrain, and gondola rides overlooking the Flathead Valley. Even after a day outdoors, many visitors return to downtown Whitefish to browse local shops or settle in at the town’s restaurants and breweries.
Bigfork
Sitting on the northeastern shore of Flathead Lake, Bigfork pairs a working harbor with a downtown built around its artists. Galleries and studios cluster within a few walkable blocks, and the water is never out of sight for long.
Flathead Lake is the town’s biggest draw, with boating, kayaking, fishing, and swimming on the largest natural freshwater lake west of the Mississippi River in the lower 48 states. Just offshore, Wild Horse Island State Park lets visitors hike among native wildlife, including wild horses, bighorn sheep, bald eagles, and mule deer. Theater lovers can catch a Broadway-style production at Bigfork Summer Playhouse, which has staged live performances for decades. Before leaving town, visitors can browse the independently owned galleries and studios showcasing paintings, sculptures, ceramics, and other work by Montana artists.
Philipsburg
Philipsburg made its money in silver, and the painted storefronts along Broadway Street date to those boom years. The old buildings now hold local businesses, and the mining past is easy to trace from one block to the next.
A visit to Gem Mountain Sapphire Mine lets visitors sift through mining gravel for Montana sapphires, many of which can be cut into finished gemstones. Just outside town, Granite Ghost Town State Park preserves the remains of a silver mining community, with abandoned buildings that mark the region’s boom years. Those interested in local history can stop at the Granite County Museum, where exhibits cover the area’s mining industry and early settlement. Before leaving, many visitors make time for The Sweet Palace, a candy store that has become one of the town’s signature stops.
Livingston
Livingston sits on the Yellowstone River and serves as a northern gateway to Yellowstone National Park. Restored commercial buildings house an active arts scene, and the Absaroka Range rises just south of the rooflines.
The historic downtown works as the town’s main visitor area, with independent bookstores, outfitters, cafes, and long-standing local businesses inside restored commercial buildings. At the Yellowstone Gateway Museum, exhibits trace the region’s history through Indigenous presence, railroad expansion, and early settlement in the Yellowstone Valley. Small galleries across the downtown core show work by regional artists whose subjects often reflect the river valley and the mountains around it.
Red Lodge
Red Lodge marks the start of the Beartooth Highway, one of the highest paved roads in the country. Its compact, walkable downtown keeps locally owned shops and restaurants busy in every season.
The Beartooth Highway climbs into the Absaroka-Beartooth Wilderness and continues toward Yellowstone National Park, with steep mountain passes, alpine lakes, and long-range views. In winter, Red Lodge Mountain becomes a major recreation area for skiing and snowboarding, with terrain that draws residents and visitors alike. During the warmer months, hiking trails in the surrounding mountains open onto forests, ridgelines, and wildlife viewing areas. Downtown Red Lodge stays active year-round, with local businesses and historic buildings packed into a walkable core.
Choteau
Choteau sits where the prairie meets the Rocky Mountain Front, and dinosaurs put it on the map. Fossil beds nearby produced some of the most important dinosaur nesting discoveries in North America, and the town leans into that history.
At the Old Trail Museum, exhibits cover the region’s natural history, including fossil finds and artifacts tied to its prehistoric past. The surrounding country is known for wildlife viewing, with elk, deer, and many bird species in the foothills and open plains near town. Just outside Choteau, fossil sites linked to major dinosaur discoveries have built the area’s reputation in paleontology research. The Rocky Mountain Front opens onto hiking routes and wide viewpoints where the plains give way to the peaks.
Stevensville
Stevensville is the oldest permanent settlement in Montana, founded in 1841 as St. Mary’s Mission. It sits in the Bitterroot Valley between the Bitterroot and Sapphire mountains, and the town center still runs at a slower pace.
St. Mary’s Mission is the town’s most significant landmark, preserving the mission’s early buildings and marking the first permanent Euro-American settlement in what became Montana. The Bitterroot Valley around Stevensville is known for its orchards, farmland, and mountain views, and it serves as a corridor to nearby communities and recreation areas. Local boutiques and small shops fill a compact town center that reflects its long history. Hiking trails in the nearby foothills reach forested terrain, open meadows, and views of the Bitterroot Mountains, drawing the most traffic during the warmer months.
Virginia City
Virginia City boomed after an 1863 gold strike in Alder Gulch, and much of that town survived. Wooden boardwalks, original storefronts, and period buildings still line the Main Street, so a walk here doubles as a walk through the 1860s.
Historic structures throughout the town can be toured to see how miners, shopkeepers, and early settlers lived during the gold rush era. Several small museums and preserved buildings cover mining equipment, frontier life, and local governance during the 1800s. Costumed interpreters run seasonal reenactments as well, recreating daily routines and events from Virginia City’s early years.
Small Towns Worth the Detour
These eight towns show how much Montana packs into its smaller communities. Livingston and Whitefish put national parks within reach of a walkable downtown, while Philipsburg and Virginia City keep their mining-era streets intact and open to visitors. Choteau turns fossil country into a point of local pride, and Stevensville carries the state’s oldest roots. Anyone looking for genuine small-town hospitality will find plenty of it across these Montana communities.
The Montana Lottery offers multiple draw games for those aiming to win big.
Here’s a look at July 9, 2026, results for each game:
Winning Big Sky Bonus numbers from July 9 drawing
08-21-24-29, Bonus: 16
Check Big Sky Bonus payouts and previous drawings here.
Winning Millionaire for Life numbers from July 9 drawing
02-15-22-54-58, Bonus: 04
Check Millionaire for Life payouts and previous drawings here.
Feeling lucky? Explore the latest lottery news & results
When are the Montana Lottery drawings held?
- Powerball: 8:59 p.m. MT on Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday.
- Mega Millions: 9 p.m. MT on Tuesday and Friday.
- Lucky For Life: 8:38 p.m. MT daily.
- Lotto America: 9 p.m. MT on Monday, Wednesday and Saturday.
- Big Sky Bonus: 7:30 p.m. MT daily.
- Powerball Double Play: 8:59 p.m. MT on Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday.
- Montana Cash: 8 p.m. MT on Wednesday and Saturday.
- Millionaire for Life: 9:15 p.m. MT daily.
Missed a draw? Peek at the past week’s winning numbers.
This results page was generated automatically using information from TinBu and a template written and reviewed by a Great Falls Tribune editor. You can send feedback using this form.
A restraining order has been issued that blocks the Montana Republican Party from enacting new bylaws intended to drive nonconformists…
A restraining order has been issued that blocks the Montana Republican Party from enacting new bylaws intended to drive nonconformists out of the party ranks.
Lewis and Clark County District Judge Michael F. McMahon issued the restraining order Wednesday morning. The order had been requested by county precinct committees and officers suing the state party organization over the new bylaws. The plaintiffs are the Yellowstone County Republican Central Committee, the Choteau County Republican Central Committee, and individual committee members Jeff Essmann, Ted Kronebusch, James Wilson and state Rep. Brad Barker, R-Red Lodge.
At issue are bylaws passed during MTGOP’s June platform convention that the litigating party members say amount to “fraudulent and corrupt practices.” The new bylaws require members to pay $20 in annual membership dues and pledge a loyalty oath, and subject members to removal from elected party positions for nonpayment of dues or for “conduct deemed inconsistent with party purposes,” as determined by executive party party officers. The new bylaws allow charges for removal to be brought by any 20 official Republican Party members.
Montana Republican Party Chairman Art Wittich, the only official spokesperson for the state party, has not responded to voicemails and texts sent to his cell phone Wednesday. Wittich, elected party chairman in June 2025, has long been emphatic about exposing “Democrats disguised as Republicans” — for Wittich a now decade-old battle that spun into a bitter multimillion-dollar war between party hardliners and relative centrists in this spring’s Republican legislative primaries.
The centrists drew the ire of the hardliners in 2025 by collaborating with Republican Gov. Greg Gianforte and legislative Democrats to pass a balanced state budget and key pieces of legislation, including increased taxes on second homes and property tax reductions for primary residences and small businesses.
What constitutes disqualifying conduct isn’t fully spelled out in the bylaws, but they do specify that “collaborating with Democrats” in the Legislature, the governor’s office, the courts, or elections can get members disciplined or removed.
The lawsuit alleges that “The 2026 bylaws empower a small group within the party to revoke Republican affiliation from candidates or office holders, undoing primary nominations by the electorate.”
The plaintiffs argue that Montana voters, not party bylaws, should determine who represents the Republican Party in general elections and who represents voting precincts on the publicly elected county-level Republican committees that coordinate local political activity.
The Montana Legislature in 2019 passed a bill protecting publicly elected party precinct committee officers from being arbitrarily removed from office and defined attempts to do so as “fraudulent and corrupt practices.” That law, sparked by Republican Party infighting 10 years ago, is the foundation of the current lawsuit.
There has been a surge of public interest in Republican precinct-level politics following a perceived lack of support by party hardliners for Republican candidates in conservative strongholds like Flathead County, where more than 60 new precinct committeemen and committeewomen were elected in June. That wave of new officers was preceded by Flathead County Republican Central Committee members considering an endorsement of Libertarian Sid Daoud for Kalispell mayor over Republican Kisa Davison in late 2025. The Kalispell mayor’s race is nonpartisan, but Republicans have gone to court to secure the party’s right to endorse candidates in nonpartisan races.
Wittich’s own campaign for precinct committeeman representing Whitefish was a casualty of that new wave of public interest. He lost to Republican Giuseppe “G-man” Caltabiano, who serves on the Whitefish City Council.
Caltabiano’s wife, Roxanne Ross, defeated Candace Wittich, wife of the Republican chair, in the same election.
State law gives precinct officers two-year terms and specifies that they can be removed only for death, written resignation or loss of residency. The new bylaws state that participation in party governance, including service as a precinct official, “is a privilege of association, not a right conferred by public office or candidacy. Members must act in good faith to support the Party’s purpose and must not engage in conduct materially inconsistent with the Party’s interests, including conduct that undermines its platform, policy positions, election operations, or internal governance.”
The recent changes to the party bylaws allow precinct officeholders to be suspended from voting in party matters and replaced by party leadership for noncompliance. Empty precinct seats can be filled by the Republican Party chair.
“Every Republican candidate sells their version of Republicanism to the people in a primary campaign, and the voter chooses which version to buy,” the lawsuit states. “The party cannot dictate what brands of Republicanism are on the market.”
Former MTGOP chair Jeff Essmann, a plaintiff who is also a long-serving precinct officer, said in his affidavit that members of the Republican State Central Committee weren’t given a required notification about attempts to amend the bylaws. He said he would have attended the platform convention and argued against amending the bylaws if he had known.
“The 2026 Bylaws empower any twenty members of the Party to recommend any other member of the Party for expulsion from the party, to be determined by the State Central Committee, even people who do not reside in Yellowstone County and who have never met me,” Essmann said in the affidavit.
Other central committee members produced pre-convention emails about potential changes to the bylaws, but no details about the amendments.
In issuing the order, McMahon indicated that Republicans challenging the bylaws are likely to succeed. He set a July 13 hearing on whether to make the order permanent.
“Plaintiffs have shown a likelihood of success on the merits of their claims that the challenged provisions are inconsistent with Montana election law and constitutional protections governing candidacy, nomination, speech, association, due process, and elected precinct committee representatives,” McMahon ruled.
___
This story was originally published by Montana Free Press and distributed through a partnership with The Associated Press.
Copyright
© 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, written or redistributed.
-
Texas5 minutes agoTexas Rangers investigating City of Trinidad after water issues, controversial arrests, firings
-
Utah8 minutes agoPresident Trump expected to reduce the size of Utah monuments
-
Vermont13 minutes agoVermont marks fourth straight year of July flooding as recovery drags on
-
Virginia20 minutes agoVance leasing part of multimillion-dollar Virginia farm as an additional residence | CNN Politics
-
Washington23 minutes agoWashington State Democratic Party draws criticism over reparations, antisemitism language
-
Wisconsin28 minutes agoWhat’s new to eat and drink at the 2026 Wisconsin State Fair?
-
West Virginia35 minutes agoWest Virginia to launch school clothing allowance program
-
Wyoming38 minutes agoElection Q&A: Laurie Longtine for Wyoming House District 59
