HELENA — Gov. Greg Gianforte has touted the property tax bills he signed after last year’s Montana legislative session as a tax cut for the majority of homeowners. However, there’s still a chance some of those eligible homeowners won’t see the benefits, unless they make sure they’ve gotten registered with the state.
“We just want to encourage folks to sign up at homestead.mt.gov by March 1,” Gianforte told MTN. “Again, if you sign up, you're going to see lower property taxes.”
(Watch the video for more on who's signed up for the homestead tax rate so far.)
House Bill 231 and Senate Bill 542 set up a whole new property tax rate structure – including, starting in 2026, a “homestead” system that will lower tax rates on Montana residents’ primary homes and on long-term rentals, but which requires property owners to apply for the rate. Properties that don’t qualify and those whose owners don’t sign up will see higher rates.
In order to qualify for a homestead rate on a home, you must own the property and live there at least seven months of the year. For a long-term rental rate, the property must be rented for at least 28 days at a time and for seven months per year.
Any homeowner who applied for and received a $400 property tax rebate on their primary residence last year should be automatically enrolled for the homestead rate, as long as they haven’t sold their property or changed their primary address. Those who’ve moved or didn’t get a rebate were able to apply starting Dec. 1. In addition, anyone owning a long-term rental needed to apply, as there was no automatic qualification for those properties.
Scott Mendenhall, deputy director of the Montana Department of Revenue, told MTN this week that about 230,000 primary residences were already enrolled for homestead rates through the rebates. He said another 10,300 people have registered their primary residences since December, and 13,500 signed up for the long-term rental rate.
“We've exceeded our estimate in terms of people registering for the primary homestead exemption, and we're well along in terms of the long-term rental application, but down compared to the primary homestead,” said Mendenhall.
You can find out if your property is registered by going to the DOR website. You will need to enter your property’s “geocode,” a 17-digit code that uniquely identifies each piece of property in the state. You can find the code using the Montana Cadastral website or through several other methods.
Mendenhall said DOR plans to send another round of postcards to people who haven’t registered yet, and they’ll be working with landlords, realtors, title companies and organizations like AARP to get the word out.
“We have lots of FAQs on our website, we have the call center and our 30 offices around the state, where people are well prepared to answer people's questions,” he said.
Despite Gianforte’s support, not everyone in the Republican Party has backed the property tax legislation. Opponents of the bills spoke at last week’s GOP Winter Kickoff event, while three Republican lawmakers filed a lawsuit seeking to strike SB 542 down.
MTN asked Gianforte about those reactions.
“We typically don't comment on lawsuits, but I will say, if this lawsuit prevails, property taxes are going to go up for 80% of Montana homeowners, and that's not a good outcome,” he said.
The application period for the homestead rate closes at the end of the day on March 1. If you don’t get signed up by then, that means it won’t help you on your taxes this year. You will have another chance to apply later, but the earliest you would be able to get the lower rate would be 2027.
