Texas property tax exemptions

Yes: the General Residence Homestead Exemption. $140,000 off your home's value for school district taxes. Counties that collect farm-to-market road or flood control taxes must also take off $3,000. Any city, county, school district or special district may also choose to take off up to 20% of the value (at least $5,000). Who qualifies: You own the home and live in it as your principal residence, and you do not claim a homestead exemption on any other home in or outside Texas. If you buy after January 1, you can get it for the rest of that year if the seller did not have the same exemption.

Generally by April 30 (before May 1) of the tax year (Tax Code §11.43(d)). You can file a late application up to two years after the date that year's taxes become delinquent (usually February 1 of the next year), Tax Code §11.431.

One-time. You do not reapply each year unless the appraisal district asks you to. Tell the appraisal district in writing before May 1 of the year after you stop qualifying.

Age 65 or Older or Disabled Residence Homestead Exemption: An extra $60,000 off your home's value for school district taxes (so $200,000 in all with the general exemption). Cities, counties and other local units may add their own extra exemption of at least $3,000. You can get either the age 65 or the disability exemption from a school district, not both. School Tax Ceiling (tax freeze) for Age 65 or Older or Disabled: Your school district tax on the home cannot go above the amount you paid in the first year you got the 65+ or disabled exemption. The ceiling rises only if you add improvements (like a new room). Counties, cities and junior college districts may also adopt a freeze. Tax Deferral for Age 65 or Older, Disabled, or Disabled Veteran Homeowners: You can postpone paying property tax on your home for as long as you own and live in it. The tax is not forgiven: it stays a lien on the home and grows at 5% interest a year. It comes due 181 days after the tax office sends a delinquency notice once the home is no longer your homestead (for example, after you move or die, unless a surviving spouse continues the deferral).

100 Percent Disabled Veteran Residence Homestead Exemption: Your whole home is exempt from property tax (100% of the value). Disabled Veteran's Partial Exemption: Up to $5,000 off the value for a 10-29% rating, $7,500 for 30-49%, $10,000 for 50-69%, and $12,000 for 70-100%. Also $12,000 if you are 65 or older with at least a 10% rating, totally blind in one or both eyes, or have lost use of a limb. It can go on any one property you own, not only your home.

Partly. If you have the age 65 or disabled school tax ceiling and buy a new home in Texas, you can carry over the same percentage of school tax: for example, if your ceiling meant you paid 25% of the full school tax, you pay 25% on the new home (Tex. Tax Code §11.26(h); Comptroller publication 96-1425). The homestead exemption itself does not move; you apply again for the new home. A surviving spouse with a 100% disabled veteran exemption who moves keeps the same dollar amount of exemption on the new home.

Yes. Once your home has a homestead exemption, its appraised value for taxes cannot go up more than 10% a year, plus the value of new improvements (Tex. Tax Code §23.23). The cap starts on January 1 of the tax year after the first year you qualify.

The appraisal district in your county (for example, the Harris Central Appraisal District) decides all homestead and veteran exemptions. You apply to that appraisal district, not to the state comptroller.