Vermont Homestead Declaration: Filing, Deadlines, and Penalties

The Vermont Homestead Declaration is an annual filing that tells the state your property is your primary residence, which is what gets it taxed at the homestead education rate rather than the nonhomestead rate. You file it on Form HS-122, and for the 2026 tax year the deadline is April 15, 2026. Miss it entirely and your parcel defaults to nonhomestead classification, which in most towns means a higher education tax bill plus a penalty.¹

Who Has to File

You need to file if all three of these are true on April 1, 2026:

You are domiciled in Vermont, meaning it’s your permanent legal home.
You own the property or hold an ownership interest in it.
You live in the home as your principal residence and expect to keep doing so.

Domicile is the concept that trips people up. You can only have one at a time, and it turns on where your strongest legal and personal ties sit. Temporary absences for travel, medical care, or work don’t disqualify you as long as you intend to return. Seasonal homes, vacation cottages, and properties used entirely for commercial purposes don’t qualify.²

There is a lease carve-out. If your homestead is rented to a tenant on April 1 but will not be leased for more than 182 days during the calendar year, you can still claim it as your homestead. Cross the 182-day line and the property is nonhomestead for the year.¹

What You Need Before You Start

Form HS-122 handles both the Homestead Declaration and the Property Tax Credit claim. Before you open the form, pull together:

Your SPAN (School Property Account Number), an 11-digit code assigned by your town or city and printed on your property tax bill. This links the filing to the right parcel.
Your most recent property tax bill, which lists the housesite value and housesite tax amounts you’ll need.
Business or rental use percentages, if they apply.
Household income figures if you’re also claiming the property tax credit.

Getting the SPAN right is the single most important step. Any property tax credit you’re granted is applied to the tax bill tied to that number, so a wrong SPAN sends the credit to the wrong property.²

How to File

The fastest route is the Department of Taxes’ free myVTax portal. You select the homestead filing option, enter your information, and get a confirmation number and verification code once the submission goes through. A confirmation email is also sent to the address you provide.³

If you prefer paper, mail the completed Form HS-122 to Vermont Department of Taxes, PO Box 1881, Montpelier, VT 05601-1881. The envelope must be postmarked by the deadline. After mailing, you can check your filing status through the department’s online lookup tool using your SPAN.²

Deadline, Late Filing, and Penalties

The regular deadline is April 15, 2026. If that date falls on a weekend or holiday, it shifts to the next business day. This aligns with the Vermont income tax deadline, so most homeowners can handle both filings at the same time.¹

Missing April 15 doesn’t lock you out immediately. The state accepts late filings through October 15, 2026, though penalties apply. After October 15, the door closes for the year and your property stays classified as nonhomestead. At that point you’ll owe the higher education tax rate, a penalty, and any additional property tax plus interest.¹

The penalty depends on which rate is higher in your town. In most towns the nonhomestead rate exceeds the homestead rate, but not everywhere:

Where the nonhomestead rate is higher, the penalty is up to 3 percent of the education tax.
Where the nonhomestead rate is lower, the penalty is up to 8 percent. The steeper figure exists to keep homeowners from intentionally skipping the filing to get the lower rate.

Penalties are added directly to your property tax bill.¹

When to Withdraw a Declaration

If your situation changes after you file, use Form HS-122W to withdraw. The most common trigger is selling the property on or before April 1. If you filed the declaration but no longer owned the home on that date, you are responsible for withdrawing it, and failing to do so means repaying any property tax credit that was issued.⁴

Other reasons to withdraw: converting the property to nonhomestead use on or before April 1, filing in error on a home that isn’t actually your primary residence, or leasing the property to a tenant for more than 182 days.¹

The Property Tax Credit on the Same Form

Because the Homestead Declaration and Property Tax Credit share Form HS-122, many homeowners overlook a credit that can meaningfully reduce their bill. It’s income-based: up to $5,600 toward the state education property tax and up to $2,400 toward the municipal property tax.⁵

To qualify, household income must be at or below $115,400. Vermont’s definition of household income is broader than federal taxable income and includes the income of everyone living in your home during the tax year, along with sources like Social Security benefits, nontaxable interest, child support, cash gifts above $6,500, and capital gains.⁶

The credit applies only to the housesite portion of the property, which is the dwelling and up to two surrounding acres.⁷ Skipping the declaration also forfeits any credit you would have qualified for.

Business and Rental Use of the Home

Vermont treats business use and rental use very differently, and homeowners often confuse the two.

For business use, you only need to report the percentage of floor space used for business if it exceeds 25 percent. At 25 percent or less, leave that line blank and the whole dwelling qualifies at the homestead rate.²

For rental use, there is no 25 percent cushion. If any portion of your home is rented, you must report the rental percentage regardless of how small it is. The rental use percentage is generally the same figure you report on your federal income tax return, and outbuildings used for rental purposes are classified as nonhomestead in full.⁸

A homestead can also be part of a multi-unit building. If you live in one unit of a duplex and rent out the other, the portion you occupy qualifies as homestead and the rental portion does not.

Trusts, Life Estates, and Joint Owners

If your home is held in a trust, you can still file, but the rules are narrow. A trust-owned dwelling qualifies as a homestead only when the person claiming it is the sole beneficiary of the trust and one of these applies: the claimant or their spouse created the trust and it’s revocable, or it became irrevocable only because the person who created it died. A separate exception exists for claimants who are close relatives of the trust’s creator and have a mental or severe physical disability.⁹

Someone who holds a life estate in a property they occupy as their principal residence can file a Property Tax Credit claim as if they were the owner. The deed doesn’t get submitted with the filing but must be available if the Department requests it.¹⁰

When two or more people own a property but not all of them live there, only the resident owner can claim the homestead designation, and only for their ownership share. The resident owner enters their ownership percentage on the form so the housesite value is prorated. When all owners live in the home as their primary residence, they coordinate on a single declaration for the parcel.⁹

1
Vermont Department of Taxes. Homestead Declaration
2
Vermont Department of Taxes. Form HS-122 Instructions – 2026 Homestead Declaration and Property Tax Credit
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Vermont Department of Taxes. How to File a Homestead Declaration or Homestead Declaration and Property Tax Credit Claim
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Vermont Department of Taxes. Buying and Selling Property
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Vermont Department of Taxes. Property Tax Credit
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Vermont Department of Taxes. How to Determine Household Income
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Vermont Department of Taxes. Education Tax Rate Calculations – Frequently Asked Questions
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Vermont Department of Taxes. Homestead Property and Commercial Use
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Vermont Department of Taxes. Vermont Department of Taxes – Types of Property Ownership
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Vermont Department of Taxes. Special Situations