For veterans & military buyers
The disabled veteran property tax checklist for Bell County
Every form, where it goes, and the timing questions to ask before closing. Print it and work down the list.
1. VA funding fee waiver — ask before you sign
If you receive VA compensation for a service-connected disability, you may not owe the funding fee at all. Exempt categories also include veterans eligible for compensation who receive retirement or active-duty pay instead, surviving spouses receiving Dependency and Indemnity Compensation, service members with a proposed or memorandum rating issued before closing, and active-duty Purple Heart recipients.
- Ask your lender — today, not at signing — whether your Certificate of Eligibility shows exempt status.
- Ask what tax figure they are using to build the escrow account, and tell them which exemption you intend to file.
- If the fee was already charged, ask the lender to review it. Exempt status is determined from the Certificate of Eligibility, and refunds after closing do happen.
2. Rated 100% — the total exemption (Texas Tax Code 11.131)
A veteran receiving 100% disability compensation for a service-connected disability, with a 100% rating or a determination of individual unemployability, is exempt from taxation of the total appraised value of the residence homestead. No dollar cap. A surviving spouse who has not remarried may keep the exemption on the same property.
- Confirm your compensation status and rating before you apply.
- Complete Form 50-114.
- File it with the appraisal district for the county the house is actually in — see section 5. Not the lender, not the title company, not the VA.
- Follow up until it is approved. Nothing here happens automatically.
3. Rated below 100% — the partial exemption (Texas Tax Code 11.22)
A partial exemption on one property you own, and the amount varies with your disability rating and the taxing unit. A narrower provision, Tax Code 11.132, covers a home donated to a partially disabled veteran by a charitable organization — there the exemption percentage equals the rating.
- Complete Form 50-135.
- Call the appraisal district with your rating and the property address, and ask what the exemption comes to on that address — a five-minute call with a specific answer beats a number from a blog.
4. The general homestead exemption — file it anyway
This is separate from the veteran exemptions, and you still want it: school districts must provide a $140,000 exemption under Tax Code 11.13(b), and other taxing units may adopt a local option of up to 20% of appraised value. The same Form 50-114 application covers it.
- Claim the residence homestead exemption on Form 50-114.
- Confirm with the appraisal district which parts of the form apply to you.
5. Where to file
You file with the appraisal district for the county the house is actually in — which is not always the one you assume.
- Bell County addresses — Belton, Temple, Killeen, Harker Heights, Nolanville, Troy, Salado — file with Bell CAD.
- Copperas Cove is in Coryell County, with a different appraisal district: Coryell CAD.
6. The timing questions
This is where the money gets lost — not on the forms, but on when they get filed and when the escrow account finds out.
- The Comptroller states the general deadline for filing an exemption application is before May 1. Confirm your own date with Bell CAD — late-filing rules differ by exemption type.
- File as soon as you close. The pattern I see: a fall purchase, an escrow built on a tax estimate with no exemption applied, a filing the following January, and an escrow that is not re-analyzed until the lender’s annual review — months of a higher payment than was ever owed.
- Raise the exemption during underwriting, not at the closing table. Ask what tax figure they used, and tell them which exemption you intend to file.
I am a REALTOR®, not a tax advisor or a lender, and this checklist is general information — not a determination about your situation. Program rules change. Confirm every detail with the appraisal district, the Texas Comptroller, and VA. The full write-up behind this checklist is here: The disabled veteran property tax exemption in Bell County, Texas.
Buying around Fort Hood?
Tell me where you are in the process and I'll tell you what to do first — including which exemptions to raise with your lender now.