Homestead Exemption Can Lower Your Tax Bill

Live in your Sabine County home as your main residence, and the school district has to knock $140,000 off the value it taxes you on. On a modest place near Hemphill, that can shave the school portion down to nearly nothing. Turn 65, or qualify as disabled, and another $60,000 comes off on top of that. Once you have the over-65 amount, your school taxes are frozen at that year's level.

The part that catches people is who you file with. The exemption is granted by the Sabine County Appraisal District, not the tax office that mails the bill, so a call to the wrong number on Market Street gets you nowhere. The district sits on Worth Street in Hemphill, the phone is 409-787-2777, and the application is a short state form you only fill out once. It carries forward year after year as long as you own and live in the home.

File before May 1 to have it count for the current year. Miss that, and Texas still lets you go back and claim it for up to two prior years, so a homeowner who never knew to apply isn't out of luck. They can recover what should have been exempt all along.