Kansas Homestead Exemption: Amount, Filing & Savings
In Kansas tax law, “homestead” means a refund, not a cut in assessed value. Under the Homestead Property Tax Refund Act (K.S.A. 79-4501 et seq.), owners who are 55 or older, disabled, or raising a child under 18, among others, get part of their property tax back. Claims for 2025 taxes (Form K-40H, household income up to $43,389) were due April 15, 2026.
A separate break is written into the exemption statute itself. K.S.A. 79-201x exempts “Property used for residential purposes to the extent of $75,000 of its appraised valuation” from the statewide school levy, “For taxable year 2024, and all taxable years thereafter.” That levy is 20 mills for the 2025-2026 and 2026-2027 school years (K.S.A. 72-5142). The exemption runs only against that one levy.
Three refund claims filed with the Department of Revenue
| Form and statute | Who can claim | Limits printed on the 2025 forms | What you get back |
|---|---|---|---|
| K-40H, Homestead Refund (K.S.A. 79-4508) | Owner domiciled in Kansas for all of 2025 who is 55 or older, has a disability, is a disabled veteran, is the surviving spouse of a service member who died in the line of duty during active service or of a disabled veteran who was receiving this refund (until remarriage), or has a dependent child under 18 living at the home | Household income no more than $43,389; property tax counted up to $700; home appraised at $350,000 or less | A percentage of tax from the department’s refund table |
| K-40SVR, Senior or Disabled Veteran Refund (K.S.A. 79-4508a) | Kansas resident for all of 2025 who owned and occupied the same home in 2025 and in the base year and was 65 or older for the entire base year, or a disabled veteran for the entire base year and claim year; also the surviving spouse of someone receiving this refund at death, until remarriage | Household income no more than $58,041; home appraised at $350,000 or less in the base year | This year’s tax minus the base-year tax |
| K-40PT, SAFESR (K.S.A. 79-32,263) | Kansas resident for all of 2025, 65 or older for the entire year, who owned and occupied a home in Kansas during 2025 | Household income no more than $25,380; tax on property valued over $350,000 does not qualify | 75% of the general property tax paid on time |
The income ceilings are the Department of Revenue’s figures printed on the 2025 forms. The statutes index them: § 79-4508(d) inflates its $27,600 threshold by the federal cost-of-living adjustment, § 79-4508a starts from $50,000, and SAFESR uses 120% of the federal poverty level for two persons. The forms bar stacking. K-40H says: “If you filed a Form K-40PT or K-40SVR for 2025, you DO NOT qualify for this property tax refund,” and the other two carry the mirror-image warning.
K-40H rules that trip people up
The claimant must have been “during the entire calendar year preceding the year in which such claim was filed … both domiciled in this state” and must fit one of the categories in § 79-4502(e)(1). “Disabled veteran” there means a Kansas resident with an honorable or general-under-honorable-conditions discharge, a line-of-duty disability, and a service-connected rating “equal to or greater than 50%.” A surviving spouse of a disabled veteran who was receiving the refund at the veteran’s death stays eligible “until such time the surviving spouse remarries.”
- Deadline. Under § 79-4505, the claim must be “actually filed with and in the possession of the department of revenue on or before April 15 of the year next succeeding the year in which said taxes were levied.” Section 79-4517 lets the director of taxation extend the time or accept a late claim “when good cause exists therefor if the claim has been filed within four years of the deadline.”
- One claimant. “Only one (1) claimant per household per year shall be entitled to relief under this act” (§ 79-4507).
- Value cap. An owner whose homestead is appraised above $350,000 “shall not be entitled to claim a refund” for that year (§ 79-4522).
- Disqualifiers. No claim for someone receiving “public funds specifically designated for the payment of taxes” (§ 79-4515). A claim is disallowed if title was received “primarily for the purpose of receiving benefits under this act” (§ 79-4516).
- Penalties. An excessive claim filed with fraudulent intent is disallowed in full, any amount already paid is recovered with 1% monthly interest, and the claimant and anyone who helped prepare it with fraudulent intent are guilty of a class B misdemeanor. A negligently prepared excessive claim loses 10% of the corrected claim, with the same 1% monthly interest on any recovery. A claim that left out income is corrected and the excess disallowed (§ 79-4513).
A claim covers one year’s taxes, so each year needs its own filing. If property tax on the home is delinquent, § 79-4523 sends the refund to the county treasurer, applied “first to the oldest of such delinquent property taxes.”
For rates and appraisal, see property tax in Kansas; to estimate a bill, the property tax calculator.
Article 15, section 9: acres, not dollars, against creditors
Kansas’s constitutional homestead is a creditor rule, and it is old: adopted in 1859, last amended in 1944. K.S.A. 60-2301 restates it and adds manufactured and mobile homes. It protects “a homestead to the extent of 160 acres of farming land, or of one acre within the limits of an incorporated town or city, or a manufactured home or mobile home, occupied as a residence by the owner or by the family of the owner.” The protection covers “all the improvements on the same,” and neither text states a dollar limit.
That property “shall be exempted from forced sale under any process of law,” and cannot be “alienated without the joint consent of husband and wife, when that relation exists.” (Article 15, section 9 lets the legislature allow the guardian of a spouse adjudged insane to join in a mortgage, a refinancing or a mineral lease of the homestead.) The same sentence lists what still reaches it: “no property shall be exempt from sale for taxes, or for the payment of obligations contracted for the purchase of such premises, or for the erection of improvements thereon.” And the section “shall not apply to any process of law obtained by virtue of a lien given by the consent of both husband and wife.” One addition: under K.S.A. 12-524a, homestead rights on land later annexed by a city continue “until such land is sold after annexation.”
Questions from Kansas homeowners
We bought in 2025. Can we file K-40H for that year?
Only if the other tests are met for the whole year: domicile in Kansas “the entire year of 2025,” and one of the age, disability, veteran or dependent-child categories. The form also says you must “OWN YOUR HOME.” For a part-year owner, § 79-4502(f) counts only taxes levied while your household both owned and occupied the home “at the time of the levy,” multiplied by the share of the 12 months it was your homestead that year.
Our house is in a revocable trust. Can we still claim?
For the refund act, yes: “‘Owned’ includes a vendee in possession under a land contract, a life tenant, a beneficiary under a trust and one or more joint tenants or tenants in common.”
Is the $75,000 school-levy exemption only for owner-occupants?
The statute’s test is “Property used for residential purposes.” It does not use the words homestead, owner or occupied.
Can a judgment creditor force a sale of our house in town?
Not of a homestead within the one-acre limit, unless the debt is for taxes, for buying the home, or for building improvements on it, or it is secured by a lien both spouses consented to.
More for Kansas buyers and owners: Kansas real estate overview, Kansas closing costs in 2026, homeowner insurance in Kansas, compare state taxes, homestead exemptions by state.