St. Charles County, MO
08/01/2024 | Press release | Distributed by Public on 08/01/2024 08:54
Senior Tax Relief Update: More Staff Added to Help Seniors Fix Applications
More staff has been added to help crowds of seniors arriving daily in the front lobby of the County Administration building to make corrections to their tax freeze applications.
Seniors started receiving acceptance or rejection notices July 8. Of some 30,000 applicants, most have been accepted, but more than 7,000 were rejected.
Seniors who receive a rejection notice have 15 days from receipt of that notice to correct their application. Here's what you need to know:
- If you receive a rejection notice, you must submit a corrected application form with any missing documents identified in your rejection notice, and additional copies of all your documents proving your identification and ownership of the residence. Copies of every required document must be included for your corrected application to be accepted.
- If you haven't received any notification, check your spam/junk folders in your email. Notifications will come from [email protected].
Collector of Revenue Michelle McBride says the most common cause for rejection is insufficient documents related to property held by a trust.
"When your property is titled to a trust, you need the ownership deed that transferred the property to the trust, and you need copies of the trust document's first page, signature page, and the pages of the trust document that say the applicant is living there and is liable for paying the taxes there," McBride explains.
She says another common issue is applications that were submitted with a "deed of trust" associated with their mortgage, rather than the actual ownership deed for their house.
"We learned a lot this first year, and we're looking at ways to streamline and improve the process for next year," McBride says.
Emails notifying applicants of their acceptance or rejection are expected to continue until the end of August. If you haven't received any notification by Aug. 30, call the Collector's Office at 636-949-7470.