Property Tax Relief Programs You Can Use Now
Three existing Kansas programs that may reduce your property tax burden
Kansas currently offers three state property tax refund programs for qualifying homeowners, putting real money back in the pockets of those who qualify — and many eligible Kansans never file for them. All three require filing a claim with the Kansas Department of Revenue; none of them happen automatically.
| Program | Who may qualify | Benefit | Filing deadline |
|---|---|---|---|
| Homestead Refund (K-40H) | Income ≤ $43,389; age 55+, disabled, a parent of a minor child, a disabled veteran, or a surviving military spouse | Up to $700 | April 15 |
| SAFESR "Safe Senior" (K-40PT) | Age 65+; income ≤ $25,380 | 75% of property tax paid, no stated cap | April 15 |
| SVR (K-40SVR) | Income ≤ $58,041; age 65+, a disabled veteran, or a surviving spouse | The increase in your bill since a base year | April 15 |
All three also require Kansas residency all year and a home valued at $350,000 or less (2025 figures). See below for full detail on each.
You can only use one of these three programs per year — whichever gives you the largest refund. The Department of Revenue's own filing software will calculate all three for you and apply the best one automatically if you qualify for more than one. Verify current eligibility with KDOR before filing — figures change annually.
Homestead Refund (Form K-40H)
Who qualifies, based on the 2025 tax year figures:
- Kansas resident for the entire year
- Household income of $43,389 or less
- Owned and occupied a Kansas home during the year, valued at $350,000 or less
- Plus at least one of: age 55 or older, blind or permanently disabled, had a dependent child under 18 living with you all year, a disabled veteran, or the surviving spouse of a service member who died in the line of duty
The refund is a percentage of the property tax you paid, based on your income — up to a maximum of $700.
SAFESR — "Safe Senior" (Form K-40PT)
Who qualifies:
- Age 65 or older for the entire year
- Kansas resident for the entire year
- Household income of $25,380 or less
- Owned and occupied a Kansas home during the year, valued at $350,000 or less
The refund is 75% of the property tax actually paid on your home — the largest percentage of the three programs, with no stated maximum dollar cap.
SVR — Seniors and Disabled Veterans (Form K-40SVR)
Who qualifies:
- Kansas resident for the entire year
- Household income of $58,041 or less
- Owned and occupied a Kansas home valued at $350,000 or less in the base year
- Age 65 or older, a disabled veteran, or the surviving spouse of an eligible claimant
Unlike the other two, this one refunds the increase in your property tax bill since a set base year — the difference between what you paid then and what you pay now — rather than a flat percentage of the current bill.
Filing Deadline
All three claims for a given tax year are due by April 15 of the following year, matching the regular income tax filing deadline. Claims can be filed even if you don't otherwise need to file a Kansas income tax return.
The Homestead Cap: Same Dollars, Less Value
The Homestead Refund's $700 maximum hasn't changed since 2007. But $700 doesn't buy what it used to. A $700 cap set in 2007 would need to be about $1,087 in 2025 dollars just to hold its original purchasing power — meaning today's cap has lost roughly 35.6% of its real value to inflation.
Calculation: $700 × (2025 CPI-U 321.9 ÷ 2007 CPI-U 207.342) = $1,086.76, rounded to $1,087. Source: Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, annual CPI table and U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics CPI data.
A 2025–2026 proposal, SB 402, would have raised the cap to $1,000 — still about $87 (8.0%) short of a fully inflation-neutral $1,087 cap. It did not become law. Income limits have eroded too: the Homestead limit lost about 6.0% of its 2015 purchasing power by 2025, and SAFESR's limit lost about 2.2%.
Who Actually Uses These Programs
The Kansas Department of Revenue's tax-expenditure reports show claims and outlays for the two most recent years available:
| Tax year | Program | Claims | Refund outlays | Average refund |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | Homestead (K-40H) | 52,264 | $12,826,987 | $245.43 |
| 2022 | SAFESR | 6,339 | $8,539,033 | $1,347.06 |
| 2022 | SVR | 11,641 | $2,620,471 | $225.11 |
| 2023 | Homestead (K-40H) | 46,398 | $10,070,318 | $217.04 |
| 2023 | SAFESR | 7,012 | $9,674,582 | $1,379.72 |
| 2023 | SVR | 18,561 | $7,699,400 | $414.82 |
From 2022 to 2023, combined claims rose 2.5% while outlays rose 14.4%. Homestead claims fell 11.2% while SVR claims rose 59.4%. These figures count claims actually paid, not eligible households who never applied. Older reports use different category definitions, so longer-run trends aren't directly comparable. Sources: 2024 Tax Expenditure Report, 2023 Tax Expenditure Report.
If You Fall Behind: Redemption and Foreclosure Rules
These three refund programs only help if you can pay your taxes in the first place. If you can't, Kansas law gives homeowners more time than most other property owners — but it doesn't stop foreclosure altogether.
- Redemption period: generally two years for most real property, but three years for a homestead, under K.S.A. 79-2401a.
- Partial redemption: you can redeem one tax year at a time, starting with the oldest (Johnson County uses the most recent year first, under a statutory exception).
- Partial payments: counties may accept them, but full redemption is required before a judicial sale actually stops the foreclosure (Kansas Attorney General Opinion 1996-050).
- Refund advancement: an expected state refund can be routed directly to the county treasurer for first-half taxes.
- Disaster relief: counties may grant a discretionary abatement after qualifying property destruction, at the governing body's discretion.
- Military deferral: active-duty service members deployed outside the U.S. for 6+ months may defer principal-residence tax for up to two years, penalty- and interest-free.
There is no statewide hardship payment plan and no blanket rule stopping tax foreclosure for elderly or low-income owners — what happens after delinquency varies significantly by county (see below).
It Depends Heavily on Your County
| County | What they publish |
|---|---|
| Wyandotte | A qualifying current owner may pay half of delinquent taxes and enter a court-approved 3-year plan for the rest. |
| Shawnee | Once in the current tax sale, no partial payments — full taxes plus court costs required. |
| Sedgwick | Once foreclosure is filed, full delinquent taxes, interest, and fees are required to redeem. |
| Riley | Lists partial payment of delinquent taxes among its treasurer services. |
County webpages are operational guidance, not a substitute for the statute, a court order, or your specific payoff statement — confirm directly with your county, and get qualified legal advice once litigation has begun. Sources: Wyandotte County, Shawnee County, Sedgwick County, Riley County treasurer directory.
2025–2026 Proposals That Didn't Become Law
These bills illustrate where advocates see remaining gaps — none of them are current law:
| Bill | Would have done | Gap it points to |
|---|---|---|
| SB 402 | Raised the Homestead cap to $1,000; capped SVR at $1,000; raised the value threshold to $375,000; shielded a narrow group of owners 70+ from tax sale | Real-value erosion; no statewide elderly-owner foreclosure shield |
| SB 455 | Restored a renter pathway to homestead relief | Current programs are homeowner-only |
| SB 190 | Removed the requirement to pay certain special assessments outside the redemption year | Cost barriers within partial redemption |
| SB 215 | Excluded Social Security from SVR income; raised its value/income limits | Narrow income definitions and thresholds |
| SB 201 | Expanded relief for disabled veterans and specified survivors | Limited exemption-based relief for service-connected disability |
| SB 397 | Added valuation protection | Exposure to assessment growth outside current refund eligibility |
SB 215's fiscal note estimated 43,041 additional eligible households and state revenue reductions of $38.8M (FY2026), $47.9M (FY2027), and $57.3M (FY2028) — legislative estimates for the proposal, not current spending.
Kansas provides meaningful refund relief, especially SAFESR for owners who can keep taxes current — but the safety net has real seams. The ordinary Homestead cap hasn't kept pace with prices, every current statewide path requires homeownership (renters get nothing), and the strongest benefit for low-income seniors requires paying on time before being reimbursed. Once delinquency reaches foreclosure, whether you can use partial payments or a plan depends heavily on timing and which county you're in.
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Income limits, value caps, and refund amounts are for the 2025 tax year and change annually — verify current figures directly with the Kansas Department of Revenue before filing or advising anyone else. Dollar-equivalent figures use annual CPI-U and measure general purchasing power, not Kansas-specific property-tax growth. Reviewed September 22, 2026. See Sources for links.