By Taylor Boyd
The Patrick County Board of Supervisors approved increases to elderly and disabled real estate tax relief and real estate tax exemption at its Jan. 12 meeting.
The elderly & handicapped real estate tax relief was increased from $24,000 to $32,000, and the real estate tax exemption was increased from a $300 limit to $500.
Last year, Commissioner of Revenue Glennda Morse said 117 taxpayers were eligible for the tax relief program. That number had declined from 133 in 2024, and “it was just steadily decreasing.”
The program’s eligibility and benefit limits had not been adjusted since 2018, Morse said.
With the increase, Morse said she anticipates more taxpayers will qualify; however, she is unable to estimate how many.
“It’s a significant change from $24,000 to $32,000, so that is going to encompass more people. But to give you an idea of how many people, I don’t know,” she said.
With the real estate tax relief and tax exemption limits increasing, Morse said the total cost for the county to provide those benefits will also increase.
“How much it goes up, we don’t know. It depends on how many people qualify,” she said.
Last year, the program cost the county $29,905.59; in 2018, the total cost was $54,661.10.
“It will be more of a tax credit for the citizens, and it’s for our most vulnerable citizens, the low-income, the elderly, the over-65 elderly, and the handicapped. It’s a wonderful program. It’s designed to provide tax assistance to those with limited income,” Morse said.
When she went to the board to ask them to raise the amounts in December, Morse said she asked them to raise the income limit from $24,000 to $28,000 and the tax exemption from $300 to $400. However, the board decided to go beyond her recommendations.
The new adjustment “will help ensure that those residents, our vulnerable residents, are taken care of and can stay in their homes, and we can help them. That’s what we need to do, we need to take care of our most vulnerable residents,” Morse said.
Online applications are not available, Morse said, but applications should be mailed out soon to those who received assistance last year. Applications are also available on the county’s website at www.co.patrick.va.us.
Those who don’t have internet access but want to request an application may call Morse’s office at (276) 694-7131 to be added to the mailing list.
“The reason for that is they need to send in their bank statement that shows their Social Security, any other heating assistance, fuel assistance. Any income that they have, they have to bring that in and provide that information so we can qualify them, that’s why we ask for it to be mailed back in with those documents,” she said.
Morse said completed applications must be printed and either mailed or returned to the Commissioner’s Office by the March 1 deadline.
