The Taxpayer Relief Act, Act 1 of Special Session 1 of 2006, was signed into law by Governor Rendell on June 27, 2006, to reduce property taxes by lowering your property tax bill. The Taxpayer Relief Act provides for property tax reduction allocations to be distributed by the Commonwealth to each school district. Under a homestead or farmstead property tax exclusion, the assessed value of each homestead or farmstead is reduced by the same amount before the property tax is computed. Every "qualified" homestead within a district receives the same amount of property tax relief, regardless of the assessed value of the home.

In order to receive a homestead exclusion, you must have an approved application on file with Chester County. The deadline to file is March 1. If you miss the deadline in a given year, you may file the following year (but will not qualify for the year you missed). However, once you have an approved application on file, it is not necessary to re-file an application in subsequent years. Please see the application for more information. Applications may be downloaded on the right side of this page under "Additional Information".

For more information on filing the Homestead Exclusion Application, please contact the Chester County Assessment Office at (610) 344-4570.