Property Tax - Credit for Law Enforcement Officer or Rescue Worker - Expansion to Judicial Officer

Property tax relief expands to judicial officers

Effective June 1, 2025, Maryland expands its local property tax credit program to include judicial officers and eligible survivors. Counties, municipalities, and Baltimore City choose whether to offer the credit and set its amount, duration, and additional limits. Counties and municipalities must define eligible judicial and public safety officers by law. Public safety roles include corrections, law enforcement, fire, rescue, and emergency medical services. The credit covers officers adjudged permanently and totally disabled, plus unremarried spouses and qualifying cohabitants of fallen officers. Disability or death must be employment-related, or occur during active service for judicial, fire, rescue, or emergency medical workers. Cases caused by the officer’s willful misconduct or alcohol or drug abuse are excluded. Cohabitants must have shared the home and a mutually dependent relationship for at least 180 days during the year before death. The eligible resident must have been domiciled in Maryland at the triggering event or within the preceding five years. The home must be the resident’s legal residence, house no more than two families, and meet ownership conditions tied to disability or death. The law also requires acquisition within ten years of that event; local rules govern carrying an earlier home’s credit to another qualifying home. The expansion applies retroactively to tax years beginning after June 30, 2022; savings depend on local implementation.