Montgomery County Historic Preservation Tax Credit
To encourage the restoration and preservation of historic properties, the Montgomery County Council passed legislation (Chapter 52, Article VI) in 1984 creating a historic preservation tax credit program for county-designated historic properties. Owners of property listed in the Montgomery County Master Plan for Historic Preservation are eligible for a credit equal to 10 percent of documented expenses for exterior maintenance, restoration or preservation work. The tax credit is applied towards County real property taxes.
Eligible work includes repairs, restoration, or preservation of exterior features of designated structures. Examples of eligible projects would include (but not be limited to) painting, repairing roofs or windows or replacing them in-kind, repairing architectural trim or ornament, uncovering and repairing original siding, re-pointing brick or stone foundations or chimneys, restoring a documented feature such as a dormer or porch that was previously altered or removed, and repairing and maintaining outbuildings such as barns and garages. New construction and interior work are not eligible.
The Historic Preservation Commission (HPC) reviews tax credit applications, certifies that project work is eligible for tax credits, and forwards recommendations to the County Department of Finance for approval. The approved tax credit is applied to a property owner’s tax bill. Any unused portion of this tax credit may be carried forward for as many as five years. If the property were subsequently removed from the Master Plan for Historic Preservation, any unused portion of the tax credit would immediately lapse. A property not listed on the Master Plan for Historic Preservation at the time the work is undertaken is not eligible for the preservation tax credit.
We strongly encourage you to apply for a county preservation tax credit if your property is listed in the Master Plan for Historic Preservation and you are doing exterior preservation work on your property.
Resources
- County Historic Preservation Tax Credit Instructions and Application. This document is available in three Word documents that can be directly typed into (Intro to Tax Credit Application,, Final TC Application,, Receipts Transmittal Form,) and a PDF format that can be printed out and completed by hand (Tax Credit Form in PDF here). If you are having any trouble with any of these files please, call our office. We cannot yet accept this information electronically.
- Helpful Guidance and Tips for Complete Tax credit packages
- Eligible Work
- Status of 2007 County Tax Credit Applications
- County Preservation Tax Credit Case Studies
- Maryland State and Federal Historic Preservation Tax Credits
- The Winter 2007 Issue of our newsletter, The Preservationist, included a front-page article on historic building maintenance that may be eligible for the historic tax credit.
*Requires a PDF reader to view.
Montgomery County Planning Department