What is the Texas over-65 property tax exemption and school tax ceiling?

Texas homeowners 65 or older get an additional $60,000 school district homestead exemption on top of the general $140,000, plus a school tax ceiling that freezes school taxes at the amount for the year they qualified. Moving transfers the ceiling as a percentage, not a dollar amount, and only if you file for it.

Two separate benefits, often confused

The age-65 package is really two things, and mixing them up leads to wrong expectations about a tax bill.

The exemption is an amount subtracted from taxable value. School districts must grant an additional $60,000 residence homestead exemption to owners who are 65 or older or who are disabled, on top of the general $140,000 school district exemption in effect for 2026. Other taxing units may adopt a local option exemption of at least $3,000 for the same group (Texas Comptroller).

The ceiling is a cap on the tax itself, not on the value. A qualifying homeowner's school district taxes are frozen at the amount for the year the owner qualified. Appraised value can climb, the school district's rate can climb, and the school portion of the bill does not go above the ceiling amount (Texas Comptroller).

The ceiling only covers the school district portion. City, county and special district taxes are a separate question, answered entity by entity.

The ceiling can go down but not up

A ceiling is a maximum, not a fixed payment. If rates fall or value falls enough that the calculated school tax comes in below the ceiling, you pay the lower number. The ceiling does not force you to pay more than the actual calculation.

The ceiling can also be raised by new improvements. Adding square footage, a casita, a pool, a shop building — the added value is taxed, and the ceiling is adjusted to account for it. Ordinary repairs and maintenance are a different matter from new improvements, and where the line falls on a specific project is a determination the appraisal district makes.

Which local entities freeze, and which do not

Statewide, the school district ceiling is mandatory. A city or county freeze is a local option, and it is not universal across Texas.

In Kendall County, the appraisal district names the City of Boerne, Boerne ISD, Comfort ISD and Kendall County as jurisdictions offering over-65 and disability tax freezes (Kendall Appraisal District). Which entities cover a specific parcel depends on where that parcel sits — inside Boerne city limits versus unincorporated Kendall County is a different set of taxing units, and a MUD or water district on the bill is not part of any of it.

Do not assume a freeze you had in another Texas county follows you. It is adopted locally and applies locally.

Moving: this is where money gets lost

An over-65 homeowner who sells and buys another Texas home can carry the school tax ceiling to the new home. Two things about how that works surprise nearly everyone:

It transfers as a percentage, not a dollar amount. The old ceiling is expressed as a percentage of what the school taxes would otherwise have been, and that percentage is applied to the new home's school taxes. Someone paying a frozen $1,400 on an older home does not get a $1,400 ceiling on a more expensive new home. They get the same proportional reduction (Texas Comptroller).

It only happens if you file. The transfer is not automatic and does not follow you by itself. The sequence is:

Request a tax ceiling certificate — Comptroller Form 50-311 — from the appraisal district for the old home.
File that certificate with the appraisal district for the new home.
File a new residence homestead application on the new home, including the age-65 exemption.

All three. Skipping the certificate is the common failure: the new homestead exemption gets filed, the age-65 exemption gets filed, and the ceiling percentage never transfers because nobody asked the old district for the certificate.

For a Boerne or Kendall County purchase, step 2 and step 3 go to the Kendall Appraisal District at kendallad.org — not Bexar CAD, because Boerne is in Kendall County and is not part of San Antonio or Bexar County.

Qualifying, and the January 1 rule

The underlying requirement is the same as any residence homestead exemption: the owner owned and occupied the home as a principal residence on January 1 of the tax year (Texas Comptroller). Applications are due before May 1.

The age-65 exemption has its own well-known wrinkle in practice, and the appraisal district is the right place to confirm how it is applied in your situation: the qualifying event is a birthday, not a calendar year, and districts handle the first year of eligibility according to the statute's terms. Ask them rather than guessing.

Why the bill can still move

A frozen school tax is not a frozen tax bill. As of September 2026, the Boerne ISD rate was 1.0109 per $100 of taxable value for 2025 — 0.6969 maintenance and operations plus 0.3140 debt — after 0.9909 in 2024 and 0.9932 in 2023 (Kendall County). Movement in that rate does not push a ceilinged bill above its ceiling. Movement in a city or county or MUD rate, on a parcel where that entity has no freeze, does.

So an over-65 homeowner can hold a rock-steady school tax and still open a larger total bill. The school line is doing its job; a different line moved.

What the ceiling does at death

A surviving spouse may continue an over-65 ceiling, subject to the statutory conditions on age and continued homestead use. That is a fact-specific determination, and the appraisal district makes it. A Texas real estate attorney is the right person to look at how title is held before the question ever becomes urgent, because how the deed reads at the time of death affects the answer.

What to actually do

File for the age-65 exemption when you become eligible, with the appraisal district, free.
Confirm on the next notice of appraised value that both the exemption and the ceiling posted.
Before selling and moving within Texas, request Form 50-311 from the old district first.
Check which non-school entities on your bill offer a freeze — do not assume.

Eligibility, the ceiling amount and the transfer percentage are all determined by the appraisal district. For the tax consequences of any of it, and for planning around a move or an estate, talk with a CPA.

Questions about a specific property?

Call or text 830-446-3847 · Email heath.shepard@kw.com

This page explains how the Texas over-65 exemption and school tax ceiling work. It is not tax or legal advice. Eligibility and ceiling amounts are determined by the appraisal district; take tax consequences to a CPA.