The Texas Over-65 School Tax Ceiling Explained (and How to Transfer It)

Published October 10, 2026. Updated October 21, 2026. Figures were checked that day on the Comptroller’s exemptions page and in Tax Code Chapters 11 and 33.

People talk about an over-65 “freeze.” Texas law splits that idea in two. One piece lowers the value the school district taxes. The other piece limits the school-tax dollars in later years. Neither one, by itself, removes the city, county, or special-district bill.

This page is not legal or tax advice. The chief appraiser decides qualification, and the school-tax limitation on your account is the figure the appraisal district calculates.

The extra $60,000 is only for school taxes

The Comptroller’s exemptions page says Tax Code Section 11.13(c) requires school districts to give an additional $60,000 residence homestead exemption to a person who is 65 or older or who is disabled. The statute says the same thing, and it says the $60,000 is in addition to the exemption in Section 11.13(b). That base exemption is $140,000 for a school district. The two state amounts together are $200,000. Houston ISD also grants 20 percent of appraised value and a $5,000 local age-65 or disabled amount, so the Houston example below subtracts more than $200,000. The general homestead rules, the form, and the deadline are in the homestead exemption article.

To qualify for the age-65 exemption, the Comptroller says you must be 65 or older, have an ownership interest, and live in the home as your principal residence. A surviving spouse who is 55 or older may qualify for the deceased spouse’s age-65 exemption if the spouse died in a year when they qualified and the survivor keeps the home as a primary residence.

Disabled, for this exemption, means the definition used for federal disability insurance benefits under the Federal Old-Age, Survivors, and Disability Insurance Act. The Comptroller says benefits from another program do not automatically qualify you. Section 11.13(c) is “disabled or 65 or older,” so the additional $60,000 is one exemption, not two. A person who is both may receive both in the same year, the Comptroller says, but not from the same taxing units.

Tax Code Section 11.13(d) lets any taxing unit adopt a local-option exemption for a person who is 65 or older or disabled. That local option cannot be less than $3,000. It is not automatically another $60,000. On the HCAD jurisdiction page for account 1045310000022, the Over 65 Amount column differs by unit. Harris County’s local over-65 dollar amount is not used here: the Commissioners Court set $320,000 for tax year 2025, and the HCAD page showed $336,000 without a confirmed year, so this dataset leaves it off. Houston ISD’s tax page states an additional $5,000 on top of the state $60,000, and the example below includes that $5,000. Check your own account before you rely on a local dollar amount.

What the ceiling actually caps

Tax Code Section 11.26(a) says the district still appraises the home and calculates the tax the same way as for other property. If that tax is above the limitation, the school tax imposed is the limited amount, except as the rest of the section provides. The district may not increase the annual school tax on the homestead of a person 65 or older, or of a person who is disabled as Section 11.13 defines it, above the tax imposed in the first year the homestead qualified for the Section 11.13(c) exemption.

There is a timing wrinkle in the same subsection. If you qualified after the start of that first year, the home stays eligible the next year, and the next year’s school tax is lower than the first year’s, the district may not later raise the tax above that second-year amount, except as subsection (b) allows for improvements.

Subsection (a-10) adjusts the cap in 2024 and later when the district’s maximum compressed rate changes, and it subtracts the tax effect of any increase in the Section 11.13(b) and (c) exemptions. The appraisal district computes that adjustment. Subsection (b) goes the other way: improvements other than repairs, or work a government requires, can raise the tax once, by the current rate times the added value.

The ceiling ends in the situations in Section 11.26(c). On January 1, it expires if none of the owners who qualified, and who owned the home when the limitation took effect, still use it as a residence homestead, or if none of the owners still qualify. It does not expire merely because an owner deeds an interest into a qualifying trust described in Section 11.13(j), if the owner or the owner’s spouse is a trustor and can still occupy the home.

A Houston ISD example

Houston ISD’s 2026 adopted rate is $0.8421 per $100, from the district’s tax page, checked October 21, 2026. On a home appraised at $350,000, school tax with no exemption is $2,947.35. With the state $140,000 and Houston ISD’s 20 percent ($70,000), school taxable value is $140,000 and school tax is $1,178.94. Add the state $60,000 and Houston ISD’s $5,000 local option and the exemption is $275,000. School taxable value is $75,000 and school tax is $631.58. Those two age-65 amounts together save $547.36 at this rate. The state $60,000 by itself is $505.26, and the local $5,000 is $42.11. The penny difference from $547.37 is rounding each line to the nearest cent, which is what the calculator does.

The same home’s Harris County stack, using 2026 adopted rates where the dataset has them and the 2025 rate otherwise, with the 20 percent general homestead on every unit in the stack and Houston City College left off, is $4,526.22 with the general homestead only and $3,978.86 after the age-65 school exemption. The difference is that same $547.36. Non-school local over-65 dollar amounts are not applied.

Suppose, only as an illustration of Section 11.26(a), that the first full qualifying year imposed $631.58 of school tax, the $350,000 figure above. If a later appraisal is $400,000 at the same $0.8421 rate, with the same exemptions, school taxable value is $115,000 ($400,000 minus $140,000, minus 20 percent, minus $60,000, minus $5,000) and school tax without the ceiling is $968.42. Subsection (a-10) can lower the cap when the compressed rate or the exemption amounts change, and subsection (b) can raise it for improvements. Do not treat $631.58 as a permanent bill. This site’s calculator caps the school line only at a ceiling you type. It does not compute the (a-10) adjustment.

Moving the ceiling to another house

Section 11.26(g) covers someone who already has the limitation, including a surviving spouse who has it under subsection (i), and who later qualifies a different homestead for the same exemption. The new district may not tax that home above a product. Take the tax it would have charged on the new home in the first year of the exemption there, calculated as if no ceiling existed. Multiply by a fraction: the school tax actually imposed on the old home in the last year of the exemption, divided by the school tax that would have been imposed on the old home that year without the ceiling.

If the old ceiling was not reducing the bill, the fraction is 1. If it was, the new limit is that smaller fraction of what the new district would charge in the first year without a ceiling. The old dollar amount does not move unchanged. Section 11.26(h) entitles you to a written certificate from the chief appraiser of the old home, with the figures the new district needs. Ask before closing.

If the owner who qualified under Section 11.13(c) dies, subsection (i) gives the surviving spouse the same limitation when the spouse is 55 or older at the death and the home was, and remains, the survivor’s residence homestead. A transfer under subsection (g) is also available to that surviving spouse.

How to get it on the roll

The application is Comptroller Form 50-114, the same residence homestead form. HCAD’s FAQ says Harris County owners use that application for the general homestead and the over-65 exemption, by mail, at 13013 Northwest Freeway, or electronically. Tax Code Section 11.43(k) says a person who qualifies for an exemption under Section 11.13(c) or (d), or Section 11.132, must apply no later than the first anniversary of the date they qualified.

You may not need a new form the year you turn 65. Section 11.43(m) says that if you already receive a Section 11.13 exemption, other than the age-65 exemption itself, and you turn 65 in the next tax year, the chief appraiser shall allow the age-65 exemption that next year without a new application when your age is already in the district’s records from an earlier homestead application or from the Department of Public Safety. That does not apply if the chief appraiser determines you are no longer entitled to any Section 11.13 exemption on the property. If your birth date is not on file, file the form.

Deferral is separate. Tax Code Section 33.06 lets a person defer collection, or stop a suit or a tax sale, if the person is 65 or older, is disabled as defined by Section 11.13(m), or qualifies under Section 11.22, and the tax is on a residence homestead the person owns and occupies. You file an affidavit with the chief appraiser. The lien remains. Interest during the deferral is 5 percent a year under Section 33.06(d), instead of the usual delinquent-tax rate, and penalties that had already accrued stay in place. A surviving spouse who was 55 or older when the owner died can keep the deferral under subsection (f) while the spouse owns and occupies the home. Deferral does not forgive the tax.

Frequently asked questions

Use the calculator

In the property tax calculator, choose the county, place, and school district, leave “General homestead” on, and check “Age 65 or older.” If you already know the ceiling on the account, type it in to cap the school line. Other exemptions are in the exemptions overview. Rate and exemption sources are on the data sources page.

Sources

The Houston ISD rate and local exemptions were checked October 21, 2026. The other rates in the stack were checked October 7, 2026. The dollar example uses the same rounding as the calculator.

• Texas Comptroller, Property Tax Exemptions — additional $60,000, who qualifies, surviving spouse at 55, and the rule that age-65 and disabled exemptions do not come from the same taxing unit.
• Texas Tax Code Chapter 11 — Sections 11.13(b), (c), and (d), 11.26 (the ceiling, improvements, transfer, and surviving spouse), and 11.43(k) and (m).
• Tax Code Section 33.06 — deferral of collection, the affidavit, the 5 percent interest rate, and the surviving-spouse rule.
• Comptroller Form 50-114.
• Houston ISD, Tax Information — 2026 adopted rate of $0.8421 per $100, the 20 percent homestead exemption, and the additional $5,000 local option for age 65 or disabled on top of the state $60,000. Checked October 21, 2026.
• Harris County Tax Office, Jurisdiction Tax Rates — 2026 adopted rates for Harris County, flood control, Harris Health, and the Port of Houston, and the 2025 rates for the City of Houston and the Department of Education. Checked October 7, 2026.
• HCAD jurisdiction page, account 1045310000022 — shows that local over-65 amounts differ by taxing unit. Read October 10, 2026.
• HCAD frequently asked questions — age 65 does not by itself remove the tax bill, and where to file the homestead application.