Dallas County Over-65 Property Tax Exemption: Qualifying and Applying

If you own and live in a home in Dallas County and you’ve turned 65, you can take an additional $60,000 off your home’s appraised value for school district taxes on top of the standard $100,000 homestead exemption, and your school tax bill gets frozen at that year’s amount for as long as you own and occupy the home. That combination is what people mean by the Dallas County over-65 property tax exemption, and the savings often grow larger every year as home values rise around a frozen bill.

How Much the Exemption Reduces Your Bill

The savings stack. Every Texas homeowner with a primary residence qualifies for a $100,000 general homestead exemption from school district taxes. Turning 65 adds another $60,000, bringing the total school district exemption to $160,000 of appraised value.¹ On a home appraised at $350,000, the school district can tax only $190,000 of that value.

School taxes aren’t the only line on your bill. Dallas County, the City of Dallas, Dallas College, and other local taxing units may offer their own optional over-65 exemptions. State law sets a floor of $3,000 for any optional over-65 exemption, and most local entities in Dallas County set theirs higher than the minimum.¹ Amounts change, so pull the current figures from the Dallas Central Appraisal District’s exemption page for the specific taxing units that cover your address.

Who Qualifies

Three requirements: you must be at least 65, you must own the property (or hold a qualifying ownership interest, such as stock in a cooperative housing corporation), and you must occupy the home as your primary residence.² Primary residence means where you actually live for most of the year.

The over-65 exemption takes effect the day you turn 65, not the following January. You get prorated savings during the year of your birthday rather than waiting out the calendar.

Homes held in a living trust still qualify, as long as you are a trustor or beneficiary of a qualifying trust and the property is your residence.³ The application has a dedicated section where you enter the trust details.

Over-65 or Disabled Person, Not Both

If you qualify for the disabled person exemption as well, you have to choose one for school district taxes. You can’t receive both.⁴ The exemption amounts are usually identical, but the choice affects how your school tax ceiling is calculated, so it’s worth comparing before filing.

How to Apply Through DCAD

File the Residence Homestead Exemption Application, Form 50-114, with the Dallas Central Appraisal District.³ The same form handles the general homestead and the over-65 exemption. Check the box in the “Age 65 or Older” section and enter your date of birth.

Gather these before you start:

Your property account number, which appears on a prior tax statement or in the DCAD property search by address.
A copy of your Texas driver’s license or state-issued ID. The address on the ID should match the property address. If it doesn’t, the form has a waiver section where you can ask the chief appraiser to waive that requirement.³
Your name as it appears on the deed. Make sure the application matches exactly.

DCAD accepts applications through its online filing portal at dallascad.org, which generates a confirmation receipt once your documents upload.⁵ Keep that receipt. By mail, send the completed form and ID copies to DCAD at PO Box 560328, Dallas, Texas 75356-0328. Processing typically runs 30 to 90 days depending on volume. You’ll get a written notice when the exemption is approved or if DCAD needs more documentation. There is no filing fee.

Deadlines and Late Applications

The standard deadline for homestead exemption applications is April 30 of the tax year. Seniors get extra room: you can file for the over-65 exemption up to two years after the date you first became eligible.⁶ If you turned 65 in March 2024 and never filed, you have until March 2026 to apply and still receive the benefit retroactively.

A successful late application can produce a corrected tax bill or a refund of taxes you overpaid in prior years. If you or a family member missed the original window, check the two-year clock before assuming the opportunity is gone.

The School Tax Ceiling

This is the piece most people underestimate. Once you qualify, your school taxes are capped at what you owed in the first year you qualified, no matter how much your home’s market value climbs after that.⁷ In a county where appraisals have been climbing, a frozen school tax bill can save thousands a year compared with what neighbors pay on similar homes.

One nuance: if your school taxes in the year after you qualified end up lower than in the qualifying year, the ceiling resets to that lower amount.⁸ The ceiling can also drop if the legislature raises the exemption amount.

Moving to a New Home

The ceiling doesn’t disappear if you move. Texas law lets you transfer a proportional version of it to a new primary residence anywhere in the state.⁷ The transfer works as a percentage, not a flat dollar amount. The appraisal district divides what you actually paid under the ceiling by what you would have paid without it, then applies that percentage to the taxes on the new home.

Say your ceiling held your school taxes at $1,000 on your old home when the uncapped bill would have been $4,000. That’s a 25% ratio. If school taxes on the new home would normally be $2,000, your transferred ceiling becomes $500. The relative savings carry over even though the dollar amounts change, which makes downsizing or moving between school districts less costly than many seniors expect.

Surviving Spouse Protections

If a homeowner with the over-65 exemption dies, the surviving spouse can keep both the exemption and the frozen tax ceiling, but only if three conditions are met. The surviving spouse must have been at least 55 at the time of the qualifying spouse’s death, the property must have been the surviving spouse’s residence at that time, and it must remain their residence afterward.¹ The surviving spouse keeps the same exemption amount and the same ceiling the deceased spouse had.

Portability extends to surviving spouses as well. A qualifying surviving spouse who later moves can transfer the ceiling percentage to a new home the same way the original qualifying homeowner could.⁷ Many families don’t know this exists, and it prevents the loss of a tax ceiling from compounding the financial impact of losing a spouse.

If You Still Can’t Pay: Tax Deferral

Even with the exemption and the ceiling, some seniors on fixed incomes struggle with what’s left. Texas allows a separate option: you can defer all property tax collection on your homestead for as long as you own and occupy it. You qualify by being 65 or older and filing an affidavit with the appraisal district.

During the deferral, no taxing unit can sue for delinquent taxes or foreclose to collect. The taxes accrue, along with 5% annual interest, as a lien against the property. The full balance comes due 181 days after you no longer own or live in the home. No additional penalties accumulate during the deferral. This is a last-resort tool, not a first choice. The interest compounds, and the eventual bill lands on your estate or your heirs. For a homeowner who would otherwise face a tax sale, it buys real time.

1
State of Texas. Texas Tax Code 11.13 – Residence Homestead
2
Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts. Property Tax Exemptions
3
Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts. Residence Homestead Exemption Application
4
Office of the Texas Governor. Tax Exemptions
5
Dallas Central Appraisal District. Online Forms
6
Fort Bend Central Appraisal District. What Is the Deadline to File for an Exemption
7
State of Texas. Texas Tax Code 11.26 – Limitation of School Tax on Homesteads of Elderly or Disabled
8
Office of the Attorney General of Texas. Opinion No. KP-0470 – Calculation of the Limitation of School Tax on Homesteads of the Elderly or Disabled Under Texas Tax Code Section 11.26