Texas Property Tax Exemptions 2026: How the $140,000 Homestead and $60,000 Senior Exemptions Cut a $450K Home's Bill by $1,800/Year

Your property tax bill says $9,000. Your neighbor, who owns the same house, pays $7,200. Neither of you appealed anything. The difference is a form she filed years ago.

That gap is the subject of this post. Exemptions are the least glamorous part of property tax, and they are the part most likely to be sitting unclaimed. I'll work through a real calculation for a $450K Texas home, show why the effective rate lands so far below the nominal rate on the bill, and then stack an appeal on top. After that I'll cover where the deadlines fall in other states.

Why Exemption Rules Are Suddenly in the News

Several of this month's stories point at the same thing: property tax is being rewritten in public.

• Stateline, as republished by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP), reports that at least nine states are putting tax policy directly in voters' hands this fall. Homestead and senior breaks are often the mechanism on those ballots.
• ITEP's Business Insider piece, "Inside the Generational Tax Battle Dividing Baby Boomers, Millennials," describes cuts for boomers and bigger bills for millennials. Age-based exemptions are a large part of that split. Someone over 65 can pay less than a 35-year-old on an identical house.
• Realtor.com News reports that Texas Gov. Greg Abbott halted data center permits, and that he would push to end incentives too. Route Fifty reports that Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger's order tightens data center standards. When large commercial properties get abatements, the levy still has to be raised somewhere, so the base that remains (homeowners) carries more of it.

I'll come back to the data center point below. Here is the practical takeaway. Exemptions are the one part of your bill that state law guarantees if you qualify. You don't have to argue a valuation to get one. You have to file.

(Tax Foundation also published a piece on how states define a "barrel" differently for per-barrel taxes. It is about liquids, not houses, but the lesson carries over. Definitions vary by state, and the same word can mean different amounts. "Homestead," "senior," and "disabled" work the same way, so never assume your friend in another state gets the same break.)

The Worked Example: A $450K Texas Home

Here are the assumptions. Real rates vary by district, so swap in yours.

• Market and appraised value: $450,000
• School district rate: $0.90 per $100 (0.90%)
• City, county, and other units combined: $1.10 per $100 (1.10%)
• Nominal combined rate: 2.00%
• Texas school homestead exemption: $140,000 (raised in 2025)
• Additional over-65 or disabled school exemption: $60,000, for $200,000 total

An important detail is that these state exemptions apply to the school portion. Other local exemptions are optional and vary by county and city, so I'm leaving them out to stay conservative.

Scenario 1: No exemptions filed

$450,000 × 2.00% = $9,000/year. Effective rate: 2.00%.

Scenario 2: Homestead exemption only

Line	Taxable value	Rate	Tax
School	$310,000 ($450K − $140K)	0.90%	$2,790
City, county, other	$450,000	1.10%	$4,950
Total			$7,740

Effective rate: $7,740 ÷ $450,000 = 1.72%. The homestead exemption saves $1,260/year, because $140,000 × 0.90% = $1,260.

Scenario 3: Homestead plus over-65 exemption

Line	Taxable value	Rate	Tax
School	$250,000 ($450K − $200K)	0.90%	$2,250
City, county, other	$450,000	1.10%	$4,950
Total			$7,200

Effective rate: 1.60%. Total savings against no exemptions: $1,800/year. The senior layer adds $540 (60,000 × 0.90%). Texas also freezes the school tax amount for qualifying seniors, which matters when rates or values rise. That freeze is not in the table because it is a ceiling on future increases, not a change to this year's bill.

The headline number: the bill's nominal rate is 2.00%, but the effective rate is 1.60% to 1.72%. If you compare your "2.00%" to another state's quoted rate without adjusting for exemptions, you are comparing the wrong numbers. Tax Foundation's state rate data (our tax_foundation_rates dataset, 255 rows) is best read as a starting point for this reason. It gives you the gross picture, and the exemption schedule tells you what you actually owe.

Now Stack an Appeal on Top

Exemptions and appeals don't compete with each other. Suppose comparable sales show your home would sell for $400,000, not $450,000. That is a $50,000 over-assessment.

Re-run Scenario 2 at $400,000:

• School: ($400,000 − $140,000) × 0.90% = $2,340
• Other: $400,000 × 1.10% = $4,400
• Total: $6,740

Savings against $7,740: $1,000/year. The exemption doesn't shrink the appeal's value here. The exemption comes off the top of the school levy, but the appeal still reduces the other 1.10% in full, so the $50K reduction is worth about 2.0% × $50,000 = $1,000.

Ten-year value. At a 5% discount rate, the annuity factor is (1 − 1.05⁻¹⁰) ÷ 0.05 ≈ 7.722.

• Undiscounted: $1,000 × 10 = $10,000
• Present value: $1,000 × 7.722 = $7,722

If you sell in year four, the present value drops to roughly $3,546 (factor 3.546). Even so, one hearing is worth more than most homeowners will save by refinancing this decade. For the full comparable-sales method, see our walkthrough of Harris County over-assessment appeals and the Dallas County DCAD comparable sales guide.

This is the kind of analysis Tavirex runs for you, so you don't have to build the spreadsheet yourself.

What Each Exemption Type Actually Does

Tavirex's analysis of 13,144 data points covers 51 jurisdictions in the Lincoln Institute assessment ratio set (lincoln_institute_ratios), 51 in the IAAO reassessment set (iaao_reassessment), and 204 rows in the NCSL exemptions dataset (ncsl_exemptions). The NCSL rows record which breaks each state offers. Four categories come up in nearly every state:

Exemption	Typical form	What it changes	Who must file
Homestead	Fixed dollar amount off value, or a cap on annual increases	Taxable value on your primary residence	Almost always you (one-time or annual)
Senior (65+)	Extra deduction, freeze, or credit; often income-tested	Taxable value or the bill itself	You, with proof of age (and income where tested)
Veteran / disabled veteran	Flat deduction, or a percentage tied to disability rating	Taxable value or the bill	You, with VA documentation
Disability	Deduction or freeze, sometimes combined with senior rules	Taxable value or the bill	You, with a physician or SSA letter

Two cautions, so you don't over-count your savings:

1. Stacking rules differ. In some states the senior and veteran breaks add up. In others you must choose the larger one. Read your state's rule before you count both.
2. Some are credits, not deductions. A credit reduces the bill dollar for dollar. A $1,000 credit beats a $1,000 deduction, which is worth only the rate times $1,000, or $20 at a 2% rate. Watch which word your county uses.

For state-specific numbers, see our posts on Virginia senior, disabled, and veteran credits in Fairfax County and the Tennessee disabled veteran exemption.

The Data Center Angle: Why This Affects Your Bill

The stories on Texas and Virginia (Realtor.com News and Route Fifty) give you a reason to check your own numbers each year, not just once.

Realtor.com reports that Texas is the nation's top market for data center construction and now ahead of Virginia. Abbott has said he wants to end incentives. Virginia's governor has tightened standards. I'm not going to guess at what any of that does to your specific bill, because it depends on your taxing districts. The mechanism is clear enough, though:

• A taxing district needs a set amount of revenue.
• Abatements shrink the taxable base.
• The rate then has to rise, or the shortfall lands on remaining properties.

In that setup, your exemption amount stays fixed while the rate underneath it changes. A $200,000 school exemption is worth $1,800 at a 0.90% school rate but $2,000 at 1.00%. If a rate rises, the exemption becomes more valuable, and it is more costly to leave unclaimed. Our earlier analysis of Kansas and Texas data center exemptions covers how homeowners can respond.

Your Action Plan This Week

1. Pull last year's bill and look for an exemption line. If the taxable value equals the market value, you may have none applied.
2. Confirm eligibility for each category. Ask whether you (or a spouse) are 65 or older, a veteran, or disabled. Also ask whether the home is your primary residence as of the qualifying date (January 1 in many states).
3. Gather documents. That means a photo ID, proof of residency, a VA letter, an SSA or physician letter, and the deed if you recently bought or inherited.
4. File with the county appraisal district or assessor. Exemption forms are usually free. Be wary of any company charging a fee to file one for you.
5. Then check the valuation. Pull three to five recent sales of similar homes within a mile or so and compare them to your assessed value.
6. Do the math above with your own rates. If the appeal savings exceed roughly $300/year, it is usually worth a hearing.

Inheritance is a common trap. A heir who assumes the parent's exemptions transfer can face a much larger bill. See our Texas inherited property tax trap guide.

Deadlines That Vary by State

These are general timing rules. Confirm current dates with your local office, because they change and this is educational information, not legal advice.

State	Typical appeal timing	Notes
Texas	By May 15, or 30 days after your notice is mailed, whichever is later	Protest to the appraisal review board; exemptions file with the appraisal district
Florida	25 days after the TRIM notice	Value Adjustment Board; homestead application due March 1
Georgia	45 days from the assessment notice	Homestead application timing varies by county
Ohio	Complaint by March 31	Board of Revision; homestead is a separate application
Virginia	Varies by locality	Relief programs generally have their own application windows

The Stateline report on nine states with tax questions on the ballot is a reminder to check twice. A ballot measure can change an exemption amount, a cap, or an eligibility rule between tax years. Ours may look right today and be different by the next notice.

The Bottom Line

• On a $450K Texas home, a nominal 2.00% rate becomes an effective 1.72% with the homestead exemption and 1.60% with the senior layer added.
• The savings are $1,260 for homestead and $1,800 with the over-65 exemption, a $540 difference from the senior layer alone.
• A $50K over-assessment adds about $1,000/year, or roughly $7,722 in present value over ten years.
• Exemptions require action from you. Nobody applies them for you if you never file.

You are not gaming anything here. You are asking the county to apply the rules the legislature already wrote, to a value that reflects what your house is worth.

To see what your exemptions and assessment are worth against your actual rates, run your numbers at Tavirex. It takes a few minutes, and it is much easier to act before your deadline than after it.

Data behind this post

The figures above are computed from the product's own reference tables, last refreshed 2026-09-20:

• 6,281 rows from census_acs_county_taxes
• 6,287 rows from census_acs_housing
• 9 rows from config_defaults
• 51 rows from iaao_reassessment
• 51 rows from lincoln_institute_ratios
• 204 rows from ncsl_exemptions
• 6 rows from ntuf_appeal_stats
• 255 rows from tax_foundation_rates

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Sources

• States’ Nonconformity with Federal Measurements Creates “Barrels” of Compliance Costs — Tax Foundation
• Texas Gov. Greg Abbott Halts Data Center Permits in Defiance of Trump as Public Backlash Grows — Realtor.com News
• Business Insider: Inside the Generational Tax Battle Dividing Baby Boomers, Millennials — Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy
• Stateline: Voters to Decide Fate of State Taxes This Fall — Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy
• Governors take major actions on AI — Route Fifty