King County Senior Property Tax Exemption: Eligibility and Applying

The King County senior property tax exemption lowers, and in some cases fully eliminates, the annual property tax bill for homeowners who are at least 62 years old, retired due to disability, or a veteran with an 80 percent or higher VA disability rating. You qualify if you meet four tests: age or disability status, ownership of the home, use of it as your primary residence, and a combined household income under $84,000 a year.¹ Once you’re approved, the exemption stays with you as long as you keep meeting the requirements, and you can file retroactively for up to three prior tax years if you were eligible but never applied.

Who Qualifies

Age, Disability, or Veteran Status

You must be at least 62 by December 31 of the year you file.¹ Younger applicants can still qualify if they retired because of a physical or mental disability, or if they’re a veteran with a combined VA disability rating of 80 percent or higher, or a total disability rating for a service-connected condition.²

Ownership and Residency

You need to own the home by December 31 of the year before the tax year you’re claiming. Ownership through a recorded deed, life estate, or contract of sale all count, and a home owned by a married couple or registered domestic partnership counts as owned by each spouse.² Shares in a cooperative housing association qualify too.³

The home has to be your primary residence for more than six months a year.³ There’s a useful exception if you’re temporarily in a hospital, nursing home, assisted living facility, or adult family home. Your home still counts as your residence during that stay as long as it’s either vacant, occupied by someone financially dependent on you, occupied by an unpaid caretaker, or rented out with the rental income reported on your application.

Surviving Spouses

If your spouse was receiving the exemption when they died, you can keep it even if you’re not yet 62. You must be at least 57, must have been living in the home when your spouse died, and must continue to live there. Every other requirement still applies.²

The Income Test

Your combined disposable household income must be below $84,000.¹ Below that ceiling, Washington uses three tiers, and lower incomes get more relief. At the lowest tier, the county freezes your home’s assessed value and exempts you from both regular and excess levies. The middle tier freezes your assessed value, exempts excess levies, and reduces regular levies by a smaller amount. The top tier exempts you only from excess levies. The specific income cutoffs between tiers are updated periodically and published by the Washington Department of Revenue.⁴

What Counts as Income

Combined disposable income is broader than adjusted gross income on your federal return. Start with AGI and add back items that may have been excluded or deducted:

Social Security and railroad retirement benefits
Pension and annuity payments
Capital gains, other than gain on a primary home sale that’s reinvested in a new home
Veterans benefits, except disability compensation and attendant-care or medical-aid payments
Interest from state and municipal bonds
Dividends

Your spouse’s or domestic partner’s income counts, and so does the income of anyone else who lives in the home.⁵

Medical Costs That Reduce Your Qualifying Income

This is where many applicants leave money on the table. Washington lets you subtract unreimbursed medical expenses from combined disposable income, which can drop you into a lower tier and save hundreds or thousands of dollars. Deductible costs include:

Prescription medications and insulin
In-home care comparable to nursing-home-level care, including medical treatment, physical therapy, household help, and personal care such as meal preparation and hygiene assistance
Nursing home, assisted living, or adult family home costs
Medicare premiums for Parts A, B, C, and D
Medigap supplemental policy premiums
Long-term care insurance premiums
Out-of-pocket cost-sharing amounts applied toward your health plan’s maximum
Durable medical equipment, mobility devices, prosthetics, and medically prescribed oxygen
Kidney dialysis devices and nebulizers
Ostomic items and disposable drug delivery devices

Only what you or your spouse actually paid out of pocket counts. Insurance reimbursements don’t.⁵ Pull together every receipt and Explanation of Benefits statement before you calculate your income. Applicants who skip this step often end up in a higher tier than they had to.

How to Apply

King County takes applications two ways. The Senior Exemption Portal lets you file online for the 2026 tax year and retroactively for 2025, 2024, and 2023, and it accepts document uploads.⁶ Paper applications are available on the King County Assessor’s forms page and are mailed to the Assessor’s Office in downtown Seattle.

Have these ready before you start:

Proof of age: Washington driver’s license, state ID, or birth certificate
Proof of disability, if you’re claiming on that basis: documentation from the Social Security Administration showing you receive SSI, or a completed Proof of Disability Form from the King County Assessor’s Office¹
Income records: your IRS Form 1040 for the prior year with all schedules. If you don’t file federal taxes, bring your SSA-1099 and records of any other income
Medical expense records: receipts, pharmacy printouts, insurance Explanation of Benefits statements, and Medicare premium notices for any deductions you’re claiming

Check that the parcel number on your application matches the legal description on your deed. Mismatches slow processing.

There’s no single hard deadline for applying in the current year, but the Assessor’s Office averages about four months to process a completed application.⁷ File late in the year and your exemption may not be in place before your next tax bill. Once you’re approved within a tax year, the exemption stays active for that year and all future years until a renewal is due.⁶

Applying for Past Years and Getting a Refund

If you were eligible in earlier years and never applied, you can file retroactively. The portal accepts applications for the current year plus three prior years. To get a refund of taxes you already paid, your application has to reach the Assessor within three years of that year’s property tax due date. For the 2026 tax year, the full-year refund deadline is April 30, 2029, and the second-half refund deadline is October 31, 2029.⁶ Applications received after those dates can still lock in a frozen assessed value going forward, but won’t produce a refund for the past year.

Keeping the Exemption

Once you’re approved, you have to notify the King County Assessor of anything that affects eligibility. That includes selling the property, moving to a different primary residence, or a significant increase in household income.⁸

Take that duty seriously. If the Assessor later finds you received the exemption based on incorrect information, you can be billed for back taxes with penalties for up to five years, even if the error was unintentional.⁸

King County also requires periodic renewal. When yours is due, the Assessor’s Office will send a notice. Respond promptly with updated income documentation and residency confirmation so your exemption doesn’t lapse.

If You’re Denied

A denial isn’t final. Washington law gives you the right to appeal under the same process used for other property tax disputes.⁸ Call the King County Assessor’s Office at 206-296-3920 first to find out exactly why the application was rejected before you decide whether to pursue a formal appeal.

If You Don’t Qualify: Property Tax Deferral

If your income is over the $84,000 ceiling, or you want more relief on top of the exemption, Washington has a separate deferral program. A deferral doesn’t reduce your taxes. The state pays them for you and records a lien against the home, and you repay the deferred amount plus interest when the home is sold, you move out, or you die.⁹ The senior/disabled version is open to the same group eligible for the exemption and charges 5 percent simple interest a year. A separate limited-income deferral is available to any Washington homeowner with combined disposable income of $57,000 or less who has owned a Washington home for at least five years, with applications due by September 1. Combining a deferral with the exemption is allowed.

1
King County. Senior or Disabled Exemptions and Deferrals
2
Washington State Legislature. RCW 84.36.381 – Exemptions – Qualifications
3
Washington State Department of Revenue. Property Tax Exemption for Senior Citizens and People with Disabilities
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Washington Department of Revenue. Income Thresholds for Senior Citizen and Disabled Persons Property Tax Exemption and Deferral
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Washington State Legislature. RCW 84.36.383 – Definitions
6
King County. Senior Exemption Portal
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King County Auditor’s Office. Third Follow-Up on Property Tax Exemptions – Stronger Systems Needed to Meet Demand
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Washington State Legislature. RCW 84.36.385 – Exemptions – Claims – Review of Claims – Appeals
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Washington Department of Revenue. Property Tax Exemptions and Deferrals