Updated September 5, 2026. Quick answer: Texas has no income test and no home-value cap; only age 65+ or disability; charges a flat 5% interest, and the Comptroller’s own form warns homeowners outright that a deferral does not stop a mortgage company from foreclosing if it chooses not to honor it.
What Texas’s deferral requires; and does not test
Tex. Tax Code §33.06 lets a homeowner defer collection of property taxes on their residence homestead if they are 65 or older, disabled under the state’s disability definition, or a qualifying disabled veteran, surviving spouse, or surviving minor child. There is no income test and no home-value or equity cap anywhere in the statute; confirmed directly by a 2016 Texas Attorney General opinion describing the section as having ‘only two substantive requirements.’ It is filed as a standing affidavit with the county appraisal district, not an annual application with a deadline: it operates as an ongoing legal defense against collection rather than a benefit renewed every year.
A flat 5% rate, and an explicit state warning about your own mortgage
Deferred taxes continue to accrue interest at a flat 5% a year for as long as the deferral is in place. Two 2025 bills proposed capping that rate at the lower of 5% or the five-year Treasury rate, but both died in committee with no further action, so the flat 5% remains current law. A tax lien remains on the property, but Texas does not resolve the mortgage-priority question by statute at all; instead, the Comptroller’s own affidavit form tells homeowners directly that their property ‘may still be subject to collection or foreclosure actions arising from other debts or liens including, but not limited to, mortgages or home loans,’ and advises contacting the mortgage company first, because ‘not all mortgage companies honor tax deferrals.’ That is an unusually blunt admission for a state agency to put in writing, and it is the single most important caveat for anyone counting on the deferral to actually stop a foreclosure.
When it comes due, and how to apply
A collection suit or foreclosure is barred until the 181st day after the homeowner no longer owns and occupies the property as a residence homestead; the trigger is loss of ownership plus occupancy, whether through sale, transfer, or death. A surviving spouse can continue the deferral if they were 55 or older at the time of the homeowner’s death. The affidavit (Comptroller Form 50-126) is filed with the chief appraiser of the county appraisal district, explicitly not with the Comptroller’s office itself, and carries no statutory filing deadline since it functions as a defense rather than a dated application.
Texas’s broader senior property-tax picture, covering exemptions, freezes and circuit-breaker credits, not just the deferral: property tax breaks for seniors in Texas.
How every state’s programme compares: property tax relief for seniors by state. What a deferral means in general, and who it catches out: the property-tax deferral lien trap.
Statutory text read at each state’s own legislature, revisor, or revenue agency this session. General information, not tax or legal advice; rates, caps and thresholds change most years and a county or state agency retains the final say on your own application.