Williamson County Property Tax Exemptions: Filing, Deadlines, and Appeals

Williamson County property tax exemptions are filed through the Williamson Central Appraisal District (WCAD), and the biggest one — the general residence homestead exemption — removes $140,000 from your home’s taxable value for school district taxes. On top of that, homeowners who are 65 or older, disabled, or disabled veterans can stack additional exemptions, and the county and several cities within it offer their own optional homestead reductions. One application form covers most of them, and the deadline to file for a given tax year is April 30.

The General Residence Homestead Exemption

Texas Tax Code Section 11.13(b) requires every school district to exempt $140,000 of a home’s appraised value from school district property taxes.¹ Any homeowner who owns and occupies a property as a primary residence qualifies. No age or disability requirement applies. On a home appraised at $400,000, the school district taxes you on $260,000 instead of the full value.

To qualify, you must have an ownership interest in the property and actually live there as your principal residence.¹ The home must be where you intend to return after any temporary absence. You can claim a homestead exemption on only one property at a time, and the exemption covers up to 20 acres of land used for residential purposes.²

Qualifying for the homestead exemption also triggers the 10 percent appraisal cap under Section 23.23. Once the cap takes effect, your property’s appraised value cannot increase by more than 10 percent per year regardless of how fast the local market moves.³ The cap starts on January 1 of the year after you first qualify. New improvements such as an addition or pool get added at full market value on top of the capped figure. The cap applies to appraised value, not the tax rate, so a taxing unit’s rate increase can still raise your bill.

Over-65 and Disabled Homeowner Exemptions

Homeowners who are 65 or older, or who meet the Social Security Administration’s definition of disability, qualify for an additional $60,000 exemption from school district taxes on top of the general $140,000.² For a qualifying homeowner, that brings the school district reduction to $200,000 before the rate is applied.

You cannot receive both the over-65 and disabled exemptions from the same taxing unit in the same year. Pick whichever produces the greater benefit; you can switch in a later year. You can, however, take the over-65 exemption from one taxing unit and the disabled exemption from a different one in the same year.²

The more valuable piece for people on fixed incomes is the school tax ceiling under Section 11.26. When you qualify as over-65 or disabled, the school district freezes the dollar amount of tax it charges on your homestead at the level imposed in the first year you qualify.⁴ Even if values climb or the district raises its rate, your school taxes stay at or below that frozen amount. The ceiling adjusts upward only if you add improvements beyond ordinary repairs, in which case the district applies the current rate to the added value and rolls that into the ceiling. The ceiling ends if no qualifying owner continues to occupy the home as a homestead.

Disabled Veteran Exemptions

Texas provides two separate benefits for disabled veterans, and confusing them is a common mistake. The difference can be worth thousands of dollars.

Partial Exemptions by Disability Rating

Veterans with a service-connected disability rated by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs receive a partial exemption from the assessed value of any property they own, scaled to the rating:⁵

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

These apply to any property the veteran owns, not just a homestead. A surviving spouse who does not remarry receives the same exemption amount the veteran had at the time of death.⁵

Total Exemption for 100 Percent Disabled Veterans

Veterans rated 100 percent disabled, or classified as individually unemployable by the VA, qualify for a complete exemption of their residence homestead’s total appraised value under Section 11.131.⁶ That is zero property taxes on the home. A veteran at 70 percent under Section 11.22 gets a $12,000 reduction; a veteran at 100 percent under Section 11.131 pays nothing on the homestead.

The surviving spouse of a 100 percent disabled veteran also qualifies for the total exemption on the same property as long as the spouse has not remarried and continues to live there. If the surviving spouse later moves, the exemption transfers to the new homestead as a fixed dollar amount equal to what was exempted on the former home in the last year the spouse received it there.⁶

Optional Local Exemptions

Beyond the mandatory school district exemptions, Texas law lets cities, counties, and special districts adopt optional homestead exemptions of up to 20 percent of a home’s appraised value, with a $5,000 floor.² Taxing units may also adopt additional exemptions of at least $3,000 for over-65 and disabled homeowners under Section 11.13(d) and (e). Whether a particular unit offers these, and at what level, is up to its governing body.

Williamson County itself offers an optional homestead exemption, and many cities in the county do as well. Georgetown, Cedar Park, Leander, and Liberty Hill are among the cities that have adopted optional exemptions, and several municipal utility districts and special districts participate too.⁷ The exact amounts vary by taxing unit and change from year to year, so check WCAD’s published tax rate sheets or contact the taxing unit directly for current figures. Some local units also offer optional tax freezes for over-65 and disabled homeowners, extending the ceiling concept beyond school district taxes.

Heir Property

If you inherited a home and live in it but your name is not on the deed, you can still qualify. Section 11.13 treats an heir property owner who qualifies the home as a homestead as the sole recipient of all exemptions available under the homestead provisions.² This matters because inherited property often has multiple heirs, and without this provision co-ownership complications could block the exemption entirely. You will need to provide an affidavit or other evidence of your ownership interest when you apply. Form 50-114-A is the companion form for this situation.

How to Apply

All homestead exemptions in Williamson County are filed with WCAD using the state-prescribed Form 50-114, the Application for Residence Homestead Exemption.⁸ The form is available through WCAD’s website and the Texas Comptroller’s site.⁹

Before you start, make sure your Texas driver’s license or state-issued ID shows the same physical address as the property. The address on your ID must match the property address.¹⁰ If you recently moved, update your ID first.

The form asks for your property’s account number and legal description, both of which appear on prior tax statements or deed records. You will also disclose your percentage of ownership and confirm you live in the property.⁸ If the property is held in trust or owned by multiple parties, additional documentation explaining the ownership structure is required.

Specialized exemptions need extra proof. Over-65 applicants need accurate birthdate information on file. Disabled homeowner applicants must qualify under the federal disability insurance standard. Veterans applying for a disability-related exemption should include VA documentation confirming the disability rating.

The fastest route is WCAD’s online portal, where you upload your ID and supporting documents and get immediate confirmation of submission.¹¹ You can also deliver a paper application to the WCAD office in Georgetown or send it by certified mail for a delivery record. Once approved, the exemption applies to the current and future tax years. You only need to file once; it carries forward automatically as long as you remain eligible.

Filing Deadline and Late Applications

The standard deadline is April 30 of the tax year for which you want the exemption. Miss it, and you pay the full unexempted amount for that year unless you file a late application.

Texas does allow late filings. Under Section 11.431, the chief appraiser must accept a late homestead exemption application filed no later than two years after the delinquency date for the taxes on the property. The delinquency date is typically February 1 of the following year. If you already paid the higher amount, the tax collector must refund the overpayment within 60 days of the late application’s approval, and you don’t need to request the refund separately.¹²

On-time is still better. A late approval means months of overpaying followed by a refund process. If you just bought a home, put the homestead application on your January calendar.

If Your Application Is Denied

If WCAD denies your application, you will receive a written notice explaining the reasons. You can protest that decision before the Appraisal Review Board, which is a separate body from the appraisal district staff that made the initial decision.¹³

What Happens to Your Mortgage Escrow

If you pay property taxes through a mortgage escrow account, a newly approved exemption won’t change your monthly payment automatically. Your servicer sets the escrow amount based on the prior year’s tax bill, so when the exemption lowers your actual liability, the account ends up with a surplus.

Under federal rules, your servicer must perform an annual escrow analysis and send you a statement within 30 days of the end of the computation year.¹⁴ A surplus of $50 or more must be refunded to you within 30 days; smaller surpluses can be credited toward the next year. Your monthly payment should also drop going forward. If several months pass after approval and nothing changes, call your servicer and ask for a new analysis rather than waiting on the annual cycle.

1
Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts. Property Tax Exemptions
2
State of Texas. Texas Code Tax Code 11.13 – Residence Homestead
3
State of Texas. Texas Code Tax Code 23.23 – Limitation on Appraised Value of Residence Homestead
4
State of Texas. Texas Code Tax Code 11.26 – Limitation of School Tax on Homesteads of Elderly or Disabled
5
State of Texas. Texas Code Tax Code 11.22 – Disabled Veterans
6
State of Texas. Texas Code Tax Code 11.131 – Residence Homestead of 100 Percent or Totally Disabled Veteran
7
Williamson County, TX. Tax Rates and Exemptions
8
Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts. Residence Homestead Exemption Application
9
Williamson Central Appraisal District. Homestead Exemptions Application – Form 50-114
10
Williamson Central Appraisal District. Residential Homestead Exemption – How to File Electronically
11
Williamson Central Appraisal District. Online Exemption Information
12
State of Texas. Texas Code Tax Code 11.431 – Late Application for Homestead Exemption
13
Williamson County, TX. Williamson Central Appraisal District
14
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. 1024.17 Escrow Accounts