A slight change in the way homestead exemptions are being processed is underway, but it will not affect the vast majority of property owners.

  County officials announced last week that the Henry County Tax Assessors Office will accept all homestead exemption applications. In the past all of them were processed by the Tax Commissioner’s Office.

  Property owners will still be able to drop off their applications at the Tax Commissioner’s Office in Stockbridge for convenience (in McDonough the Tax Assessors Office and Tax Commissioner’s Office are across the hall from each other). Also, the Tax Commissioner’s Office will likely help out with the flood of applications in the spring just before the annual April 1 deadline, according to tax commissioner Michael Harris.

  The reason for the change is mainly one of added efficiency, Harris said. All appeals regarding homestead exemption applications are heard by the Tax Assessors Office anyway, so it makes sense for that office to handle the entire process and for applications not to have to pass through so many hands unless absolutely necessary.

  By law applications must be received or U.S. postmarked by April 1 in the tax year a property owner is requesting the exemption.

  In addition to the basic homestead exemption for a reduction in property taxes, there are other exemptions that homeowners may apply for, including for those age 62 and older, those with a disabled veteran status, and for the surviving spouse of an individual killed while in military service or a surviving spouse of a peace officer or firefighter killed in the line of duty.

  Applications can be received weekdays between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. at the Henry County Tax Assessors Office, 140 Henry Parkway in McDonough, or the Henry County Tax Commissioner’s Office, 164 Burke Street in Stockbridge.

  Over the past five years the applications for homestead exemptions in all categories have averaged 45,600 per year, according to Harris. About 85-90 percent of those applications come in March just before the deadline, with an average of about 10 per week the rest of the year.

  “We send out information and pamphlets to new homeowners throughout the year to remind them of the exemption and encourage them to come in and take care of it,” said Harris. “But people invariably see that April 1 deadline and they wait until March 31. It’s just the nature of people.”

  For more information, or for a full list of exemptions and requirements, please visit www.qpublic.net/ga/henry/forms.html.