What happens to your over-65 school tax ceiling when you move to another home in Texas?

A percentage of it transfers, not the dollar amount, and only if you ask. Texas Tax Code 11.26(g) caps school taxes on your next homestead at what that home would be taxed, multiplied by a fraction based on what you actually paid on the old one. It does not follow automatically — you request a certificate and file again.

Everything below is the detail behind that, read from the statute, the Texas Comptroller, and the Dallas, Tarrant and Collin appraisal districts.

What is the over-65 school tax ceiling in the first place?

It is a cap on the dollar amount of school district tax on your homestead, not a cap on value. The Texas Comptroller describes it this way: "If you qualify your residence homestead for an age 65 or older or disabled person residence homestead exemption for school district taxes, the school district taxes on that residence homestead cannot increase as long as you own and live in that home." The agency adds the two halves people tend to mix up: "The tax ceiling is the amount you pay in the year that you qualified for the age 65 or older or disabled person exemption," and "the school district taxes on your residence homestead may go below but not above the ceiling amount."

The statute says the same thing in harder language. Tax Code 11.26(a) provides that a school district "may not increase the total annual amount of ad valorem tax it imposes on the residence homestead of an individual 65 years of age or older or on the residence homestead of an individual who is disabled... above the amount of the tax it imposed in the first tax year in which the individual qualified that residence homestead for the applicable exemption."

Two things that follow from the wording, and both matter when you move. The ceiling is attached to a particular homestead and a particular owner's qualification, not to a county or to you personally. And it is a school district ceiling. City, county and junior college ceilings exist but are a different animal, covered further down.

Does the ceiling move with you to a new house?

A proportion of it does. The Comptroller's plain-English version: "A percentage of the school district tax ceiling may be transferred," and "the ceiling on the new residence homestead would be calculated to give you the same percentage of tax paid as the ceiling on the original residence homestead."

The statute is more precise, and the precision is worth reading once. Tax Code 11.26(g) caps tax on the subsequently qualified homestead at the amount the district "would have imposed on the subsequently qualified homestead in the first year in which the individual receives that same exemption... had the limitation on tax increases imposed by this section not been in effect, multiplied by a fraction the numerator of which is the total amount of school district taxes imposed on the former homestead in the last year in which the individual received that same exemption for the former homestead and the denominator of which is the total amount of school district taxes that would have been imposed on the former homestead in that last year had the limitation... not been in effect."

So it is a fraction, expressed as a percentage by every agency that explains it: what you were actually billed on the old home, over what you would have been billed there without the ceiling.

How is the new ceiling calculated, with real numbers?

The Comptroller's own worked example, which Collin Central Appraisal District publishes in the same form:

Step	Figure
School tax you actually paid on the old home (your ceiling)	$100
School tax you would have paid on the old home without the ceiling	$400
Your transferable percentage	25%
School tax the new home would be billed in the first year, uncapped	$1,000
Your new ceiling on the new home	$250

Collin CAD's wording: "The ceiling on the new home would be calculated to give the homeowner the same percentage of tax paid as the ceiling on the original home."

Note what this does and does not do. It carries over the proportional benefit you had built up, not the dollar figure. A homeowner moving to a more expensive home keeps the same percentage discount and still pays more in dollars. A homeowner moving to a less expensive home pays less in dollars and keeps the same percentage. The percentage is the asset; the dollar ceiling is recalculated from scratch at the new address.

What paperwork actually makes the transfer happen?

A certificate from the appraisal district you are leaving. Tax Code 11.26(h) entitles an owner who transfers, "or an agent of the individual," to "receive from the chief appraiser of the appraisal district in which the former homestead was located a written certificate providing the information necessary to determine whether the individual may qualify for that same limitation on the subsequently qualified homestead."

The Comptroller describes the sequence: "you may request a certificate from the chief appraiser in the last appraisal district in which you received the tax ceiling," and "you present the transfer certificate to the chief appraiser in the appraisal district where the new residence homestead is located when you apply for residence homestead exemptions on the new home."

Dallas Central Appraisal District states the same two steps operationally: "You must request a certificate from the Appraisal District for the former home," then "take it to the Appraisal District for the new home, if located in a different district." Tarrant Appraisal District calls the process a "ceiling transfer (Request to Cancel/Port Exemptions)."

On form numbers, the honest answer is that the statute names none and the three DFW district pages name none. The Comptroller's property tax forms library does list, under collection forms, "50-272, School Tax Ceiling Certificate for Homeowner Age 65 or Older, Disabled or Surviving Spouse Age 55 or Older." Ask your own district which document it wants rather than arriving with a form number from a web page.

Do you have to re-apply for the exemption at the new house?

Yes. Collin CAD: "A new application is required when a property owner's residence homestead is changed." DCAD's application also asks you to list exemptions claimed on a previous residence and, where the other property is outside the county, to "attach documentation from the other appraisal district verifying removal of the exemption."

Deadlines, from the Comptroller: "The general deadline for filing an exemption application is before May 1." On late filing, the agency states you "may file a late application for a residence homestead exemption, including age 65 or older or disabled, up to two years after the delinquency date," with that date normally February 1. Tarrant Appraisal District and Collin CAD both state there is no fee to apply.

One mechanical detail worth knowing, in the Comptroller's words: "Beginning in 2005, if your date of birth was on your original residence homestead application or other written correspondence to the appraisal district about your residence homestead you will automatically receive the age 65 or older exemption without applying, if you are entitled to the general residence homestead exemption." That automation is about the exemption, not about the ceiling transfer. The transfer still needs the certificate.

Do city, county and junior college ceilings transfer the same way?

Not on the same terms, because they are optional in the first place. The Comptroller: a city, county or junior college ceiling exists only "if the county commissioners court, city council or board of the junior college district authorizes a tax limitation on the homesteads of persons age 65 or older or disabled," and "this local option does not apply to other special districts such as water, hospital, etc."

Where one exists, the geography is the catch.

Ceiling	Does it apply everywhere?	Can the percentage move to a different taxing unit?
School district	Required of school districts under Tax Code 11.26	Yes — Collin CAD states the percentage may move "to a different home in the same or another school district"
City, county or junior college	Only if that unit has adopted one	No — DCAD states you "must move to another home within the same taxing unit"

So a move from one DFW school district to another can carry the school percentage. A move across a city or county line generally ends a city or county ceiling, because the new address is not inside the unit that granted it.

What happens to the ceiling if the qualifying owner dies?

Tax Code 11.26(i) keeps it with the surviving spouse on conditions: the surviving spouse "is 55 years of age or older when the individual dies," the home "is the residence homestead of the surviving spouse on the date that the individual dies," and it "remains the residence homestead of the surviving spouse."

The Comptroller states the same 55 threshold, and 11.26(g) expressly includes "a surviving spouse who receives a limitation under Subsection (i)" among those who can transfer a percentage to a later homestead.

Does an addition or a remodel raise the ceiling?

An addition can. Repairs and work required by government rules do not. Tax Code 11.26(b) allows a school district to raise the tax when an owner "makes improvements to the individual's residence homestead, other than improvements required to comply with governmental requirements or repairs," and sets the increase by "applying the current tax rate to the difference in the assessed value of the homestead with the improvements and the assessed value it would have had without the improvements." The ceiling then re-forms at the higher number "until more improvements, if any, are made."

The Comptroller's looser summary of the same rule — "If you improve the residence homestead (other than normal repairs or maintenance), the tax ceiling may go higher because of the new additions," with a garage or game room as the example — is easier to read, but the statute's words are "governmental requirements or repairs," not "normal repairs or maintenance." If a project sits near that line, the statutory wording is the one that governs.

Why does this page not give you the exemption dollar amounts?

Because the public sources disagree with each other as of the date of writing, and a wrong figure here would be worse than no figure.

The Comptroller's property tax exemptions index states that Tax Code 11.13(b) "requires school districts to provide a $140,000 exemption on a residence homestead" and that 11.13(c) "requires school districts to provide an additional $60,000 residence homestead exemption" for persons 65 or older or disabled. The same agency's age-65-or-older FAQ page still states $40,000 and $10,000. A widely used mirror of the statute text, last verified in May 2025, shows $100,000 and $10,000.

Three different pairs of numbers, two of them on the same agency's website. None of that changes the mechanism on this page, which is proportional and works at any exemption amount. For the figure that applies to your account this year, ask your appraisal district or read your notice of appraised value.

What should you actually do, in order?

1. Before you list, ask your current appraisal district what your ceiling is and what the uncapped school tax would have been. Those two numbers are your percentage.
2. Request the certificate from the chief appraiser of the district where the ceiling sits. Tax Code 11.26(h) gives you, or your agent, the right to it.
3. File a new homestead application at the new address and present the certificate with it.
4. Confirm the exemption came off the old property, because the new district may ask for proof that it did.
5. Check whether your new city, county or junior college has adopted a ceiling at all, and whether you have stayed inside the same unit.

Sources

All quotations above were read from these pages on the date of writing:

• Texas Tax Code Sec. 11.26, Limitation of School Tax on Homesteads of Elderly or Disabled — https://texas.public.law/statutes/tex._tax_code_section_11.26 (page states "Verified: May 26, 2025," sourced from https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/TX/htm/TX.11.htm, most recent amendment listed Acts 2023, 88th Leg., 2nd C.S., Ch. 1 (S.B. 2), eff. January 1, 2025)
• Texas Tax Code Sec. 11.13, Residence Homestead — https://texas.public.law/statutes/tex._tax_code_section_11.13
• Texas Comptroller, Age 65 or Older or Disabled Exemptions Frequently Asked Questions — https://comptroller.texas.gov/taxes/property-tax/exemptions/age65older-disabled-faq.php
• Texas Comptroller, Property Tax Exemptions — https://comptroller.texas.gov/taxes/property-tax/exemptions/index.php
• Texas Comptroller, Property Tax Forms — https://comptroller.texas.gov/taxes/property-tax/forms/
• Dallas Central Appraisal District, Exemptions — https://www.dallascad.org/Exemptions.aspx
• Tarrant Appraisal District, Homestead Exemption — https://www.tad.org/homestead-exemption/
• Collin Central Appraisal District, Homestead Exemption FAQs — https://collincad.org/category/faqs/homestead-exemption-faqs/

This page explains how the process works under Texas law. It is not tax or legal advice. Exemption qualification is determined by your county's chief appraiser, and your account is administered by your appraisal district and tax assessor-collector. Confirm dates, amounts and required documents with your own district before relying on them.