Past the deadline? File anyway.
Texas exemption applications are due April 30, and missing it is far less serious than it sounds. Two statutory routes let you file late: five years from the delinquency date under §11.439, and one year from the date the VA approved your disability. If your rating decision landed in November, the calendar has not cost you the year.
Why this matters right now
A veteran who believes they missed a deadline stops looking, and the belief is usually wrong. The five-year window under §11.439 means a veteran who has been entitled to the total exemption for several years without claiming it can often recover most of them. The downside of asking is zero.
What to do
- 1
Work out which exemption you should have
If you are paid at the 100 percent rate — including through individual unemployability — that is §11.131 and Form 50-114, a total exemption. Otherwise it is §11.22 and Form 50-135. Getting this right first matters, because a district will not upgrade an application you did not make. Get Form 50-114
- 2
File it with your county appraisal district, whatever the date
Do not wait for the next April. Ask them in writing to accept it under §11.439, and say which of the two late routes you are relying on.
- 3
If the VA approved your disability recently, say so and give the date
That date starts a one-year window in which the chief appraiser must accept your application. It is the strongest of the two routes and the least known.
- 4
Ask about the years you were already entitled to
The five-year window is measured from the delinquency date for each year's taxes, so more than one year may still be open. Ask them to tell you which.
The records with a late-filing route
- Total Property Tax Exemption for 100% Disabled Veterans
Tex. Tax Code §11.439; §11.131(d)
Two separate late routes, and most people know neither. §11.439 lets the chief appraiser accept a late application up to five years after the delinquency date. And if the VA approves your disability after the deadline, §11.439(a) requires the appraiser to accept an application filed within one year of that approval.
- Disabled Veteran Property Tax Exemption of $5,000 to $12,000
Tex. Tax Code §11.439
A late application is accepted up to five years after the delinquency date for that year's taxes. Five years, not two.
April 30, then May 15
April 30 is the application deadline. If a district refuses or simply leaves your exemption off, the protest deadline is the later of May 15 or 30 days after the notice — and that one is much harder to recover from than the application deadline.
See all the datesThis is general information about Texas statute, not a government eligibility determination and not legal advice. Your county appraisal district decides your application.