Nueces County Property Tax Exemptions: Eligibility, Filing, and Deadlines

If you own a home in Nueces County, you can lower what you pay in property taxes each year by claiming one or more exemptions through the Nueces County Appraisal District (NCAD). The main Nueces County property tax exemptions are the general residence homestead, which removes $140,000 from your home’s value for school district taxes, and additional exemptions for homeowners who are 65 or older, disabled, or disabled veterans. Each one is claimed on the same application form, and the standard filing deadline is April 30 of the tax year.

General Residence Homestead Exemption

Any adult who owns a home and uses it as a primary residence on January 1 of the tax year qualifies for the general homestead exemption. Partial ownership counts; you don’t need to own the property outright. School districts must reduce the taxable value of a qualifying home by $140,000, which is the single largest break most homeowners in the county receive.¹

On top of the school district reduction, other local taxing units (the county, city, or junior college district) may adopt an additional exemption of up to 20 percent of the home’s appraised value. If 20 percent works out to less than $5,000, the reduction is still $5,000.²

Age 65 or Older and Disability Exemptions

If you’re 65 or older or have a qualifying disability, you receive the general homestead exemption plus an additional $10,000 off your home’s value for school district taxes. That brings the total school district exemption to $150,000.² Other taxing units may adopt their own additional amounts for these groups, so your actual savings depend on which local entities have opted in.

For the disability exemption, you must meet the Social Security Administration’s definition: a medically determinable physical or mental impairment that prevents substantial gainful activity and is expected to last at least 12 continuous months or result in death.

The School Tax Ceiling

Qualifying for the over-65 or disability exemption also triggers the school district tax ceiling. The school district freezes your school taxes at the amount you owed in the first year you received the exemption. Even if your home’s appraised value rises later, your school taxes stay at that frozen level.³ The ceiling can only increase if you add improvements such as a new room or garage; the district then recalculates to account for the added value, but the underlying freeze stays.

If you sell and buy another home in Texas, you can transfer a proportional version of the ceiling. The transferred ceiling preserves the same percentage of tax savings you had on your old home. Request a tax ceiling certificate from the chief appraiser in the district where your previous home was located and present it when you apply for exemptions at the new address.

A surviving spouse can keep an inherited tax ceiling if they were at least 55 when the homeowner died, still live in the home, and have not remarried. The same proportional transfer rule applies if the surviving spouse later moves.⁴

Disabled Veteran Exemptions

Texas offers two separate layers of relief for disabled veterans, and which one applies depends on your VA disability rating.

Partial Disability Rating

Veterans with a service-connected rating from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs receive an exemption scaled to the severity of the disability:

10 to 29 percent: up to $5,000 off the assessed value
30 to 49 percent: up to $7,500
50 to 69 percent: up to $10,000
70 percent or higher: up to $12,000

Veterans who are 65 or older with a rating of at least 10 percent, or who are totally blind or have lost the use of one or more limbs, also qualify for the $12,000 amount regardless of their percentage. If a qualifying veteran dies, the surviving spouse inherits the same exemption amount the veteran received at the time of death.⁵

100 Percent Disability Rating

A veteran with a 100 percent service-connected disability compensation rating, or a rating of individual unemployability, qualifies for a complete exemption on the total appraised value of their residence homestead. Property taxes on the home are eliminated.⁶

A surviving spouse keeps the total exemption on the same property as long as they haven’t remarried and still live there. If the surviving spouse moves to a different home, they can receive an exemption on the new property equal to the dollar amount of the exemption that applied to the former home in its last year.⁶

Manufactured and Mobile Homes

Owners of manufactured or mobile homes can qualify for a homestead exemption, but there’s an extra step. Texas treats manufactured homes as personal property by default, so the home generally needs to be reclassified as real property first. That means filing an Application for Statement of Ownership with the Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs (TDHCA) and recording the certified Statement of Ownership in Nueces County’s real property records.⁷ The home must sit on land you own or on a qualifying long-term lease, and existing liens must be discharged or the lienholders must consent. Once the home is classified as real property, you apply through NCAD like any other homeowner.

How to Apply

All homestead exemptions in Nueces County use Form 50-114, the Residence Homestead Exemption Application published by the Texas Comptroller.⁸ You’ll provide your name, date of birth, contact information, and the property account number or geographic ID from your previous tax statement or NCAD’s online property search. Check every exemption box that applies. If you qualify for both the general homestead and the over-65 exemption, mark both.

You need a Texas driver’s license or state-issued ID card, and the address on it must match the physical address of the property. The chief appraiser is prohibited by law from granting a homestead exemption when the addresses don’t match, so update your ID before you apply if you’ve recently moved.¹

For the disability exemption, include documentation from the Social Security Administration or a physician’s statement confirming you meet the standard. Veterans claiming the 100 percent total exemption must include a VA disability letter showing a 100 percent rating or individual unemployability determination.

NCAD accepts applications by mail, in person, or through its online filing portal. The district’s office is at 201 N. Chaparral Street, Corpus Christi, TX 78401, and the phone number is (361) 881-9978. The online application is available through the forms page at nuecescad.net.⁹

Deadlines and Late Applications

The standard deadline is April 30 of the tax year. For good cause, the chief appraiser may grant a one-time extension of up to 60 days.¹⁰

Missed the deadline? You can still file a late application up to two years after the delinquency date for the taxes on that property.¹¹ If a late application is approved after the appraisal records are finalized, the chief appraiser notifies the tax collector for each taxing unit. If you haven’t paid yet, the exempted amount is deducted from your bill. If you’ve already paid, you receive a refund within 60 days of the approval without needing to file a separate refund request.

After You File

Once the chief appraiser has enough information to evaluate your application, the office has up to 90 days to approve it, modify it, request additional documentation, or deny it.¹² Approval produces a lower tax bill for the current year, or a refund if you already paid at the higher amount.

Periodic Audits

Years after an exemption is approved, you may receive a homestead audit letter from NCAD. Texas law requires appraisal districts to verify every homestead exemption at least once every five years to confirm the owner still lives in the home, and districts generally work through accounts in phases.¹⁰ Respond within the stated deadline with your current Texas ID and any other requested documentation. Ignoring the letter results in your exemption being removed.

Penalties for False Claims

Form 50-114 warns that making a false statement on the application can result in prosecution for a Class A misdemeanor or a state jail felony under the Texas Penal Code. On the civil side, if fraud or intent to evade taxes is proven, a court can impose a penalty of 50 percent on top of the back taxes owed. The chief appraiser can also retroactively add erroneously exempted property to the tax rolls for up to five prior years.¹⁰

1
Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts. Property Tax Exemptions
2
State of Texas. Texas Tax Code TAX 11.13 – Residence Homestead
3
State of Texas. Texas Tax Code 11.26 – Limitation of School Tax on Homesteads of Elderly or Disabled
4
Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts. Form 50-311 Tax Ceiling Certificate for Homeowner Age 65 or Older or Disabled
5
State of Texas. Texas Tax Code 11.22 – Disabled Veterans
6
State of Texas. Texas Tax Code 11.131 – Residence Homestead of 100 Percent or Totally Disabled Veteran
7
Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs. Frequently Asked Questions Statement of Ownership
8
Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts. Residence Homestead Exemption Application
9
Nueces Central Appraisal District. Forms
10
State of Texas. Texas Tax Code 11.43 – Application for Exemption
11
State of Texas. Texas Tax Code 11.431 – Late Application for Homestead Exemption
12
State of Texas. Texas Tax Code TAX 11.45