The Town Council of the Town of Portsmouth hereby exempts from
taxation the real property situated in said Town and owned and occupied
by any one or more persons 65 years of age or over, which exemption
shall be in an amount not exceeding $3,000 of valuation and which
exemption shall be prorated among the owners of such real property
in addition to any and all other exemptions from taxation to which
said person may otherwise be entitled. Said exemption shall be applied
uniformly and without regard to ability to pay, and shall be granted
upon proof of the following:
No income-bearing residential property, business property or
combination of business and residential property, owned and occupied
by any person or persons 65 years of age or over, shall be entitled
to the exemption herein provided. It is the express purpose of this
article to confine said exemption to residential property exclusively
used as such by the owners thereof. Professional persons who operate
and conduct their respective professions from their residences shall
not be entitled to the exemption provided for herein. The practice
of said profession from any residence shall be deemed, for the purpose
of this article, to constitute income-bearing property.
No person shall be entitled to any exemption herein authorized
by this subdivision in any year without first filing an application
with the tax assessors on forms furnished by the assessors. Each application
shall be sworn to by the applicant or applicants under penalty of
perjury. Proof of age, ownership, occupancy and legal domicile shall
be furnished in the following manner:
A.
Age may
be proved by furnishing to the assessors either a birth certificate,
certificate of citizenship, baptismal certificate, affidavit of a
third party or by such other means as may be approved by the assessors.
B.
Ownership
may be established by furnishing the tax assessors with the date of
purchase and land record citation of same by the applicant of the
residential property involved.
C.
"Resident"
means one legally domiciled within the Town for a period of one year,
ending with the date of assessment for the year for which the exemption
is claimed. Mere seasonal or temporary residence within the Town of
whatever duration shall not constitute domicile within the Town for
the purpose of this article. Absence from this Town for a period of
12 months shall be prima facie evidence of abandonment of domicile
in the Town. The burden of establishing legal domicile within the
Town shall be upon the applicant.
D.
In addition
to the requirement of domicile within the Town at the time of making
application, the applicant must have been a resident of the Town for
a period of one year, ending with the date of assessment for the year
for which the exemption is claimed; and further, the applicant for
this exemption must have owned and had title to his or her dwelling
house for the same one-year period, and must be a qualified elector
of the Town.
E.
An applicant
may provide proof of right to exemption if the above specified methods
are not available to him or her by furnishing military records, passports,
certificate of citizenship, or by such other evidence or proof as
may be required by the assessors.
F.
In the
event that the applicants are cotenants, joint tenants or tenants
by the entirety, the proof enumerated above by any one of the applicants
shall be sufficient to be entitled to the exemption.
G.
The tax
assessors shall provide suitable forms for use in filing claims for
exemption.
All exemptions shall terminate upon conveyance of the subject
property, death of the person or persons exempted or the moving of
such person or persons from the Town.
This article shall take effect upon passage, and the exemption
shall be applicable to the tax year following assessment date of December
31, 1969, and for each tax year thereafter.
