 Hello, I'm Sarah Fairchild. If you are a Honolulu County homeowner who lives in your home the majority of the year, it's time to file for the homeowner's exemption on the City and County website, realpropertyhonolulu.com, before the September 30th deadline. This is particularly important if you are a first-time owner or an owner who has recently moved back into your home. It doesn't hurt to fill it out again if you're not sure if you have it. This is how the home exemption works. The basic home exemption of $80,000 is deducted from the government's assessed value of the property and the homeowner is taxed on the lower value remaining. The property must be classified as residential to get the home exemption. When the homeowner does not live on the property, because it is a rental property or a second home, the wording changes subtly to residential A. There is then no $80,000 exemption and the property is taxed at a higher rate. The application process for the exemption on realpropertyhonolulu.com amounts to little more than checking some boxes. However, if those boxes are not checked by the time the clock strikes midnight on September 30th, your property bill grows substantially. The City does notify you by a line item on your tax appraisal statement of your exemption status and is supposed to send you a letter if your status changes. However, for the average person not trained in real estate or tax code, it is easy to miss this change, which can cost you thousands of dollars. Many people who pay property taxes through their mortgage companies do not even discover an error until several months later when the lender sends them a bill for the escrow shortage. If you do not file the exemption by the September 30th deadline, it is almost impossible to get the exemption retroactively, even if you can prove with evidence that you were living on your property. This is a major flaw of the city and county ordinance that needs to be changed. If you make a mistake in filing taxes, you should have to pay a fine perhaps, but not be subject to paying thousands of dollars extra in taxes as though the error is the reality. More to come about that subject in a future episode of Think Tech Hawaii.