This year, the deadline to file your property tax exemptions in St. Joseph County is June 10th.  It is well worth the time to file if you have bought real estate in the county recently – they can save you thousands of dollars when the tax bills are due. 

To file, take your closing papers, including your mortgage if you have one, to the County City Building at the address below. Go to the recorder’s office to get your property tax ID number, owner of your loan, loan balance, and recording number. Take this information to the auditor’s office to file your exemptions. You will receive paper receipts. Save these with your closing documents – if the auditor’s office can’t locate a record of your exemptions, you will need these original receipts to prove you filed the exemptions.

The location to file in St Joseph County is:
227 West Jefferson, 2nd Floor. 574-235-9529

3 Responses

  1. So if I am buying a house in July, newly built, does that mean I am too late to apply an exemption since I will have a mortgage and will live there as my primary residence?

  2. You must close by March 1 in order to file for the current year and have exemptions in place for current year.

    Close after March 1 and exemptions, once filed (you have until May 10 of the following year to file), will be in effect for the following year.

    With a new home, when it was completed, and how much of an assessment was made for the current year will determine what the taxes are for the current year – and they will be without exemptions.

    So a buyer should make sure they know the scoop on what the taxes will be for a new home or they may be in for an unpleasant surprise. If it is “spec” home or builder’s model, buyers should negotiate in the contract for the builder to be responsible for taxes up to day of closing.

  3. I bought a house and closed April of 05’…didn’t get the exemptions filed until middle of June. This was a forclosure property. Anyways…I am paying out the rear end in property taxes, I guess since it was a bank owned property. I am paying roughly $2,000.00 twice a year to St. Joseph county for property taxes. When are those exemptions going to kick in??? Anybody have a clue cause the mortgage/escrow is killing us. Thanks

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