Most Cuyahoga County homeowners already know they get some kind of credit on their property tax bill for living in their home. What they don’t know is that Ohio lawmakers quietly tripled that credit’s size — and it keeps growing, automatically, every year through 2029. If you own and occupy your home as your primary residence, you’re already benefiting. But you’re getting less than half of what you’ll eventually receive.
This change came from House Bill 186, signed into law by Governor Mike DeWine on December 19, 2025. It’s the most significant restructuring of Ohio’s residential property tax credits in decades — and for Cuyahoga County homeowners still absorbing the 2024 reappraisal’s 32.22% average value increase, the timing matters.
What Ohio law did before HB 186
For years, Ohio’s residential property tax credit system had two components working together. The first was the non-business credit — sometimes called the 10% rollback — which knocked 10% off your tax liability on qualifying levies. The second was the owner-occupancy credit, set at 2.5% for homeowners living in their primary residence. Together, they amounted to a 12.5% combined reduction on pre-2013 levies for owner-occupants.
One problem: both credits applied to any residential property, regardless of who lived there. A corporate landlord collecting rent from a Cleveland Heights duplex got the same 10% non-business credit as the homeowner next door who’d lived in their house for 30 years. HB 186 changes that by phasing out the 10% non-business credit for non-agricultural residential property while simultaneously expanding the owner-occupancy credit — redirecting tax relief toward homeowners’ primary residences rather than rental properties or secondary homes.
The four-year schedule you should print out
The act increases the 2.5% owner-occupancy rollback over four years: 5.70% in tax year 2026, 8.92% in 2027, 12.15% in 2028, and 15.38% in 2029.
Simultaneously, the non-business credit is being reduced to 7.5% in tax year 2026, 5.0% in 2027, 2.5% in 2028, and 0% in 2029 and thereafter.
The combined effect for a primary homeowner:
| Tax Year | Owner-Occupancy Credit | Non-Business Credit | Total Credit |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 (prior law) | 2.5% | 10% | 12.5% |
| 2026 | 5.70% | 7.5% | 13.2% |
| 2027 | 8.92% | 5.0% | 13.92% |
| 2028 | 12.15% | 2.5% | 14.65% |
| 2029 | 15.38% | 0% | 15.38% |
In combination, the effect of these provisions is to increase the total credit for owner-occupied property, from 12.5% to 15.38%, and to eliminate the rollback for residential property that is leased to renters or otherwise not used as the owner’s primary residence.
That’s nearly three additional percentage points of relief by 2029, paid for largely by stripping the same credits from landlords and investors who never lived in the properties they own.
What this means in dollars for a Cuyahoga homeowner
The credits apply to qualifying levies — those passed by voters before November 2013. Not every line on your tax bill is eligible. But most of the older levies on Cuyahoga County bills, including many school district and county operating levies, do qualify.
Here’s a concrete example. Take a homeowner in Parma whose annual tax bill shows $3,200 in charges on qualifying levies. Under prior law, their combined 12.5% credit knocked $400 off that amount. Under tax year 2026’s new structure, the combined 13.2% credit reduces that same $3,200 by $422 — a difference of $22 this year. Modest, but it’s year one.
By 2029, when the owner-occupancy credit reaches 15.38% and the non-business credit hits zero, that same homeowner’s total credit grows to $492 on those qualifying levies — $92 more than under the old system.
At Cuyahoga County’s median annual tax burden — which runs between $3,819 and $4,087 per year — the savings are larger still once you scale the math to the full bill. For homeowners in high-rate communities like Shaker Heights or Cleveland Heights, where qualifying levy stacks run deeper, the accumulated benefit over four years will be more significant.
Ohio House Republicans projected the owner-occupancy credit expansion would provide more than $800 million in relief to Ohio homeowners over the next four years.
Who gets nothing — and why you need to check your status
This is the part most homeowners will miss.
The expanded credit only flows to primary-residence owner-occupants. If the Cuyahoga County Fiscal Office doesn’t have your property flagged as owner-occupied, you are not receiving the credit at any percentage. That includes homeowners who bought recently and never filed a DTE 105C application, people who went through a property transfer and had their status reset, and anyone whose name on the deed doesn’t match the address on their voter registration or income tax filings.
You can verify your current owner-occupancy status through the Fiscal Office’s property search at myplace.cuyahogacounty.gov. If the status is incorrect, the application is straightforward: download the DTE 105C form from the Cuyahoga County Fiscal Officer’s website, fill it out, and submit it before December 31 of the tax year for which you’re applying. Under most circumstances, Ohio Revised Code only allows a recoupment of the credit for one prior year, so don’t assume errors will be corrected retroactively across multiple billing cycles.
The landlord provision is the mechanism most people don’t understand
Under existing law, the non-business credit and owner-occupancy credit applied to all non-business properties, reducing each property owner’s tax liability as to qualifying levies by 10% and, if owner-occupied, an additional 2.5%, respectively.
That meant a Cuyahoga County investor who owned a rental home in Garfield Heights was receiving the same 10% reduction as you. HB 186 ends that. Starting with tax year 2026, the nonbusiness credit is being eliminated for residential properties, including multi-family condos. Agricultural land is the only carve-out.
The money doesn’t evaporate. Ohio’s state government reimburses local taxing authorities for the cost of these rollbacks from the General Revenue Fund. The state will continue to reimburse local governments and schools for the cost of the rollbacks — so school districts and municipalities aren’t losing revenue as landlord credits disappear. The relief shifts to owner-occupants, not away from local institutions.
The one catch: pre-2013 levies only
Ohio Revised Code Sections 319.302 and 323.152 govern these rollbacks, and they include a significant limitation that’s been in place since 2013: new and replacement levies approved by voters in or after November 2013 are not eligible for either credit. This is not new with HB 186 — but it matters as you try to figure out your actual benefit.
If your school district passed a new levy in 2018 or your library district renewed its levy in 2021, those millage lines on your tax bill are not reduced by the owner-occupancy credit at any percentage. Only the older, pre-2013 levies get the rollback treatment. This is why two homeowners in the same Cuyahoga suburb with similarly valued homes can have meaningfully different credit amounts — their district’s levy history determines how much of the bill is even eligible.
What to do before year-end
Three things worth doing before December 31, 2026:
First, pull up your parcel at myplace.cuyahogacounty.gov and confirm that owner-occupancy status is marked on your property. If it isn’t, file the DTE 105C before year-end.
Second, look at your most recent tax bill and identify the lines labeled “Non-Business Credit” and “Owner Occupancy Credit.” The combined figure you see today represents the 2026 amounts. The credit in that second column will roughly triple by 2029 — as long as your status remains correctly filed.
Third, if you recently purchased your home and never received a credit application prompt from the county, don’t assume it was handled automatically at closing. Contact the Cuyahoga County Fiscal Officer’s Office to confirm. The phone number for the Fiscal Office is 216-443-7050.
The credit expansion is happening automatically, on a fixed legislative schedule. You don’t file anything each year to receive the increases. The only thing that breaks your eligibility is a change in your owner-occupancy status — a missed filing, a property transfer, or an address mismatch. Make sure the county’s records are right, and then let the schedule work in your favor through 2029.