Missouri Rewrote This Credit and the Biggest Change Is the One Nobody Reports

Program and regulatory figures verified October 10, 2026. Details change; confirm your scenario with us.

By Mike Certo, Cornerstone First Mortgage · NMLS #260555 · Updated October 10, 2026

Most coverage of this change reports the new income limit and stops. The statute changed four things, and the fourth is the one that decides whether you get anything.

Apply Now Talk to Mike first

Old against new

Source note: RSMo 135.025 and RSMo 135.030 as amended by H.B. 594 & 508, both sections effective 28 August 2025. The Missouri Revisor publishes amended text on a section's effective date, so this is enacted law and not a proposal, a distinction that matters a great deal elsewhere on this site. Why.

★★★ The fourth change, which does the heavy lifting

Above the $14,300 minimum base, the credit tapers. The taper is what actually decides how far up the income scale the credit survives, and the amendment rewrote it in a new subsection rather than editing the old one, which is partly why it gets missed.

★★★ Two effects, both in the claimant's favour. The taper now accumulates over wider income steps, so it climbs more slowly. And it stops at half the old ceiling.

★★ Put those together with the higher limits and the picture is not "the credit starts higher" but "the credit survives much further up the income range". A household that was tapered to nothing under the old schedule may now still be in it. If you were refused or came out at zero in an earlier year, that is a concrete reason to look again for 2026.

★ And a structural change: it will not go stale again

From 1 January 2027 the caps in 135.025 adjust annually by the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers for the Midwest Region, and the income limits in 135.030 by CPI-U.

★★ Context for why that matters: the old $27,500 / $30,000 limits were set in 2008 and sat unchanged for seventeen years while house values and tax bills did not. Indexing is the quiet half of this reform.

★ Practical consequence for anyone reading figures online from 2027 onward: every number here becomes dated, and a page without an as-of date should not be trusted. Ours carry one.

★★ Why this lands differently for a veteran

Because the veteran route into the credit has no age requirement, the population this expansion reaches includes working-age veterans with a total service-connected rating, exactly the people buying houses. The eligibility text.

★★★ And it is the only state property-tax relief most Missouri veterans can get, because the constitutional exemption stops at former prisoners of war. In a state with a real exemption this expansion would be a footnote. Here it is the main event. The exemption Missouri does not have.

★ What we are not telling you

• A dollar figure for your credit. The statute gives a formula and a Director of Revenue table in $25 and $495 increments, not an answer.
• Whether to claim in a particular year, or what the dead 137.106 cross-reference means for a current claim. That is a tax question and we are a lender. What the statute actually says
• Any rate or payment figure. This site publishes none.

Mike Certo, NMLS #260555. (480) 296-6513 · mcerto@cfmtg.com.

Frequently asked questions

What changed in the Missouri Property Tax Credit for 2026?

Four things, under H.B. 594 and 508 of 2025. The maximum actual property tax counted rose from $1,100 to $1,550 and rent from $750 to $1,055; the income limits rose from $27,500 or $30,000 to between $38,200 and $48,000; the phase-out ceiling fell from 4 percent to 2 percent with the income increment widening from $300 to $495; and from 1 January 2027 the figures index annually to inflation.

What is the Missouri Property Tax Credit phase-out in 2026?

Above the $14,300 minimum base the credit reduces by one sixteenth of a per cent accumulative for each $495 of income, to a ceiling of 2 percent. Through 2025 the schedule was one sixteenth of a per cent per $300, rising to 4 percent, so both the step and the ceiling changed in the claimant's favour.

Should I reapply for the Missouri Property Tax Credit if I was refused before?

It is worth checking for 2026. The income limits rose substantially and the phase-out ceiling halved, so a household that tapered to zero under the old schedule may now receive a credit. The Department of Revenue is also required to notify taxpayers it identifies as potentially eligible.

When do the Missouri Property Tax Credit figures start adjusting for inflation?

From 1 January 2027. The caps in RSMo 135.025 adjust by the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers for the Midwest Region, and the income limits in RSMo 135.030 by CPI-U. Before this amendment the limits had been unchanged since 2008.

---

Mike Certo · NMLS #260555 · Cornerstone First Mortgage NMLS #173855 · Equal Housing Lender. Educational content about VA home loan financing, not a loan commitment and not legal, tax or financial advice. Cornerstone First Mortgage is a private lender and is not affiliated with, endorsed by or acting on behalf of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs or any government agency. VA entitlement, funding-fee exemption and disability ratings are determined by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. Missouri's property tax exemption for former prisoners of war is established by article X, section 6 of the Missouri Constitution, and the Missouri Property Tax Credit is governed by sections 135.010 to 135.030 of the Revised Statutes of Missouri and administered by the Missouri Department of Revenue, not by Cornerstone. Proposed constitutional amendments described on this site are proposals and are not law. Figures here carry the date we verified them against primary sources. All loans are subject to borrower, property and program qualification.