Texas Property Tax Exemptions for Homeowners and Veterans

Texas property tax exemptions for homeowners and veterans can take a serious bite out of your annual bill. The main one, the residence homestead exemption, removes $140,000 of your home’s appraised value from school district taxation. Seniors, disabled homeowners, and disabled veterans stack additional exemptions on top, and veterans rated 100 percent disabled by the VA pay no property tax at all on their home. Nearly every exemption flows from a single application: Form 50-114, filed with your county appraisal district by April 30.

The Residence Homestead Exemption

Under Tax Code Section 11.13, school districts must exempt $140,000 of a qualifying home’s appraised value from taxation.¹ If your home is appraised at $350,000, the school district taxes you on $210,000. Once approved, the exemption stays in place year after year with nothing more to file.

Only individuals qualify. A home titled to a corporation, LLC, or trust does not.² You must own the home and live in it as your principal residence, and you cannot claim a homestead exemption on any other property in Texas or in another state.

Counties, cities, and other taxing units can offer their own homestead exemption on top of the school district amount. The local exemption is a percentage of appraised value, up to 20 percent, with a $5,000 floor if the percentage calculation comes out lower.² Whether your city or county offers one depends on local policy, so check with your appraisal district.

The 10 Percent Appraisal Cap

A homestead exemption also unlocks a cap on how fast your appraised value can grow. Under Tax Code Section 23.23, once the exemption is in place, the appraised value of your home cannot climb more than 10 percent in a single year regardless of what the market does.³

The cap takes effect on January 1 of the year after you first qualify.⁴ If you qualify in June 2025, the cap does not start protecting you until January 1, 2027. During the gap year, the appraisal district can set your value at full market. New construction such as an addition or a pool is added at full market value on top of the capped amount, so a major renovation can push your bill up in a single year.³

Extra Exemptions for Seniors and Disabled Homeowners

Homeowners who are 65 or older, or who meet the Social Security Administration’s definition of disabled, get an additional $60,000 off their appraised value for school district taxes, on top of the standard $140,000.¹ That brings the school district reduction to $200,000. If you turn 65 after January 1, you still receive the full exemption for that year.

The bigger benefit is the school district tax ceiling, sometimes called the tax freeze. Once you qualify for the over-65 or disability exemption, school district taxes on your home are capped at the amount you paid in the year you first qualified. If the tax rate goes down, so does your bill, but it can never rise above that ceiling.⁵ On a long enough timeline, this protection can be worth thousands.

Improvements that go beyond basic repairs do adjust the ceiling. The school district applies the current tax rate to the added value, and that higher figure becomes the new ceiling.⁵ If you sell and buy a different home, you can transfer a proportional version of the ceiling to the new property. A surviving spouse age 55 or older can inherit the deceased spouse’s over-65 exemption and ceiling, provided the deceased spouse qualified for it in the year of death.

Proving Disability

If you receive Social Security Disability benefits, a copy of your disability determination letter satisfies the proof requirement. If you do not receive SSDI, a physician must complete a statement verifying your eligibility, usually on a form supplied by the appraisal district.

Disabled Veteran Exemptions

Texas provides separate property tax relief for veterans with a service-connected disability. Under Tax Code Section 11.22, the exemption on one property scales with the VA disability rating:⁶

10% to under 30% disability: up to $5,000 off assessed value
30% to under 50%: up to $7,500
50% to under 70%: up to $10,000
70% or higher: up to $12,000

Veterans age 65 or older with a rating of at least 10 percent, veterans who are blind in one or both eyes, and veterans who have lost the use of one or more limbs automatically qualify for the $12,000 tier regardless of their actual percentage rating.⁶

Total Exemption for 100 Percent Disabled Veterans

Veterans who receive both 100 percent disability compensation and a rating of 100 percent disabled or individual unemployability from the VA pay no property tax on their residence homestead.⁷ This is a complete exemption from every taxing unit, not just school districts, and it applies no matter what the home is worth.

Surviving Spouse Protections

The surviving spouse of a veteran who had the 100 percent exemption can keep it on the same home as long as the spouse does not remarry and continues to live there.⁷ A spouse who moves can transfer the exemption as a fixed dollar amount equal to the exemption on the former home in its last qualifying year. Texas also provides a separate total exemption, under Section 11.133, for surviving spouses of service members killed in the line of duty.

Exemptions for Heir Property

Families who inherit a home informally often get told they cannot claim the homestead exemption because their name is not on the deed. That is not correct. If you acquired a home through a will, a transfer-on-death deed, or intestate succession, you can claim the full homestead exemption without a recorded deed in your name.

You check the heir property box on Form 50-114 and submit supporting documents: an affidavit establishing your ownership interest, the prior owner’s death certificate, a recent utility bill for the property, and any court records tied to ownership. The appraisal district cannot demand a recorded deed or affidavit of heirship. When multiple heirs live in the home, one person files the application and the others provide affidavits authorizing it.⁸

How to Apply

Every homestead exemption, including the senior, disability, veteran, and heir property versions, starts with Form 50-114 from the Texas Comptroller or your local appraisal district.⁸ Most districts also accept the application online. You check which exemptions apply to you, enter the legal description of the property (shown on your deed or last tax bill), and give the date you began occupying the home.

Include a copy of your Texas driver’s license or state ID. The address on the ID must match the property address, and this requirement rejects more applications than anything else. Active-duty military members and their spouses can request a waiver, as can judges, peace officers, and certain other officials who hold identification issued under special Transportation Code provisions.⁸

You can leave the home temporarily without losing the exemption as long as the absence stays under two years and you do not establish a different principal residence. Active-duty military deployments and stays in a health or aging-care facility are not subject to the two-year limit.

Deadlines, Late Filing, and Protests

The standard filing deadline is April 30 of the tax year. Miss it, and you can still file a late application for up to two years after the original deadline, and recover overpaid taxes for the years the exemption should have applied.⁹ A missed deadline is not permanent.

Submit the application to the chief appraiser at the appraisal district where the property sits, by mail, in person, or electronically where available. The chief appraiser must send written notice of a modification or denial. A straightforward approval produces no notice; the exemption just shows up on your tax bill, usually mailed in October.⁹

If your exemption is denied, you can protest to the Appraisal Review Board. The deadline is May 15 or the 30th day after the district delivered notice, whichever is later.¹⁰ Exemption protests are routine business for the review board, so file one if you were turned down.

If You Still Cannot Afford the Bill

Texas lets homeowners who are 65 or older, disabled, or qualifying disabled veterans defer property taxes entirely by filing an affidavit with the chief appraiser. While the deferral is active, no taxing unit can sue you or sell the home at a tax sale. The taxes still accrue, with interest at 5 percent per year, and the full balance comes due within 181 days of the day you stop owning or occupying the home.¹¹ Heirs or buyers ultimately pay it off, so this works best when you plan to stay put.

Ignoring the bill is much more expensive. Taxes unpaid by January 31 start accruing penalties on February 1: 6 percent in the first month, rising 1 percent per month through June, then jumping to a flat 12 percent on July 1 for any balance still outstanding. Interest adds another 1 percent per month on top of the penalty.¹² By midsummer, the extra cost can easily top 18 percent of the original bill. If you qualify for the deferral, 5 percent interest is a far better deal than letting penalties compound.

1
Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts. Property Tax Exemptions
2
State of Texas. Texas Tax Code 11.13 – Residence Homestead
3
State of Texas. Texas Tax Code 23.23 – Limitation on Appraised Value of Residence Homestead
4
Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts. Valuing Property
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State of Texas. Texas Tax Code 11.26 – Limitation of School Tax on Homesteads of Elderly or Disabled
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State of Texas. Texas Tax Code 11.22 – Disabled Veterans
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State of Texas. Texas Tax Code 11.131 – Residence Homestead of 100 Percent or Totally Disabled Veteran
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Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts. Residence Homestead Exemption Application
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Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts. Residence Homestead Exemptions
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State of Texas. Texas Tax Code 41.44 – Notice of Protest
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State of Texas. Texas Tax Code 33.06 – Deferred Collection of Taxes on Residence Homestead of Elderly or Disabled Person or Disabled Veteran
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State of Texas. Texas Tax Code 33.01 – Penalties and Interest