If you own property in Texas and your job or personal situation puts you at risk, you can request Texas property tax address confidentiality by filing Comptroller Form 50-284 with the chief appraiser of the county appraisal district where the property sits. The filing is authorized by Section 25.025 of the Texas Property Tax Code. Once accepted, the appraisal district removes the public link between your name and your home address, while keeping the account active for assessment and collection.
The protection is useful, but narrower than people often assume. It is worth understanding what it does, who can use it, and what it will not do before you file.
Who Qualifies
Section 25.025(a) lists more than two dozen categories of eligible individuals. The major groups:
- Current or former peace officers, their spouses, surviving spouses, and adult children. Current or honorably retired county jailers, Texas Department of Criminal Justice employees, commissioned security officers, community supervision and corrections personnel who do direct supervision, and federal criminal investigators are also covered.
- Federal judges, federal bankruptcy judges, U.S. Marshals, and state judges, along with their family members.
- Current or former district attorneys, criminal district attorneys, and county or municipal attorneys whose work touches criminal law or child protective services, plus current or former employees of those offices. Current or former attorneys for the Department of Family and Protective Services were added by SB 1525.
- Victims of family violence, sexual assault or abuse, stalking, or trafficking of persons, where the victim is the applicant, their child, or another household member.
- Participants in the Address Confidentiality Program administered by the Office of the Attorney General under Code of Criminal Procedure Article 58.059.
- Firefighters, volunteer firefighters, and emergency medical services personnel. These were added effective January 1, 2025.
The full list also reaches medical examiners, Texas Juvenile Justice Department employees, and officers of certain state agencies. If your work puts you in regular contact with people who might retaliate, read through Section 25.025(a) in full before concluding you are not covered.
What Becomes Confidential, and What Does Not
Once your election is on file, information in the appraisal records that identifies your home address is restricted from public view. The appraisal district, the comptroller, the state, and local taxing units still see it internally for assessment and collection. The public does not, whether they ask through an online search or an open-records request.
Here is the catch that trips people up. Section 25.025(d) still permits public disclosure of information that identifies a property by its address, as long as that information does not identify the person who made the confidentiality election. In practice, the appraisal district severs the connection between your name and your address. The property itself does not vanish from the tax roll. Someone who already knows your address and searches by it may still pull up property characteristics and tax information. What they will not find is your name tied to that address, and a search by your name should return nothing useful.
If your goal is to prevent someone from discovering where you live by searching your name in appraisal records, the protection works. If your goal is to make the property itself invisible, it will not do that.
How to File
The Form and Documentation
Use Texas Comptroller Form 50-284, “Request for Confidentiality Under Tax Code Section 25.025.” The form asks for your name, home address, the county, your appraisal district account number if you have it, the property type, and the qualification number corresponding to your eligibility category from the form’s instructions.
What you attach depends on how you qualify:
- If you qualify through an occupational category (law enforcement, judge, prosecutor, firefighter, EMS, and so on), the statute does not prescribe a specific document. Be prepared to verify your status with an official ID, employment verification, or similar proof.
- If you qualify as a victim of family violence, sexual assault, stalking, or trafficking, attach a protective order, a magistrate’s order for emergency protection, or other independent documentary evidence showing that you, your child, or another household member is a victim.
- If you qualify through the Attorney General’s Address Confidentiality Program, attach proof of certification under Code of Criminal Procedure Article 58.059.
Where to Send It
Send the completed form and supporting documentation to the chief appraiser of the appraisal district where the property is located. There is no statutory filing fee. Certified mail with return receipt gives you a dated record of delivery, though in-person delivery works too.
If you own property in more than one county, you have to file separately with each appraisal district. The election applies to the specific property and the specific district where it was filed, not statewide.
Judges Get an Automatic Path
Federal and state judges, and their spouses, can rely on an alternative mechanism. Under Section 25.025(b)(2)(B), confidentiality can begin on the date the Office of Court Administration notifies the appraisal district of the judge’s qualification. Judges can still file Form 50-284 themselves if they prefer, but they are not required to initiate the request.
Claiming a Homestead Exemption With a Confidential Address
The standard homestead exemption application, Form 50-114, normally requires a copy of your driver’s license or state-issued ID showing the property address. That requirement conflicts directly with the point of keeping your address out of public records.
Participants in the Attorney General’s Address Confidentiality Program can skip the ID copy by checking the box in Section 4 of the homestead form, which states: “I am certified for participation in the address confidentiality program administered by the Office of the Texas Attorney General under Code of Criminal Procedure Chapter 58, Subchapter B.”
If you qualify under Section 25.025 through an occupational category rather than the ACP, the homestead application does not offer the same explicit checkbox. Districts handle this inconsistently. Call your appraisal district before you file the homestead application and ask how they treat the ID requirement for owners with existing confidentiality elections. Sorting it out in advance avoids a round of corrections.
How Long the Protection Lasts
The election stays in effect until you rescind it in writing. There is no annual renewal, no expiration, and no periodic re-certification. If you sell the property, the election no longer applies at that address because you no longer own it, and you would need to file a new Form 50-284 for any new property you buy.
If your eligibility status changes, for example you leave a covered occupation and no other category fits, the statute does not create an automatic removal tied to employment status. The election stands until you rescind it. Filing a false claim of eligibility carries its own risks, so keep your status current with the appraisal district.
Section 25.026 Is About Shelters, Not Individuals
If you have seen Section 25.026 cited alongside 25.025, it does not give individual victims a separate option. Section 25.026 protects the addresses of three types of facilities: family violence shelter centers, sexual assault programs, and victims of trafficking shelter centers operated by public or private nonprofit organizations. Individual victims who want address protection should file under Section 25.025.
Common Mistakes
The biggest mistake is treating this filing as a complete solution. The appraisal district is one of many public sources that tie your name to your address. County clerk deed records, voter registration, and various other databases are not covered by Sections 25.025 or 25.026. If someone dangerous is actively looking for you, the appraisal district filing is one piece of a larger plan that should include the Attorney General’s Address Confidentiality Program and a review of every other public record where your address appears.
The second mistake is assuming a confidentiality election makes the property itself private. It does not. It breaks the name-to-address link in the appraisal records; it does not pull the property off the tax roll or hide it from an address-based search.
The third is forgetting the multi-county rule. One filing covers one appraisal district. Properties in other counties need their own filings.