I pulled the Property Tax invoice for every house on my street. Not looking at value, but curious to see if they know something I don't. There's a few with unique exemptions, but the majority only have Homestead and Senior.

Of the this group, there are three houses paying $0 AISD tax. I can't figure out how they are any different to others in the group? I asked Travis County if there might be undisclosed exemptions not printed on the invoice, and they said no.

So, how can a property with only Homestead and Senior, be paying $0?

Any disabled vet exemptions show up?

A 100% disabled vet gets a 100% exemption. Not sure if that shows up on the public record.

5 hours ago, Horn_Spanker said:

I pulled the Property Tax invoice for every house on my street. Not looking at value, but curious to see if they know something I don't. There's a few with unique exemptions, but the majority only have Homestead and Senior.

Of the this group, there are three houses paying $0 AISD tax. I can't figure out how they are any different to others in the group? I asked Travis County if there might be undisclosed exemptions not printed on the invoice, and they said no.

So, how can a property with only Homestead and Senior, be paying $0?

Hmmm ... I wonder what the property tax invoice shows for someone with a tax deferral.

Some people are eligible to defer their property taxes. Over 65, or disabled or disabled vet or a surviving spouse or child. They still owe the tax, but the tax is deferred until the property is no longer theirs. They pay 5% interest on the tax they owe until it is eventually collected.

You would think the invoice would show tax due in that case, but I'm not sure.

How much is the exemption for being over 65?

4 hours ago, Aqua Buddha said:

How much is the exemption for being over 65?

85K off the appraised value.

I think it freezes school district taxes.

Edited February 8Feb 8 by TwiceHorn

On 2/7/2026 at 10:03 PM, TwiceHorn said:

85K off the appraised value.

I think it freezes school district taxes.

So, for a relatively expensive house, that doesn't sounds like it does much....?

16 minutes ago, Aqua Buddha said:

So, for a relatively expensive house, that doesn't sounds like it does much....?

It's weird.

Most ISDs only tax on a fraction of the appraised value anyway so when you knock it down via any exemption, it's meaningful.

1 hour ago, Aqua Buddha said:

So, for a relatively expensive house, that doesn't sounds like it does much....?

Well, the tax freeze doesn't have much of an impact when you turn 65, but the impact gets bigger every year. Your taxes are frozen, so they go down with inflation. The first five years you don't save much but the effect compounds as you get older.

Pick the place you want to be forever by your 65th birthday and then fight like crazy to get your house value reduced that year.

In Austin, a homeowner could have a homestead exemption ($140,000) plus an over 65 exemption ($85,000) plus a disability exemption ($75,000) which would total $300,000. If their house was worth less than $300,000, they would pay no school tax. Sounds tough to do in Austin, but the median home price statewide is around $325k, so it is doable in cheaper areas of the state.

2 hours ago, TwiceHorn said:

It's weird.

Most ISDs only tax on a fraction of the appraised value anyway so when you knock it down via any exemption, it's meaningful.

Makes sense. We were looking at a condo in Alamo Heights and it had a tax bill of like $6K but some of the others went to $18K or some such. I assumed there could be a +65 exemption along with some others but I wasn't sure. They're all roughly the same price/value.

On 2/9/2026 at 4:08 PM, Texas Jeff said:

Well, the tax freeze doesn't have much of an impact when you turn 65, but the impact gets bigger every year. Your taxes are frozen, so they go down with inflation. The first five years you don't save much but the effect compounds as you get older.

Pick the place you want to be forever by your 65th birthday and then fight like crazy to get your house value reduced that year.

In Austin, a homeowner could have a homestead exemption ($140,000) plus an over 65 exemption ($85,000) plus a disability exemption ($75,000) which would total $300,000. If their house was worth less than $300,000, they would pay no school tax. Sounds tough to do in Austin, but the median home price statewide is around $325k, so it is doable in cheaper areas of the state.

Slight quibble, but not all taxes are frozen. I believe it is only the school tax. City, county, ESD, MUD, etc still move with the appraisal