Every Allegheny County homeowner who lives in the house they own can ask the county to leave the first $18,000 of assessed value off the tax bill, and the application is due March 1. The county’s Act 50 page says the homestead exclusion “results in $115.74 in annual savings of county taxes for most constituents.”

Act 50 is not a senior program, and the county page lists no age or income test, which is the main difference from the county’s separate Act 77 discount for older, lower-income residents. The next March 1 falls in 2027, and the county says an application submitted by that date puts the exclusion in effect for the current and future tax years.

The question for an Allegheny homeowner is whether a homestead application has ever been filed for the house. Owners who already have one on file do not need to refile, but anyone who bought a home recently, inherited one or moved within the county should find out now, while there are months before the date.

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Where the $115.74 comes from

The arithmetic is on the county’s page. The exclusion removes $18,000 of assessed value from county real property taxation, and the county’s tax rate is 6.43 mills. Multiply $18,000 by 0.00643 and the result is $115.74 a year.

That is a county-tax figure only. A home assessed at $18,000 or less would see its county bill reach zero, while a house assessed far higher still gets the same $115.74 off, so the benefit is a flat cut, not a percentage.

For example, a house assessed at $100,000 is taxed by the county as if it were assessed at $82,000. A rental house or second home owned by the same person does not get a second exclusion, because only primary residences qualify and an owner may hold only one homestead exclusion.

How to tell if a homestead is already on file

The county lets owners check without calling anyone. On the county’s Real Estate site, the “General Information” tab for a property shows “Yes” next to Homestead if an application is on file.

A new application is needed only after a name change on the deed or a new primary residence in Allegheny County. Otherwise, the county says, owners with an application on file do not reapply in later years.

Which properties the county lets in

Only primary residences qualify. The county’s list includes owner-occupied residential property and certain farmstead properties, a church rectory or manse used as a primary residence, mixed commercial and residential property where the owner lives on site, certain trust-held primary residences, and property owned by veterans with a 100 percent service-connected disability. An owner may hold only one homestead exclusion.

Qualifying for Act 50 also switches on the Act 1 exclusion for school taxes, so the county says no separate application is needed for that piece. The school exclusion is a state-law companion, and its dollar value depends on the district, which the county page does not put a figure on.

Filing the form and who answers questions

The application is a PDF on the county site that is completed and submitted by March 1. Questions go to 412-350-4636, option 2.

Older, lower-income households have a second route to consider next to this one. The County Treasurer runs Act 77 for residents 60 and older with income of $30,000 or less, and it is a separate application. The Act 50 exclusion is the broader program, and an eligible homeowner can look at both.

What is left to find out is one fact about one house: whether the county’s record shows Homestead as “Yes.” A homeowner who finds a blank has the form and a March 1 date.

Still no Homestead “Yes” on the Allegheny record?

A homeowner who never filed for Act 50 pays $115.74 a year more in county tax than a neighbor who did, and the county’s exclusion only takes effect from the filing forward.

The Senior Property Tax & Home-Cost Relief Kit covers the 5 kinds of property-tax relief and includes an application log and renewal calendar, so each house’s status, filing date and next step is written down in one place. Its tax-bill walkthrough shows where a line like the homestead exclusion appears on the bill.

Record the homestead status and March 1 filing date in the Relief Kit’s application log →

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This article was produced with AI assistance and edited for accuracy against the sources linked above.