Property tax relief in Tennessee: the relief credit and the freeze

A Tennessee homeowner’s property tax is set by the county: the assessor appraises the house, 25% of that appraisal is the assessed value, and the county and city each charge a rate per $100 of it. There is no exemption for living in the house, no exemption for being old, and no limit on how much the appraisal can rise at the next reappraisal. Relief comes only through two programs run by the Comptroller of the Treasury. The Property Tax Relief program pays the tax on the first $33,600 of a home’s market value for a homeowner who is 65 by the end of 2026, or disabled, whose household income for 2025 was $38,470 or less; for a disabled veteran or an unremarried surviving spouse it pays the tax on the first $175,000 with no income test. The Property Tax Freeze, in the 28 counties and 37 cities that have adopted it, holds the dollar amount of a 65-or-older homeowner’s bill at the amount owed in the first year of eligibility, for a household under the county’s income limit, $63,470 in most of the large counties for 2026. Both are claimed by application to the county trustee, or the city collecting official for the city bill, when the bill arrives, by 35 days after the delinquency date, with the tax paid by then, and both must be applied for again every year.

The two programs are modest by design. The relief credit on an ordinary house is a few hundred dollars at most, because $33,600 of market value is a small fraction of any house, and the Comptroller’s brochure is careful to say the amount varies with the local rate. The freeze is worth little in the first year and a great deal after a decade of reappraisals. Neither is automatic, neither renews itself, and neither transfers to a surviving spouse or a new house.

How the bill is figured

Every parcel is appraised by the county assessor at market value, and reappraised on a cycle the county chooses, every four, five or six years (verify). Residential and farm property is assessed at 25% of the appraisal; commercial and industrial at 40%. The county commission sets a rate per $100 of assessed value, and a city sets its own on top for property inside its limits. A $360,000 house is assessed at $90,000; at a county rate of $1.50 and a city rate of $1.00 per $100, the county bill is $1,350 and the city bill $900. After a reappraisal the county must adopt a certified rate that produces the same total revenue as before, so a reappraisal by itself does not raise the county’s take; the commission can then vote to exceed the certified rate after a public hearing (verify). An individual owner’s bill still rises if the house appreciated faster than the county average.

County bills are mailed in the fall, usually October, and are due by the end of February, with the tax delinquent March 1 and interest accruing from then; city bills follow their own schedule, some due with the county’s and some earlier (verify dates). An owner who disagrees with the appraisal appeals to the county board of equalization, which meets in June in most counties (verify); by the time the bill arrives the value is settled. There is no discount for paying early and no installment plan in most counties (verify). For the federal return, the deduction is for the amount paid in the calendar year: a bill paid in December 2026 is a 2026 deduction, the same bill paid in February 2027 is a 2027 deduction.

Property Tax Relief: the state pays part of the bill

The relief program is a reimbursement funded by legislative appropriation, about $41 million a year reaching more than 100,000 homeowners. It is not an exemption and it does not lower the assessment. An approved applicant receives a voucher with the next tax bill, presents it to the trustee with any balance due before the deadline, and the state pays the trustee the voucher amount. For 2026 bills, the qualifying groups and limits, taken from the Comptroller’s 2026 brochure, are these.

All applicants must own the home and use it as the primary residence; one property per year. Income from all sources means Social Security, pensions, IRA withdrawals, wages, interest and everything else, for the applicant, every co-owner and anyone else living in the home, and the spouse’s income counts whether or not the spouse is on the deed or lives there. An applicant within $100 of the limit as sole owner, or $200 as a co-owner, must document every source. A home held in an irrevocable trust is not eligible, because the trust owns it.

The dollar amount follows from the arithmetic of the bill. The first $33,600 of market value is $8,400 of assessed value, and the credit is that $8,400 times the rate, county and city each (verify that both county and city relief are computed this way). At a county rate of $1.50 per $100 the county credit is $126; at a city rate of $1.00 the city credit is $84. Knox County’s trustee puts the 2026 maximum for elderly and disabled homeowners at $85 and for disabled veterans at $444 at the county rate, which is what the formula produces at roughly $1.01 per $100 (verify Knox rate). For a disabled veteran the base is $175,000 of market value, $43,750 assessed, which at $2.50 combined is about $1,094 and often covers the whole bill on a modest house.

The application is made at the county trustee’s office when the 2026 bill arrives, or the city collecting official’s office for a home inside a city that bills separately. The deadline is 35 days after the delinquency date, and the taxes must be paid by that date too; in a county where taxes go delinquent March 1, that is about April 5 (verify). First-time applicants bring proof of age or disability, the deed, and income documents for everyone in the household: the 2025 federal return if one was filed, or the SSA-1099s, 1099-Rs and W-2s and a signed statement that no return was required. Approved applicants are sent a voucher with the following year’s bill and reapply each year by signing it and updating the income; the Comptroller’s Tax Relief section decides eligibility, and an applicant can check status online at the Comptroller’s site. The appropriation has been running close to the demand on it, and the Comptroller has warned that relief could be prorated if applications outrun the money (verify whether 2026 payments are being prorated).

Property Tax Freeze: the bill stops rising

The freeze is a local option authorized by a 2006 constitutional amendment; each county and each city decides whether to offer it, and 28 counties and 37 cities have. In those places, a homeowner who is 65 or older by the end of the year of application, owns and lives in the home as the principal residence, and whose household income from all sources does not exceed the county’s limit, has the tax on the home, including up to five acres of land, frozen at the amount owed in the first year of eligibility. That is the base tax amount. It stays the same through reappraisals and rate increases for as long as the owner qualifies. It goes up only if the owner makes improvements that add value, in which case the base is recomputed for the added value, or sells and buys another house, which starts a new base. If the computed tax falls below the frozen amount, the owner pays the lower figure and the base drops to match.

The income limit is set for each county by the Comptroller, by formula, and a 2023 law let counties adopt a higher local-option limit. For 2026 the local-option limit is $63,470, used by most of the large counties, including Davidson, Knox, Shelby, Rutherford, Montgomery, Wilson, Blount and Robertson (verify list); Williamson County’s is $69,150; several smaller counties are at the $38,470 floor, the same figure as the relief program. The limit is indexed each year with the Social Security cost-of-living adjustment ($61,920 in 2025, $63,470 in 2026) (verify 2025 figure). Only one property per person qualifies, and it must be the applicant’s voting residence. Not every owner need be 65; one qualifying owner is enough.

The freeze is applied for separately from the relief credit, at the same office, with the same deadline, 35 days after the delinquency date, and it must be renewed every year with proof of income. An owner who qualifies for both gets both: the frozen bill, less the relief voucher. A homeowner whose income is above $38,470 but under $63,470 gets the freeze alone, and that is the more common case in the metropolitan counties.

What the programs do not do

Neither program follows a survivor. When the qualifying owner dies, the surviving spouse applies on his or her own age and the household’s income without the decedent’s; a spouse under 65 does not qualify for the freeze, and the base tax amount is lost. Neither program follows the owner to a new house; a move starts a new base and a new application. Neither applies to a second home, a rental or a house held in an irrevocable trust. A house held in a revocable living trust of which the applicant is the beneficiary is treated as the applicant’s (verify). And neither program is available to a homeowner under 65 who is not disabled or a disabled veteran, whatever the income; a working family with a high bill and a low income has no Tennessee program to turn to.

Tennessee also has no renter’s credit, no circuit breaker tied to income tax, and no deferral program in most counties (verify). The relief and the freeze are the whole list.

The November 2026 ballot

Amendment 2, approved on November 3, 2026 by 66.74% to 33.26%, adds to Article II, Section 28 of the state constitution a prohibition on the General Assembly levying any state tax on real, personal or mixed property. Tennessee has levied no state property tax for decades; the amendment removes the legislature’s power to create one without a further amendment. It does not touch county or city property taxes, and it changes no one’s 2026 bill. It passed the Senate 26–5 and the House 89–6 in 2025 as Senate Joint Resolution 1, and an amendment is adopted when its yes votes are a majority of the votes cast for governor; the count is unofficial until the state certifies it.