How to Fill Out Texas Form 50-114: Residence Homestead Exemption

Texas homeowners claim the residence homestead exemption by filing Form 50-114 with the appraisal district in the county where the home sits. The general exemption alone cuts $140,000 off your home’s taxable value for school district taxes, and additional exemptions for homeowners 65 and older, disabled homeowners, and certain veterans can shrink or eliminate the bill entirely.¹ The standard deadline is April 30, with late applications accepted for up to two years after the taxes become delinquent.²

Who Qualifies

The property has to be owned by an individual, not a corporation, partnership, or LLC, and it must be your principal residence. You can only claim a homestead exemption on one property per year, and Section 6 of the form requires you to swear under oath that you don’t hold a homestead exemption anywhere else. If you were claiming one at a prior address or in another state, give that one up before applying here.¹

Property held in a qualifying trust still works, as long as the trust document gives the beneficiary or trustor the right to occupy the home as a principal residence rent-free (apart from taxes and expenses), either for life or until the trust is revoked. The homestead itself cannot exceed 20 acres, and the land and the structure must share the same ownership.¹

The Exemptions You Can Check on Form 50-114

Section 1 of the form is a menu. More than one exemption can apply to the same property, so check every box that fits.

General Residence Homestead

Every qualifying homeowner gets the $140,000 school district reduction. Any city, county, or special district can also adopt an optional local exemption of up to 20 percent of appraised value, with a $5,000 floor. Your appraisal district can tell you whether your city or county has opted in.³

Age 65 or Older

Homeowners who turn 65 during the tax year get an additional $10,000 school district exemption on top of the general amount, plus a further $60,000 exemption that school districts are required to offer.⁴ Qualifying also creates a tax ceiling: your school district taxes freeze at the amount owed in the year you turn 65 and cannot rise as long as you own and occupy the home. Adding an improvement like a garage or a pool adjusts the ceiling upward, but normal appraisal increases do not.⁵ A surviving spouse who was 55 or older at the time of the qualifying homeowner’s death can keep both the exemption and the ceiling, provided they stay in the home.¹

Disabled Person

Under Texas law, “disabled” here means qualifying for federal disability insurance benefits under Social Security. A disabled homeowner gets the same additional school district exemption and the same tax ceiling as the 65-and-older group, but you cannot claim both categories. If you qualify under both, pick the one that saves you more.¹

100 Percent Disabled Veteran

A veteran rated 100 percent disabled or individually unemployable by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs is exempt from property taxes on the total appraised value of the residence, which effectively zeroes out the tax bill. Check the “100 Percent Disabled Veteran” box, enter your disability rating, and indicate whether the VA determined it to be a permanent total disability.⁶

Donated Residence of a Partially Disabled Veteran

A separate box covers veterans with a disability rating below 100 percent who received a home donated by a charitable organization. The exemption equals the veteran’s disability percentage, and the home must have been donated at no cost or at no more than 50 percent of its market value. A surviving spouse who has not remarried can continue the exemption on the same property.⁷

Surviving Spouses of Service Members and First Responders

The form has separate checkboxes for the surviving spouse of an armed services member killed or fatally injured in the line of duty and the surviving spouse of a first responder killed in the line of duty. Both provide a total exemption from property taxes on the residence. Enter the deceased spouse’s name and date of death in Section 1.²

Documents to Gather First

Missing paperwork is the most common reason applications stall. Pull these together before you open the form:

A copy of each owner’s Texas driver’s license or state-issued ID card. The address on the ID must match the property address. If you recently moved and haven’t updated your license, do that first, because the chief appraiser cannot grant the exemption when the addresses don’t match.⁸
The property’s physical address, legal description from your deed or closing documents, and the date you acquired and began occupying it.
An identification number for each owner: a driver’s license number, a personal ID certificate number, or a Social Security number. You provide one, not all three. Whichever you supply is kept confidential and is not open to public inspection.⁹
If claiming a disability-related exemption, your VA disability rating letter or Social Security disability determination. The form asks for your percentage rating and whether the disability is a permanent total disability under 38 C.F.R. Section 4.15.

Waivers for an Address Mismatch

Section 4 provides waivers for homeowners whose ID address cannot match the property. Active-duty military members and their spouses can request a waiver, as can holders of a driver’s license issued under Transportation Code Section 521.121(c) or 521.1211. Residents of a health or aging care facility and participants in the attorney general’s address confidentiality program are exempt from the ID requirement entirely.²

Filling Out the Six Sections

Section 1: Exemptions Requested

Confirm that you live in the property, then check every exemption type that applies. If you’re transferring an exemption or tax ceiling from a previous home, check those boxes and provide the old property’s address and county so the prior appraisal district can remove the old exemption. Cooperative housing residents indicate that they hold an exclusive right to occupy the unit through stock ownership and provide the cooperative corporation’s name.²

Section 2: Property Owner/Applicant

Enter each owner’s full name, date of birth, one identification number, phone number, email, and percentage of ownership interest. If your mailing address differs from the property address, include it here.

Section 3: Property Information

Fill in the date you acquired the property, the date you began living there, the physical address, and the legal description from your deed. For a manufactured home, enter the home’s make, model, and ID number. Indicate whether any portion of the property produces income. If you rent out a room or run a business from part of the home, note the percentage used for that purpose. Remember the 20-acre cap on homestead land.¹ This section also asks whether the property is heir property and whether you are identified on a recorded deed.

Sections 4 and 5: Waivers and Additional Information

Section 4 is where you claim any ID address-match waiver. Section 5 is open space for anything else the appraisal district should know, including other residential property you own in Texas.

Section 6: Affirmation and Signature

Sign and date. You’re affirming under oath that everything is true, that you meet the qualifications, and that you don’t claim a homestead exemption on any other property. A false statement is a criminal offense.

Manufactured Homes

A manufactured home qualifies, but the appraisal district needs proof of ownership. Attach one of the following:¹⁰

A statement of ownership issued by the Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs showing you as the owner.
A copy of the purchase contract or sales receipt showing you as the buyer.
A sworn affidavit on Form 50-114-A, if the seller didn’t provide a contract and you cannot locate them after a good-faith effort.

The appraisal district can also verify ownership through TDHCA computer records, which may spare you the hunt for paperwork. The land under the home qualifies as homestead only if you own both the land and the home and occupy it as your principal residence.

Heir Property

If you inherited the home without a recorded deed in your name, which is common when property passes through a will or intestate succession without probate, you can still apply, but you need additional documentation:³

An affidavit on Form 50-114-A 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 relating to your ownership, if one exists.

If other heir property owners also live in the home, each of them must sign an affidavit authorizing you to submit the application. Check the heir property box in Section 3 and indicate whether other heirs occupy the property.

Filing Deadline and Late Applications

The standard deadline is April 30 of the tax year. Filing between January 1 and April 30 gives the appraisal district time to process the application before tax statements go out in the fall.¹¹

Miss that window and you still have time. The chief appraiser must accept a late application for a general homestead exemption filed no later than two years after the delinquency date for the taxes on the property. Taxes generally become delinquent on February 1 of the following year, so a 2024 tax year application can be filed as late as January 31, 2027. If a late application is approved after you have already paid taxes, the tax collector must refund the overpayment within 60 days of being notified, with no separate refund request required.¹²

The over-65 and disabled person exemptions run on a different clock: one year from the date you first qualify. Turn 65 in July, and you have until the following July to apply for that tax year.¹³

Where to Send the Form

Submit the completed Form 50-114 and all supporting documents to the appraisal district in the county where the property sits. Not the tax office. Not the Comptroller. The form is standardized by the Comptroller, but the local chief appraiser is the one who approves or denies it.¹¹

Most appraisal districts accept applications by mail, in person, or through an online portal. Larger districts have gone further; Harris County, for example, lets you file through a mobile app that uses your phone’s camera to scan your driver’s license.¹⁴ Check your county appraisal district’s website for the submission options. If you’re mailing, make sure the envelope is postmarked by April 30.

Keeping the Exemption During a Temporary Absence

You don’t lose the exemption just because you’re away from the property for a while. Texas law allows temporary absences of less than two years as long as you don’t establish a principal residence somewhere else and you intend to return.¹⁵ Two groups are exempt from the two-year limit entirely:

Active-duty service members stationed outside the United States can be away indefinitely.⁴
Residents of a health or aging facility, including nursing homes and hospitals, keep the exemption regardless of how long they are gone.

After You File

The chief appraiser reviews the application and sends you a written notice telling you whether the exemption was approved, denied, or whether more information is needed. Once approved, you generally don’t reapply each year; the exemption stays in place as long as you own and occupy the home as your principal residence. If your circumstances change, you move, sell the property, or stop using it as your primary home, you’re required to notify the appraisal district.¹¹

If the application is denied, you can file a protest with the Appraisal Review Board. The protest deadline is May 15 or 30 days after you receive the denial notice, whichever is later. The ARB is a panel of locally appointed citizens that hears both sides and issues a binding determination; from there, you can still appeal to district court or pursue binding arbitration.¹⁶

What Form 50-114 Does Not Cover

Solar panels and wind-powered energy systems get their own property tax exemption under Tax Code Section 11.27, filed on Form 50-123 rather than Form 50-114. The deadline and filing office are the same (April 30, county appraisal district), and the exemption covers 100 percent of the appraised value the device adds to the home for as long as the system remains installed and operational. If you’re searching based on a different form number and landed here looking for homestead instructions, Form 50-285 is a lessee’s affidavit about leased vehicle use and is not a homestead form at all.

1
State of Texas. Texas Tax Code 11.13 – Residence Homestead
2
Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts. Residence Homestead Exemption Application
3
Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts. Property Tax Exemptions
4
Bexar Central Appraisal District. Property Tax Exemptions Overview
5
Travis Central Appraisal District. Homestead Exemptions
6
State of Texas. Texas Tax Code 11.131 – Residence Homestead of 100 Percent or Totally Disabled Veteran
7
State of Texas. Texas Tax Code 11.132 – Donated Residence Homestead of Partially Disabled Veteran
8
Victoria Central Appraisal District. Homestead Exemption Rules
9
Liberty Central Appraisal District. Residence Homestead Exemption Application
10
State of Texas. Texas Tax Code 11.432
11
Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts. Residence Homestead Exemptions
12
State of Texas. Texas Tax Code 11.431
13
Harris Central Appraisal District. Property Tax Exemptions for Homeowners
14
Harris Central Appraisal District. Homestead
15
Office of the Attorney General of Texas. Opinion No. GA-0148
16
Dallas Central Appraisal District. The Protest Process