Thousands of California homeowners can cut their property tax bill. Here’s how

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California homeowners can reduce their assessments by $7,000 by claiming a homeowners exemption, but almost a third in Los Angeles County do not. (Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times)

With property tax bills as high as they are in Southern California, you’d think that homeowners would sign up for every break they could get.

You would be wrong.

Since 1974, the state of California has offered to reduce the assessed value of any owner-occupied home by $7,000. That, in turn, reduces the home’s annual tax bill. You just have to apply once, and the ” homeowners exemption ” will be applied automatically to your assessment until you move out or sell.

According to Los Angeles County Assessor Jeff Prang, however, nearly one-third of county homeowners do not sign up for the exemption. That translates to $30 million in extra tax payments by roughly 435,000 households.

Granted, that’s not a huge amount of money per household; with property tax rates generally set at 1% of assessed value, the $7,000 exemption saves $70 per year. But after a few years, that would be enough for a bigger TV set in your living room.

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