How to Complete the Comal County Homestead Exemption Application (Form 50-114)

To claim a homestead exemption on your primary residence in Comal County, file Texas Form 50-114 with the Comal Appraisal District between January 1 and April 30 of the tax year. The Comal County homestead exemption application is free, and once the district approves it, the exemption stays on the property as long as you own and live in it — no annual renewal. The general exemption removes $140,000 from your home’s appraised value for school district taxes, and county and city taxing units may add their own local-option reductions on top.¹

Who Qualifies

You qualify for the general homestead exemption if you own the property (in whole or in part), it is your principal residence as of January 1, and you do not claim a homestead exemption on any other property in Texas or another state.² Ownership through a qualifying trust counts, as long as the trust gives you the right to occupy the home as your principal residence rent-free for life or until the trust ends. Heirs who inherited a home without a formal deed can also qualify, with extra paperwork described below.

Beyond the general exemption, several groups get larger reductions and can claim them on the same Form 50-114:

Homeowners age 65 or older receive an additional school district exemption and a ceiling that freezes their school taxes at the amount owed the year they turned 65.³
Disabled homeowners get the same additional exemption and tax ceiling.
Veterans with a 100 percent disability rating pay no property tax at all on their homestead.⁴
A surviving spouse age 55 or older may keep the deceased spouse’s over-65 exemption if the deceased qualified in the year of death and the survivor stays in the home.¹

The county and cities within Comal County may also adopt a local-option exemption of up to 20 percent of appraised value, with a floor of $5,000.⁵ Whether you get that additional reduction depends on which taxing units have opted in.

Documents to Gather Before You File

The single most common cause of a delayed or denied application is a missing document. If the appraisal district writes to ask for more information, you have 30 days to respond, with a possible 15-day extension for good cause; miss that window and the application is denied.² Have all of these in hand before you start:

A copy of your Texas driver’s license or state-issued ID. The address on it must match the property address on your application. If you recently moved, update your license with the Texas Department of Public Safety first. The Comal Appraisal District states plainly that the chief appraiser cannot approve a homestead exemption if these addresses do not match.⁶⁷
A copy of your vehicle registration receipt. If you do not own a vehicle, submit a signed affidavit saying so along with a utility bill for the property in your name.⁶
Your property account number, which appears on any prior tax statement or on the Comal Appraisal District’s property search tool at comalad.org.
The property’s legal description — the formal lot-and-block or metes-and-bounds language from your deed or a prior tax statement.

Active-duty military members and their spouses whose license address does not match the property may request a waiver by including a copy of military identification and a utility bill for the homestead property.⁶

Extra Documents for Heir Property

If you inherited the home without a formal deed — a common situation when property passes through a will or intestacy without probate — you are an heir property owner and can still qualify. Along with the standard items, attach:¹

Form 50-114-A, an affidavit establishing your ownership interest.
A copy of the prior owner’s death certificate.
A copy of the most recent utility bill for the property.
A citation of any court record related to your ownership, if one exists.

Every other heir who also lives in the home must sign a separate affidavit authorizing your application.²

Extra Documents for Manufactured Homes

If your homestead is a manufactured home, attach one of these: a Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs statement of ownership, a sales or purchase agreement showing you as the buyer, or a sworn affidavit on Form 50-114-A stating that you own the home and that the seller did not provide a contract and could not be located after a good-faith effort.²

Filling Out Form 50-114

Download Form 50-114 from the Texas Comptroller’s website or from the Comal Appraisal District’s forms page at comalad.org. The form is the same statewide; there is no Comal-specific version.²

Start with the property information section. Enter the property account number and the legal description exactly as the district has them on file. Small differences between your deed language and the district’s records can slow processing, so cross-check before writing anything down.

In the owner information section, list every person who holds an ownership interest. If you are married and the home is community property, both spouses are treated as 100 percent owners and do not split the exemption. Unmarried partial owners receive an exemption proportional to their share; a 50 percent owner gets half.¹

Check the box for every exemption category you claim. Most homeowners check “General Residence Homestead” at a minimum; if you are 65 or older, disabled, or a qualifying veteran, check those boxes on the same form.

The form asks whether you claim a homestead exemption on any other property. You can only hold one at a time. If you had one at a previous address, the district there will remove it once Comal approves your new one.³

Sign and date the form. Your signature is a sworn statement that everything on the application is true and correct. Unsigned applications are not processed.

Where to Submit the Application

File the completed form and all supporting documents with the Comal Appraisal District at:

Comal Appraisal District
900 S. Seguin Ave.
New Braunfels, TX 78130⁸

You can drop the application off in person or send it by mail. If you deliver it in person, ask for a date-stamped copy for your records.

The district also accepts completed applications by email at comalad@co.comal.tx.us. Scan the signed form and every attachment into a single file and send it as an attachment.⁷ Save the sent-email confirmation as proof of your filing date. CCAD’s online forms portal has been intermittently unavailable during a software transition, so email or in-person delivery is the most reliable route.

Filing Deadline and Late Applications

The standard filing window is January 1 through April 30 of the tax year for which you want the exemption.⁹ File by April 30 and the exemption applies to that year’s bill. Applications submitted before January 1 are not accepted for the coming tax year.

Missed the deadline? You can still file a late application for up to two years after the deadline for that tax year. The late-filing rule covers the general exemption as well as the over-65 and disabled person exemptions.² Veterans with a 100 percent disability rating get a longer window, up to five years after the tax delinquency date for the property.⁴

After You File

Comal Appraisal District will review your application and notify you in writing whether the exemption is approved, modified, or denied. If the reviewer needs more information, you will get a written request and have 30 days to respond, with a possible 15-day extension for good cause. Missing the deadline means denial.²

Once approved, you do not reapply each year. The exemption stays on your property as long as you own it and use it as your principal residence. A 2023 Texas law requires every appraisal district to verify homestead exemptions at least once every five years, so you may receive a verification notice asking you to confirm your eligibility. Respond to it promptly to keep the exemption in place.

Beginning the second year after the exemption is granted, the appraised value of your home cannot rise by more than 10 percent per year plus the market value of any new improvements, no matter how fast the local market moves.¹⁰ The district tracks both the capped value and market value, and your taxes are based on the lower of the two.

If Your Application Is Denied

A denial letter from Comal Appraisal District will explain the reason. The most frequent causes are a driver’s license address that does not match the property address, a missing signature, and an incomplete supporting document. For address mismatches, update your license with the Texas DPS and resubmit; that single fix resolves most denials.

If you believe the denial was wrong, you can protest it before the Comal County Appraisal Review Board. The district publishes protest instructions, and you will receive at least 15 days’ notice before your hearing.¹¹ Bring your original application, your identification, and any correspondence from the appraisal district to the hearing.

1
Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts. Property Tax Exemptions
2
Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts. Application for Residence Homestead Exemption
3
State of Texas. Texas Tax Code TAX 11.13 – Residence Homestead
4
Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts. 100 Percent Disabled Veteran and Surviving Spouse Frequently Asked Questions
5
State of Texas. Texas Tax Code Section 11.13 – Residence Homestead
6
State of Texas. Texas Tax Code TAX 11.43 – Application for Exemption
7
Comal Appraisal District. Forms
8
Comal Appraisal District. Official Site
9
Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts. Residence Homestead Exemptions
10
State of Texas. Texas Tax Code TAX 23.23
11
Comal Appraisal District. Protest Information