Dr. Blake Bennett and I co-authored a fact sheet on an important, but not widely known, concept related to property taxes.

Most people are familiar with the over-65 exemption and the disabled exemption for property taxes, which allows for an additional $10,000 homestead exemption for school district taxes.  Additionally, the over-65 exemption and the disabled exemption freeze the value of the homestead for school tax purposes a the dollar value when the person initially claimed this additional exemption on their homestead.   The market value can continue to increase on a qualifying homestead, but the value for school tax purposes is frozen at the level when the additional exemption was claimed.

Photo by Megan Lee on Unsplash

Did you know, however, that if a person who has qualified for this exemption moves to a new principal residence, they can also transfer the percentage savings they have on the school taxes from the current residence to the new residence?  To qualify, a person must be moving from one Texas homestead to another, and they must apply for the transfer.

For many homeowners, this may result in large property tax savings. Our fact sheet walks through this concept and contains examples of how it may benefit qualifying landowners.

To read the fact sheet, click here.