11-03-2025
Deadline approaching for property tax relief
SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO) – It's tax season and for homeowners, that means assessing your property taxes.
In 2023, homeowners in Minnehaha and Lincoln Counties paid a median amount of over three thousand dollars in property taxes according to the Tax Foundation. That bill can cause a lot of stress, which is why the City of Sioux Falls is working to bring some relief to certain people with fixed incomes.
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'This was started probably about four years ago, I think we're in our fourth year where we will reimburse or refund to taxpayers who are low-income elderly or disabled and homeowners up to $500 or the full amount of their municipal property taxes that were paid that year,' Shawn Pritchett, Director of Finance for the City of Sioux Falls, said.
To qualify for the program you have to be at least 65 years old or be considered a person with a disability. Your home's market value must be $345,340 or less and you must meet certain income requirements — for a single person household that's less than $40,290 annually and for a multiple person household it's less than $51,801 per year.
Pritchett says the city's program is attached to the state's Assessment Freeze for the Elderly and Disabled Program.
'You go to your county treasurer's office, you can apply and if you then are eligible for that assessment, what the City of Sioux Falls does is it says, you know, Minnehaha County, Lincoln County, send us all the people that applied for this program that are in Sioux Falls,' Pritchett said. 'They send us their names and then we just automatically know how much they pay for their municipal taxes because the counties have told us and then we send them a check back.'
787 people are receiving a property tax refund check this year in Sioux Falls totaling over $280 thousand dollars. The deadline to apply and possibly get one of those checks next year is April 1st.
'So you definitely want to get down to the county treasurer's office if you think this is something you might qualify for, both the tax assessment freeze and ultimately the refund from the City of Sioux Falls,' Pritchett said.
As part of the budgeting process, the Sioux Falls City Council has to approve this program every year. Pritchett says they will vote whether or not to keep the program for 2026 in August. However, he says you should still apply by April 1st because you could still get the state's property tax freeze.
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