Check what Harris County already has on your address. If an exemption is missing, we fill the form in from the public record — you check it, sign it, and send it.
Reads HCAD's public appraisal roll. Nothing is saved and nothing is emailed to you.
An exemption takes part of your home's value out of the tax calculation. It is the largest free thing a Texas homeowner can do, most of them are permanent once granted, and every application is free — HCAD publishes the homestead application as Form 11.13, the Texas Comptroller publishes the identical form as Form 50-114, and neither charges for it.
HCAD's page on filing your homestead electronically says you do it using the HCAD Mobile App, and lists an iPhone or Android among the four things you need. Plenty of people would rather not download an app to fill in one form — and the exemptions with the biggest savings, over-65 and veteran, belong to the people least likely to want to.
Here, you use whatever device you are already on. Nothing to install, nothing to sign up for. You end up holding a finished form you can mail or carry into HCAD's office.
| Exemption | What it does | Statute |
|---|---|---|
| General residence homestead | Removes $140,000 from the value your school district taxes, on a home you own and live in as your main residence. | §11.13(b) |
| Harris County local option | Harris County grants the local-option exemption of up to 20% of appraised value on county taxes. | §11.13(n) |
| Over 65 or disabled | Another $60,000 off the school-district value, on top of the general homestead. | §11.13(c) |
| Disabled veteran | $5,000 to $12,000 off, by VA disability rating. | §11.22 |
| 100% disabled veteran | A total residence homestead exemption for a veteran rated 100% disabled or individually unemployable. | §11.131 |
| Surviving spouse of a service member killed in the line of duty | A total residence homestead exemption. | §11.133 |
| Home destroyed by fire NEW FOR 2026 | Takes the destroyed building out of that year's tax, in proportion to the days left in the year after the fire. | §11.351 |
| Solar or wind energy device | Removes the added value your panels or turbine put on the property — not the whole property. | §11.27 |
You cannot take both the disabled and the over-65 exemption from the same taxing unit, though different units are fine (§11.13(h)).
iFile is HCAD's system for protests, and it needs the iFile number printed on your Notice of Appraised Value. HCAD lists “iFile Protest” separately from its exemption services for exactly this reason. If anyone tells you to “iFile your homestead”, they have mixed up two different systems. Exemptions go through one of the three routes below.
Their wizard asks a few questions, works out which forms you need, and submits online. It handles everything — homestead, over-65, disabled, disabled veteran, surviving spouse, solar. No app, no account.
The catch: you fill the whole thing in yourself, from a blank form, in English. The homestead application alone runs to well over a hundred boxes, and you have to know your account number, the legal description and the dates before you start.
Best if you are confident with forms and want it submitted today.HCAD's own page says you can file electronically using the HCAD Info and Exemptions app, and lists four things you need: your date of occupancy, your Texas driver's licence, an iPhone or Android, and the app.
HCAD describes this route for the residence homestead exemption. For a disabled-veteran or solar application, use route 1 or 3.Your form comes back already filled in from HCAD's own public record: account number, legal description, owner name, the lot. You add the few things no public file holds — your date of birth, your licence number — check it, and sign it.
You get two copies. One is clean and ready to go — mail it to HCAD or hand it in at their office. The other is stamped DO NOT MAIL across every page, so months from now there is no doubt which one is your record and which one was filed.
Best if you would rather check a form than fill one in, or English is not your first language. You mail it or take it in yourself — we do not submit it for you, and we never file anything on anyone's behalf.Whichever route you pick, every exemption application can be mailed or handed in, and this one never depends on a phone, an app or a login.
Harris Central Appraisal District, 13013 Northwest Freeway, Houston, TX 77040. Office hours 8:00 AM–5:00 PM, Monday to Friday. Information centre (713) 957-7800.
The district runs exemption assistance sessions — online and at its office — where a member of staff goes through the application with you and checks it before it is submitted. You can also just ring the information centre on (713) 957-7800.
We are telling you this even though it is the same job we do free, because it is genuinely useful and it is your county's own service. HCAD exemption assistance →
Nobody should charge you to file one of these. If someone is charging a fee to submit an exemption application, they are charging you for a free government form.
The exemptions above are the ones every Harris County guide lists. These four are real, they are in the Tax Code, and between them they cover a house that burned, solar panels, a soldier posted out of Texas, and a bill you cannot pay this year. None of them costs anything to apply for.
This one is brand new. Texas voters approved it in November 2025 and it took effect on 1 January 2026, so 2026 is the first year anyone can use it — a fire in 2025 does not qualify. It takes the destroyed building out of that year's tax, in proportion to the days left in the year after the fire.
You must apply within 180 days of the date the fire happened — not from your tax bill, not from a deadline in April. Miss it and the exemption is gone for that year.
The form is 50-339, and it goes to the appraisal district. If your bill has already been paid, the excess is refunded to you. §11.351
The full guide to the fire exemption →
This one is widely misunderstood in both directions. It does not exempt your house. It removes the amount of value the device added to the property — so if panels put $15,000 on your appraised value, that $15,000 comes out. It covers systems that make heat as well as electricity, so a solar water heater counts, and it applies to a business property just as much as a home.
Texas law points this exemption at whoever owns the device, and since 2021 that works even if they do not own the land it sits on. What the law does not do is say anything at all about leases or power-purchase agreements — and appraisal districts do not treat them alike. Some publish that leased systems do not qualify. HCAD publishes nothing either way, so if your system is leased, ring them and ask rather than assuming. §11.27
The full guide to the solar exemption →
If you are on active duty and were transferred out of the state — including a reservist called up and transferred — you can pay delinquent property tax on a home you own without penalty or interest. Reaching the deadline does not depend on filing anything: the statute says plainly that failing to file the notice does not affect your eligibility.
You get 60 days, counted from whichever of these happens first: you are discharged, you come back to Texas for more than 10 days, or you return to non-active reserve status. The form is 50-305 and it goes to the tax office or the appraisal district — never to the Comptroller.
You do not need a declared war or national emergency. That condition was removed from the law in 2019. Several official pages — including Harris County's own military page and an old copy of the form — still print the version with it in.
And if you miss the 60 days, the widely published warning that penalty and interest then apply to the whole delinquency is no longer the law either. The same 2019 bill capped it at 6% a year with no penalty. That is written on no official page we could find. §31.02, §33.01(f)
The full guide to the military waiver →
A deferral tells the county to stop collecting. It is not an exemption and it is not forgiveness — the debt stays, the lien stays, and interest keeps running — but it stops a lawsuit, and for a homeowner over 65 it stops a forced sale of the house.
There are two of them and they are not the same product. One is for homeowners who are 65 or older, disabled, or a disabled veteran; it covers the whole bill and charges the lower rate. The other is open to anyone whose value jumped, covers only part of the bill, charges more, and can quietly expire if you fall behind on the rest.
Because a deferral is secured against your home and the balance grows every year, it is the one thing on this page you should read about properly before acting. The deferral guide — both kinds, what each costs, and when not to → §33.06, §33.065
The homestead application is due before May 1 (§11.43(d)). But a late one still counts: under §11.431 the chief appraiser must accept and decide a late residence homestead application filed within two years of the delinquency date for those taxes. If you already paid the tax, the collector refunds the difference and no separate refund application is needed.
No. The exemption belongs to the person, not the house. HCAD cancels the previous owner's homestead as of January 1 of the year after the sale, and you file in your own name. Under §11.42(f) a buyer who acquires a home after January 1 can get the general homestead exemption for the applicable part of that same year, provided the previous owner did not already receive it for that year.
No — two separate things. An exemption removes part of your value from taxation and the form is free. A protest argues HCAD's appraised value is too high. You can do either, both, or neither, and one has no effect on the other.
Because it does not need them. The address is used to look up the public record and is not stored. There is nothing to sign up for on this page.
Then check the account directly at owners.hcad.org, free, and call HCAD. The roll here is a snapshot of the public file and it can lag a recent application. HCAD's own record is the one that decides.
An exemption lowers the value that gets taxed. It does nothing about whether HCAD's valuation of your home is right in the first place. That is a protest — a separate right, free, that you have every single year.
Our full check compares your home against its own neighbourhood and tells you whether it looks over-assessed. Free, no account, and it carries your address across so you do not type it twice.
See if my value is too high →Exemptions are free to file and always will be — everything above this box costs nothing. The $39 do-it-yourself kit is for the separate job of protesting a value, and you never need it to claim an exemption.
Harris County, Texas. Exemption status is read from HCAD's public appraisal roll and can lag a recent application — HCAD's own record decides. Statutory amounts and deadlines are set by law and can change; verify with HCAD or the Texas Comptroller before relying on any figure here. This page is general information, not legal or tax advice.