California property tax runs on a specific vocabulary, and Proposition 19 added to it. Assessors, attorneys, and claim forms all use these terms precisely, and misreading one can cost a family its low tax base. This glossary defines the terms that matter most, grouped by where you will meet them: the Proposition 13 foundations, moving your tax base, inheriting a home, the traps, and the paperwork.
The Proposition 13 Foundations
These terms describe the system Proposition 19 modified. Every later rule builds on them.
Proposition 13, The 1978 California constitutional amendment that caps the property tax rate at one percent of assessed value and limits yearly increases in assessed value to two percent.
Proposition 19, The 2020 California constitutional amendment that expanded tax-base transfers for eligible homeowners and restricted the pass-down of a low tax base to heirs.
Assessed value, The dollar value the county assessor uses to calculate your property tax. Under Proposition 13 this is based on your purchase price rather than current market value.
Market value, What a property would sell for on the open market today, usually far higher than the taxable value for a long-time owner.
Base year value, The starting taxable value assigned to a property, set either at its 1975 level or at the price paid when it was most recently bought or newly built.
Factored base year value, The base year value after it has been raised each year by the allowed inflation adjustment of up to two percent. This is the number to bring to any professional.
Change in ownership, A transfer of property, such as a sale, gift, or inheritance, that triggers a reassessment to current market value.
Reassessment, The act of the county assessor setting a new base year value at current market value, which raises the tax bill.
Moving Your Tax Base
These terms govern the benefit side of Proposition 19, for owners who are 55 or older, severely and permanently disabled, or displaced by a disaster.
Tax base transfer, Carrying a home’s low taxable value to a replacement home, so the owner keeps a low tax bill after moving.
Portability, The general term for a tax base being movable from one home to another rather than lost at a sale.
Intercounty transfer, A transfer where the replacement home sits in a different California county than the original. Proposition 19 allows this across all 58 counties.
Lifetime limit, The cap of three tax-base transfers a qualifying person may use over their life, tracked per individual rather than per household.
Two-year window, The requirement that the sale of the original home and the purchase or construction of the replacement occur within two years of each other, in either order.
Full cash value, The market value of a home, the figure the assessor compares between the old and new homes.
Partial relief, The outcome when a replacement home costs more: the owner keeps the low base and adds only the difference in value rather than losing the benefit entirely.
Retroactive relief, The full benefit granted when a claim is filed within three years, applying the transferred base back to the date the owner became eligible.
Prospective relief, The reduced benefit when a claim is filed after three years, applying the transferred base only going forward and forfeiting the earlier years.
Principal residence, The home a person actually lives in as their main home. This is the only kind of property that can qualify for the narrowed inheritance exclusion.
Homeowners’ exemption, A small property tax reduction for owners who live in their own home, which also serves as proof that a property is a principal residence.
Inheriting a Home
These terms govern the restriction side, and they are where families lose the most money.
Intergenerational transfer exclusion, The Proposition 19 rule that lets a low tax base survive a transfer between parent and child, or grandparent and grandchild, only under the narrowed family-home conditions.
Family home, Under Proposition 19, the parent’s or grandparent’s principal residence. It is the only residential property type that can keep a low tax base when inherited, and only if the heir moves in.
Family farm, Real property used for agriculture, meaning land under cultivation, used for pasture or grazing, or used to produce an agricultural commodity. Unlike a family home, it can keep its low base with nobody living on it.
One-year occupancy requirement, The rule that the heir must move into the inherited family home as their principal residence and claim the homeowners’ exemption within one year of the transfer.
Value limit, The ceiling below which an inherited family home keeps its full low base, equal to the factored base year value plus the indexed exclusion amount.
Indexed exclusion amount, The inflation-adjusted figure added to the base to set the value limit. It is $1,044,586 for transfers from February 16, 2025 through February 15, 2027, and the State Board of Equalization recalculates it every other year.
Partial reassessment, The outcome when a qualifying home exceeds the value limit: only the value above the limit is added to the low base, rather than the whole home being reassessed.
Full reassessment, The reset of a property’s taxable value to current market value on transfer, which applies to inherited rentals, second homes, and other non-qualifying property.
Middle generation, The grandchild’s parents who are children of the grandparents. All of them must be deceased for a grandparent-to-grandchild transfer to qualify.
Parent-child exclusion (Proposition 58), The former rule that let parents and children transfer a principal residence of any value, plus one million dollars of other property per parent, without reassessment. Replaced for transfers on or after February 16, 2021.
Grandparent-grandchild exclusion (Proposition 193), The former rule that extended the parent-child exclusion to grandparent-to-grandchild transfers, available only when the grandchild’s parents were deceased.
Traps and Planning
These terms describe how a qualifying property gets reassessed by accident.
Change in control, An event where one person comes to own or control more than 50 percent of a business entity, which triggers reassessment of the entity’s real property.
Revocable living trust, A trust a person creates and can change during their life. It is treated as their own property and does not by itself avoid Proposition 19 reassessment.
Non-pro-rata distribution, A way of dividing an estate so one beneficiary receives a specific asset, such as the home, which can let the home pass to a resident child without a reassessable sibling-to-sibling sale.
Stepped-up basis, An income tax rule, separate from Proposition 19, that resets an inherited home’s cost basis to its market value at the date of death, reducing capital gains tax on a later sale.
Carryover basis, The rule that a home gifted during the giver’s life keeps the giver’s original cost basis, so the recipient inherits the built-in gain.
Partition lawsuit, A court action to force the division or sale of a jointly owned property when co-owners cannot agree, which clear estate planning helps a family avoid.
The Paperwork
BOE-19-B, BOE-19-D, BOE-19-V, The base-year-value transfer claim forms for, respectively, claimants 55 or older, severely and permanently disabled claimants (filed with BOE-19-DC, the physician-signed Certificate of Disability), and disaster victims.
BOE-19-P and BOE-19-G, The intergenerational exclusion claim forms for parent-to-child and grandparent-to-grandchild transfers.
BOE-266, The Claim for Homeowners’ Property Tax Exemption, the form an heir files to show the inherited home is their principal residence.
Supplemental assessment, A mid-year reassessment the county makes when a property’s value changes, producing a separate supplemental tax bill to adjust the account.
Escape assessment, A later assessment the county issues to capture property tax that should have been billed earlier but was missed.
Authorized representative, A person, such as an attorney or accountant holding power of attorney, who may sign and file a claim on the owner’s behalf. A real estate agent cannot.
A Note on the Numbers
Two figures in this glossary move over time. The indexed exclusion amount changes every other year, and the current figure of $1,044,586 applies only through February 15, 2027. Confirm the amount in effect on your transfer date before running any calculation, since the figure that governs is the one in force when the transfer happened, not when you do the arithmetic.
Get the Full Picture
Read the book. Prop 19 Hero explains each of these terms in the context where it matters, with worked examples and the source citations behind them. Find it on Amazon.
Talk to Bart. If a Proposition 19 term is standing between you and a decision about your property in the Sacramento area, Bart Hubbard can translate it into what it means for your situation. Reach out at Prop19Hero.com.
