Clear Money Guide
What this state guide covers
A quick view of the questions, practical details and source notes below.
Updated August 12, 2026. Quick answer: Utah runs a circuit-breaker credit. If your household’s 2025 income was under $44,221 and you owned your home on January 1, 2026, the homeowner’s credit is worth between $262 and $1,412 depending on where in seven income bands you land. You file it with your county, not the state, and the deadline is September 1.
What Utah offers
- Homeowner’s tax credit (the circuit breaker), the 2025 table: the Tax Commission’s own refund schedule on form TC-90H, for 2025 household income: $0–$15,033 → $1,412; $15,034–$20,048 → $1,245; $20,049–$25,057 → $1,082; $25,058–$30,069 → $835; $30,070–$35,083 → $674; $35,084–$39,796 → $429; $39,797–$44,221 → $262. Above $44,221 there is nothing. (Form revised 4/26.)
- Who qualifies for it: you must have owned the home on January 1, 2026, be 67 or older on December 31, 2026 (or have qualified last year, or be a widow or widower at any age), provide your own support so that nobody else claims you as a dependent, and live in Utah for the whole of 2026. Only your primary residence counts, and the form asks whether the lot exceeds one acre and what share of the home is rented out or used for business.
- Low-income abatement, a second, separate application at a younger age, form TC-90L, filed with the same county by the same September 1 deadline, is open at 65 on December 31, 2026, or under 65 if you are disabled, or if paying the tax would be an extreme hardship. Same $44,221 income ceiling, plus a requirement to live in the home at least 10 months of the year. The Tax Commission’s form tells homeowner-credit claimants they may also qualify for it. The form does not state the amount, and we do not publish a figure we have not read: ask your county.
- If you rent: the renter refund is the same programme through a different door: form TC-90CB, filed with the Tax Commission (not the county) by December 31, age 66 or older on or before December 31 of the rent year, same $44,221 income ceiling.
The catch most senior-exemption roundups skip
Three Utah forms name three different ages, and two of them are the same people. The homeowner credit asks whether you will be 67 or older on December 31, 2026. The renter refund asks whether you were 66 or older on or before December 31 of the rent year, 2025. Those two questions have one answer: born on or before December 31, 1959. They differ because the claims are for different years, not because owners must be older. The abatement on TC-90L is the one that is genuinely younger, 65.
“Household income” is not your income. Both forms define it as income received during 2025 by everyone living in the household as of January 1, 2026, not just the applicant, with children under 18 and your (or your spouse’s) parents and grandparents excluded. An adult child or a sibling who moves in with a paycheque can end the credit; a parent who moves in cannot.
It counts income your tax return does not. The lines include pensions, annuities and IRAs whether taxable or not, nontaxable interest and dividends, all Social Security and railroad retirement except Social Security Disability, veterans’ disability pensions, and depreciation claimed on the residence. People who look under the ceiling on their 1040 are often over it here.
The staircase has expensive steps. The bands are not a smooth taper. Crossing from $25,057 to $25,058 of household income costs $247 of maximum credit; crossing $35,084 costs $245. On a dollar of income. If you are close to a boundary, the timing of an IRA withdrawal is worth more than the withdrawal.
How to apply
File form TC-90H with the county where the home is located by September 1, 2026, not with the Tax Commission. Send the documentation the form asks for; if you enter amounts on the pension, capital gain, business or depreciation lines you must attach your federal return and all schedules. Renters file TC-90CB with the Tax Commission by December 31, and can do it online through Taxpayer Access Point. The low-income abatement is form TC-90L, county, same September 1 date.
An honest gap: the statutory text behind these forms sits in the Utah Code on a page that would not serve its content to us this session, so everything above is taken from the Tax Commission’s current forms: TC-90H and TC-90L revised 4/26 and 8/26, TC-90CB revised 4/26, which are the documents you actually file. The forms themselves cite Utah Code § 59-2a-101(20) for what counts as nontaxable income. We have not published the abatement amount, because no document we read this session stated it.
Two things to check before you count on it
- Thresholds move. Age and income limits are reset by legislatures and are frequently indexed. Every figure above carries the year we confirmed it; confirm the current one before you budget around it.
- Your county or town may add its own. Statewide programmes are the floor. Counties and municipalities frequently run additional exemptions, and those are where a lot of real money sits.
Sources: Utah TC-90H, Homeowner’s Tax Credit Application (Rev. 4/26) · Utah TC-90L, Low-income Abatement Application (Rev. 8/26) · Utah TC-90CB, Renter Refund Application (Rev. 4/26). All read 2026-08-12.
Compare all states: property-tax relief for seniors by state. What the programme types mean: freeze vs exemption vs circuit-breaker. The rest of the picture in this state: Utah Retirement Taxes.
Program classifications and thresholds are read from each state’s own revenue department, legislature or statute, at the source linked on the state page. Dollar and income thresholds change most years and are labelled with the year we confirmed them, so check the current figure with the state or your county before relying on it. General information, not tax advice.