Texas Disabled Veteran Property Tax Exemptions: What Each VA Rating Is Actually Worth

In the homestead article I gave disabled veterans one paragraph — a partial exemption scaled to your VA rating, a total exemption at 100% or individual unemployability, and a note that surviving spouses have their own provisions. That paragraph deserved a full article, because the Texas disabled veteran property tax exemption is really two programs that have almost nothing in common. Below a 100% rating, Texas takes a flat dollar amount off the value of one property you own — real money, but modest. At a 100% rating, or at any rating if the VA has determined you individually unemployable, your homestead pays zero property tax. Not reduced. Zero, to every taxing unit, including the MUD. The gap between those two programs is enormous, and I’ve met veterans sitting on the wrong side of it who had no idea the second one existed.

The short version: Ratings from 10% to 99% get a flat $5,000 to $12,000 off the value of any one property — on a typical Cypress home that’s worth roughly $116 to $277 a year. A 100% rating, or an individual-unemployability determination at any rating, wipes out the entire homestead bill — about $5,381 a year on the same home. Both stack on top of the general homestead exemption, both can be filed up to five years late, and your driver’s license is not proof of your rating — you’ll need your VA documentation.

Two separate exemptions — not one sliding scale

Most articles present this as a single benefit that grows with your rating. The Tax Code doesn’t work that way. There are two distinct exemptions, in two different sections of the law, with different rules about which property they cover.

The partial exemption (Tax Code §11.22) is the older one. It removes a fixed dollar amount from the assessed value of a property you own, on a four-step schedule tied to your service-connected disability rating. Every taxing unit has to honor it — it’s a state entitlement, so there’s no waiting on your county or MUD to adopt anything.

The total exemption (Tax Code §11.131) is the one that changes lives. If the VA pays you at the 100% rate — because your rating is 100%, or because you’ve been determined individually unemployable — your residence homestead is exempt from property taxation entirely. The whole appraised value, at every unit that taxes it.

The two trade flexibility for size. The partial applies to any one property you own — the Comptroller is explicit that it isn’t limited to your homestead, and HCAD’s own guidance notes you could even put it on a truck used for business. Almost nobody mentions that. The total exemption is homestead-only: your primary residence, nothing else. A veteran who qualifies for both can hold the total on the homestead and, if they own other property, still designate the partial elsewhere.

What the Texas disabled veteran property tax exemption is worth, rating by rating

Dollar amounts only mean something on a real bill, so let me use the same house I’ve used through this whole series: a $350,000 home in Cypress — unincorporated Harris County, Cy-Fair ISD, inside a MUD at about $0.51 per $100. With the general homestead exemption already filed, that home’s bill runs about $5,381 a year at 2025 adopted rates, on a combined rate of roughly $2.31 per $100. Exemption amounts here are for the 2026 tax year.

VA disability rating	Off your value	Worth per year	Bill after homestead + this
10% – 29%	$5,000	~$116	~$5,265
30% – 49%	$7,500	~$173	~$5,208
50% – 69%	$10,000	~$231	~$5,150
70% – 99%	$12,000	~$277	~$5,104
100%, or any rating with IU (§11.131)	Everything	~$5,381	$0

I want to be straight about the partial tiers, because the internet is not. A veteran who reads “up to a $12,000 exemption” and pictures $12,000 coming off the tax bill is going to be disappointed — the $12,000 comes off your value, and at Cypress rates that’s about $277 a year. It’s absolutely worth filing for; it files once, carries forward, and $100 to $280 a year adds up over a decade of ownership. But it will not change your monthly payment in any way you’ll feel, and anyone who implies otherwise is selling something.

The partial also stacks on top of the general homestead exemption — it comes off in addition to the homestead amounts, so file both. And because it’s a state entitlement at every unit, the partial is quietly the first exemption in this whole series that touches the MUD line at all: $5,000 to $12,000 comes off the MUD’s taxable value too, about $26 to $61 a year at a $0.51 MUD rate. After two articles of “nothing touches the MUD,” somebody finally does — even if only by a few dollars.

The cliff between 99% and 100% — and the door marked IU

Look at the last two rows of that table again. At 99%, this benefit is worth about $277 a year. At 100%, it’s worth about $5,381 — roughly 19 times as much, across a single percentage point. Nothing else in Texas property tax behaves like that. Every other exemption phases, scales, or caps; this one jumps off a cliff.

Here’s the part that matters most, and it’s the reason I wanted this article on my site: you do not need a 100% rating to get the total exemption. Section 11.131 covers a veteran who receives 100% disability compensation from the VA because of either a 100% rating or a determination of individual unemployability — IU, sometimes written TDIU. A veteran rated 70% who has been granted IU gets exactly the same total exemption as a veteran rated 100%: the whole bill, MUD included, zero.

So if you’re rated 70%, 80%, or 90% and your service-connected conditions keep you from holding steady work, individual unemployability is a door you may not know exists — and on this house it’s the difference between $277 a year and $5,381. I can’t tell you whether IU applies to you: I’m not a VA-accredited representative, and questions about obtaining or appealing a disability determination belong with the VA and the people trained for them. What I can tell you is where the free, legitimate help is. Harris County runs a Veterans Service Office that assists with VA claims at no charge, and the Texas Veterans Commission has claims counselors across the state. Start there, not with anyone who charges a percentage.

One timing note from the Comptroller worth its own sentence: if your 100% or IU determination arrives mid-year, the total exemption starts immediately on qualification, prorated for the rest of that tax year — you don’t wait for January 1.

The MUD line finally goes to zero

If you’ve read my homestead exemption and MUD district articles, you’ve heard the same warning twice: the MUD line is the one no exemption reaches. On our example house that’s $1,785 a year that survives the general homestead exemption untouched and survives the over-65 exemption untouched.

The §11.131 total exemption is the exception in the entire system. Because it exempts the property’s whole appraised value at every taxing unit, that $1,785 MUD line goes to zero along with everything else. For a 100% or IU veteran in a newer master-planned section of Cypress or Katy — where the MUD can be the second-biggest line on the bill — that detail alone can be worth $1,500 to $2,500 a year that no other exemption in this series can reach.

Other routes to the $12,000 tier

The top partial tier isn’t only for ratings of 70% and up. Under §11.22, a veteran qualifies for the full $12,000 at any rating of at least 10% if they’re 65 or older — and separately, at any rating, a veteran who is totally blind in one or both eyes or has lost the use of one or more limbs qualifies for the $12,000 as well. A 30%-rated veteran who turns 65 moves from $7,500 to $12,000 by filing an update. If that’s you or a parent, it pairs with everything in my over-65 exemption article — the senior exemptions and the veteran exemptions stack.

Donated homes: the one place a partial rating gets a percentage

There’s a third program (Tax Code §11.132) for a specific situation: a veteran rated below 100% whose homestead was donated by a charitable organization — think Homes For Our Troops or a builder’s donation program, at no cost or at half cost or less. That veteran’s exemption equals their rating percentage of the home’s value. A 70%-rated veteran in a donated home gets 70% of the value exempted — on a $350,000 home, that’s $245,000 shielded instead of the flat $12,000. It’s a far stronger benefit than the standard partial, it extends to an unmarried surviving spouse who stays in the home, and if it applies to you, you almost certainly already know the organization that built your house — but I’ve included it because the filing rules below cover it too.

Surviving spouses and children

Each program has its own survivor provisions, and they’re worth stating precisely because they land during the hardest season a family has.

• The total exemption (§11.131) passes to an unmarried surviving spouse who was living in the home when the veteran died and stays there. And it’s partially portable: if the spouse later moves, the dollar amount of the exemption from the old homestead carries to the new one. The new home may not be fully exempt — but that dollar amount follows them for as long as they don’t remarry.
• The partial exemption (§11.22) passes too — to an unmarried surviving spouse at the amount the veteran had at death, or if there’s no surviving spouse, split among surviving children under 18.
• A spouse of a service member killed or fatally injured in the line of duty (§11.133) receives a total exemption on the residence homestead, for as long as they haven’t remarried. Separately, a surviving spouse of a member who dies on active duty may qualify for a $5,000 exemption under §11.22 on any one property they own.

If you’re a spouse or an adult child sorting this out for a parent, the appraisal district’s exemption department will walk through which of these fits — bring the veteran’s rating documentation and the death certificate, and ask them to check every provision at once.

How to file — three things that differ from the regular homestead

Filing works mostly like the general homestead exemption — free, filed with your county appraisal district (HCAD in Harris County), no reason to pay anyone. Three differences catch people:

• The partial uses a different form. The §11.22 exemption is Form 50-135, the Disabled Veteran’s or Survivor’s Exemption application — not the Form 50-114 you used for your homestead. The total exemption (§11.131) and the donated-home exemption (§11.132) do go on Form 50-114, with the appropriate box checked.
• You get five years to file late, not two. The general homestead exemption allows two years after the delinquency date; the disabled veteran exemptions allow five — that’s §11.22, §11.131, and §11.132 alike (a surviving spouse filing under §11.132 has two years). If you’ve had a rating for years and never filed, you can likely recover several years of overpaid taxes as refunds. That’s worth an afternoon.
• Your driver’s license is not proof of your rating. The Comptroller says this plainly: a Texas driver’s license or ID satisfies the identity requirement, but it is not satisfactory proof of a disability rating. You need your VA documentation — the award or rating decision letter showing your percentage (or the 100%/IU determination). If you can’t find yours, you can request a benefit summary letter through VA.gov before you file.

The Comptroller’s disabled veteran exemption FAQ covers all of these programs in one place, and it’s the page I’d bookmark.

The one thing to do this week

Pull up your appraisal district account and look at the exemptions on it. If you have a rating and there’s no veteran exemption showing, file — the five-year window means the past isn’t necessarily lost. If you’re at 70% to 90% and unable to work, ask the county Veterans Service Office about individual unemployability before you assume the total exemption is out of reach. And if you’re a veteran shopping for a home, this is a real part of the math: a 100% or IU exemption changes what a given price actually costs you per month, which changes what fits your budget — something I walk through with clients buying a home in the Houston area, alongside the VA loan if you’re using that benefit too.

Last updated: August 2026 · Exemption amounts shown are for the 2026 tax year; tax rates shown are 2025 adopted rates, the most recent full set — 2026 rates are adopted in the fall. The units taxing your parcel determine your actual figures, so confirm your own numbers with your county appraisal district. This is general educational information, not legal or tax advice. I am not a VA-accredited representative and cannot advise on obtaining or appealing a disability rating — for that, contact the VA, your County Veterans Service Office, or the Texas Veterans Commission.