How does Proposition 19 affect the tax assessment transfers:
In California, eligible homeowners who are 55 years and older, severely disabled, or victims of wildfires and natural disasters may transfer their tax assessments to a different home of the same or lesser market value, within the same county, which allows them to move without paying higher taxes. Proposition 19 allows eligible homeowners to transfer their tax assessments anywhere within the state and allows tax assessments to be transferred to a more expensive home, but now with an upward adjustment.
This went into effect on April 1, 2021.
How Proposition 19 affects inherited property tax:
In California, parents or grandparents may transfer their primary residence to their children or grandchildren without the property’s tax assessment resetting to market value. However, Proposition 19 only provides an exemption from tax reassessment when the transferred property was the primary residence of the qualifying parent(s) or grandparent(s) and the child or grandchild continues to occupy the home as their primary residence. A homeowners exemption must by applied for within one year of the qualifying transfer. Proposition 19 eliminates the parent-to-child and grandparent-to-grandchild exemption in cases where the child or grandchild does not use the inherited property as their primary residence and thus, the inherited property not used as a primary residence is no longer able to be transferred without a tax reassessment to market value.
This provision went into effect on February 16, 2021.