PORTSMOUTH — Applications for tax deferrals for disabled or elderly low-income homeowners will be available through Dec. 31 in the office of the tax assessor and tax collector in Town Hall or may be downloaded from the town’s Web site, according to town officials.

The Town Council recently enacted an ordinance allowing homeowners who are disabled or at least 65 to seek deferral of a portion of their taxes if their property-tax bill exceeds 10 percent of their gross annual income.

The current application period will cover taxes assessed Dec. 31 of this year, for the fiscal period that begins next July1.

On the town’s Web site, www.portsmouthri.com, applicants can find the application form by going first to “offices and services” and then clicking on the title for the office of the tax assessor and tax collector.

A surviving spouse who is at least 50 years old is eligible if his or her partner was at least 65 at the time of death.

The program does not waive taxes outright but postpones them until the homeowner dies or sells the property. It is meant to complement a pre-existing ordinance which gives outright tax exemptions of up to 80 percent to low-income elderly homeowners.

But the enabling legislation that allowed the council to enact the tax deferral does not specify an income limit for applicants — only that the tax bill must exceed 10 percent of the gross income.

The council has asked the town solicitor to draft proposed changes to the enabling legislation that would explicitly limit the tax deferral to those elderly and disabled homeowners who qualify for the low-income program, which is available to those who make no more than 125 percent of the federal poverty level.

Another change proposed by the council would make condominiums eligible for the program, in addition to single-family houses.

The council also wants new language to specify that the deferred amount of the tax bill is only the portion that exceeds 10 percent of the applicant’s total income, and that there is sufficient equity in the property to ensure that the town will eventually recover the deferred taxes.

The changes must be enacted by the General Assembly before the council can amend the ordinance.