Florida Homestead Exemption: Amount, Deadline and How to Apply

Florida's homestead exemption removes the first $25,000 of a primary residence's assessed value from all property taxes, including school taxes, and an additional exemption of up to $26,411 for the 2026 tax year applies to assessed value above $50,000 for non-school taxes only (Florida Constitution, Article VII, Section 6; Fla. Stat. § 196.031). Owners apply to their county property appraiser on Form DR-501, and the application is due March 1. Once granted, the exemption also brings the Save Our Homes cap on yearly assessment increases. Other states' rules are in our guide to homestead exemptions by state.

Information last verified on October 7, 2026. This article has not been reviewed by a licensed lawyer.

Jurisdiction scope: This article covers Florida's property-tax homestead exemption (Fla. Const. art. VII, § 6; Fla. Stat. §§ 196.031 and 196.011), the Save Our Homes assessment limitation and portability (Fla. Const. art. VII, § 4(d); Fla. Stat. § 193.155), the statewide senior, disability, widow and veteran exemptions named below, the proposed amendment on the November 3, 2026 ballot, and, briefly, the creditor homestead in Article X, Section 4. It does not cover which counties or cities have adopted the local-option senior exemptions, non-homestead or business property, or other states' laws.

How much the Florida homestead exemption takes off

Florida's exemption has two parts, and they do not apply to the same taxes. The first $25,000 comes off assessed value for every levy. The additional exemption applies only to the slice of assessed value above $50,000 and only to non-school levies, so it is not a flat $50,000 off everything.

Section 196.031(1)(b) states the second tier plainly: "Every person who qualifies to receive the exemption provided in paragraph (a) is entitled to an additional exemption of up to $25,000 on the assessed valuation greater than $50,000 for all levies other than school district levies." Because it reaches only value above $50,000, a home assessed at $50,000 or less gets none of the additional exemption.

The inflation adjustment. Since Florida voters approved Amendment 5 on November 5, 2024, the $25,000 additional exemption is adjusted for inflation each year starting with the 2025 tax year. The Department of Revenue's table lists $25,722 for 2025 (a 2.9 percent adjustment) and $26,411 for 2026 (2.7 percent). The base $25,000 exemption that applies to school taxes is not part of that adjustment.

Who is eligible

To claim the exemption for a tax year, you must, on January 1 of that year, hold legal or beneficial title to the property and in good faith make it your permanent residence or the permanent residence of someone legally or naturally dependent on you (Fla. Stat. § 196.031). The exemption applies only to property classified and assessed as owner-occupied residential, and the deed should be recorded. Each condominium parcel or cooperative apartment occupied by its owner can qualify.

You cannot double up across state lines. Section 196.031 provides that "A person who is receiving or claiming the benefit of an ad valorem tax exemption or a tax credit in another state where permanent residency is required as a basis for the granting of that ad valorem tax exemption or tax credit is not entitled to the homestead exemption provided by this section."

How and when to apply

Form and office. File Form DR-501, Original Application for Homestead and Related Tax Exemptions, with your county property appraiser. Depending on the county, you can file online or in person. The Department of Revenue notes that "The property appraiser determines if a parcel is entitled to an exemption." The form asks for the Social Security numbers of the applicant and the applicant's spouse, and those are mandatory.

Deadline. DR-501 states: "Permanent Florida residency required on January 1." and "Application due to property appraiser by March 1." Under Fla. Stat. § 196.011, "Failure to make application, when required, on or before March 1 of any year shall constitute a waiver of the exemption privilege for that year," except as the statute provides.

If you miss March 1. Section 196.011 allows two routes. You can file a late application by the 25th day after the property appraiser mails the notice of proposed property taxes, showing extenuating circumstances or petitioning the value adjustment board (the petition carries a $15 nonrefundable fee). A missed deadline caused by a postal error also goes to the value adjustment board. If a timely application left out the required Social Security numbers, it can be refiled complete by April 1.

Do you have to reapply every year?

Not with a fresh original application. After an original application is granted, Fla. Stat. § 196.011 requires the property appraiser to mail a renewal application on or before February 1 each year and to accept it as evidence of the exemption. A county's governing body may, at the property appraiser's request and by majority vote, waive the annual application entirely.

You must file again when the property is sold or changes ownership, when you stop using it as your homestead, or when your status changes. If your county waives the annual renewal, it is on you to tell the property appraiser promptly when your use or status changes.

The Save Our Homes assessment cap

Once a home receives the homestead exemption, Save Our Homes limits how much its assessed value can rise. Under Fla. Stat. § 193.155, the yearly change "shall not exceed the lower of the following: (a) Three percent of the assessed value of the property for the prior year; or (b) The percentage change in the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers." Assessed value never exceeds just value.

The cap starts the year after the exemption is first received. The statute provides that the property is assessed at just value as of January 1 of the year it receives the exemption, and is then reassessed annually under the cap. The Department of Revenue confirms the link: the homestead exemption "qualifies the home for the Save Our Homes assessment limitation," so there is no separate application for the cap. After a change of ownership, the home is reassessed at just value on the following January 1.

Portability: taking your Save Our Homes savings to a new home

Florida lets you carry the Save Our Homes benefit to a new Florida homestead. The "assessment difference" is the gap between the old home's just value and its capped assessed value. Under Fla. Stat. § 193.155, the new homestead is assessed at its just value "minus an amount equal to the lesser of $500,000 or the difference between the just value and the assessed value of the prior homestead as of January 1 of the year in which the prior homestead was abandoned."

To use it, you must establish the new homestead while you "received a homestead exemption as of January 1 of any of the 3 immediately preceding years." The full difference carries over when the new home is worth at least as much as the old one; a less valuable new home gets a proportional reduction. Portability is claimed on Form DR-501T, Transfer of Homestead Assessment Difference, filed with the property appraiser. File Form DR-501T with your homestead exemption application for the new home by March 1. If you miss that date, you can still apply and petition the value adjustment board by the 25th day after the notice of proposed property taxes is mailed (a $15 nonrefundable fee, and you must show extenuating circumstances), or apply in a later year, but the reduction then starts only in the year it is first approved and earlier years are not refunded (Fla. Stat. § 193.155(8)(h), (j), (k)).

Senior, disability, widow and veteran exemptions

Local-option senior exemption (age 65 and older). Some counties and cities have adopted, by ordinance, an additional exemption of up to $50,000 for owners 65 or older whose household income is at or below a yearly-adjusted limit, which is $38,686 for 2026. Where adopted by a supermajority, a county or city can instead exempt the full assessed value for owners 65 or older who have lived in the home at least 25 years and whose home had a just value under $250,000 when they first applied. These are local options, not statewide benefits. The Department of Revenue advises: "Contact your local property appraiser for information on any ordinances passed in your county." They apply only to the adopting county's or city's levy. To claim the senior exemption the first time, file a sworn statement of household income, supported by tax documents, by March 1, and tell the property appraiser by May 1 if your household income goes over the current limit (Fla. Stat. § 196.075).

Widow, widower, blind and disabled ($5,000). Fla. Stat. § 196.202 provides: "Property to the value of $5,000 of every widow, widower, blind person, or totally and permanently disabled person who is a bona fide resident of this state is exempt from taxation." A totally and permanently disabled person, for this section, is someone currently certified as such by a physician licensed in Florida, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, or the Social Security Administration.

Total exemption for certain disabled owners. Under Fla. Stat. § 196.101, "Any real estate used and owned as a homestead by any quadriplegic is exempt from taxation." Other totally and permanently disabled owners, such as those who are paraplegic, hemiplegic, wheelchair-dependent or legally blind, can also receive a full exemption, but only if the household's prior-year gross income is under a limit that is adjusted each year; ask your property appraiser for the current figure. A disability certificate from two Florida-licensed doctors or from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, presented to the property appraiser, is prima facie evidence of the disability.

Disabled veterans. Fla. Stat. § 196.081 fully exempts real estate "owned and used as a homestead by a veteran who was honorably discharged with a service-connected total and permanent disability" and holds a letter from the federal government or the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs certifying that disability. The veteran must be a permanent Florida resident on January 1 of the tax year claimed. Surviving spouses may be able to carry the exemption over; the property appraiser can explain those rules and any other veteran discounts.

A Florida resident veteran discharged under honorable conditions with a disability of 10 percent or more (from wartime service or by misfortune) receives a $5,000 exemption, which an unremarried surviving spouse also receives (Fla. Stat. § 196.24). A disability certificate from the federal government or the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, presented to the property appraiser, is prima facie evidence.

Penalties for claiming an exemption you were not entitled to

DR-501 warns: "The property appraiser has a duty to put a tax lien on your property if you received a homestead exemption during the past 10 years that you were not entitled to receive." You have 30 days to pay before the lien is recorded. Unless the error was the property appraiser's, the back taxes carry "a penalty of 50 percent of the unpaid taxes and 15 percent interest each year."

There is relief for honest mistakes by the office. No penalty or interest applies when the exemption was granted through the property appraiser's clerical mistake or omission. And for tax years beginning in 2025, DR-501 states that if you disclose such an error "before you receive a notice of intent to record a lien, you will not be charged back taxes, penalties or interest."

On the November 3, 2026 ballot: a much larger homestead exemption (not law yet)

The Florida Legislature passed CS/HJR 1-F, a proposed constitutional amendment, in its 2026 Special Session F, and the resolution was signed by the presiding officers and filed with the Secretary of State. It appears on the November 3, 2026 general election ballot as Amendment 3. After a Leon County circuit judge found the Legislature's original ballot title and summary misleading, the Attorney General released rewritten ballot language on August 13, 2026. The ballot title, as the Hillsborough County Tax Collector reports it, is "Increased Homestead Exemption, Lower Cap on Increases in Non-Homestead Property Assessments." Under Article XI, Section 5(e) of the Florida Constitution, it takes effect only if approved "by vote of at least sixty percent of the electors voting on the measure."

If approved, it would take effect January 1, 2027. Under the text of the resolution, it would:

• Keep the first $25,000 exemption for school district levies.
• Raise the non-school homestead exemption to $150,000 on January 1, 2027, and to $250,000 on January 1, 2028, adjusted for inflation beginning January 1, 2029.
• Require the Legislature to set, by general law, a uniform procedure letting counties and cities raise the exemption for their own levies up to all remaining assessed value; special districts could do the same only with approval by referendum.
• Give a person who was not a Florida permanent resident as of December 31, 2026 a $50,000 non-school exemption until the fifth year of exemption.
• Lower the annual assessment-increase cap on non-homestead property, for levies other than school district levies, from 10 percent to 5 percent beginning January 1, 2027.

None of this applies to 2026 taxes. Until and unless voters approve the measure, the current $25,000 exemption and the inflation-adjusted additional exemption described above remain the law.

Florida's creditor homestead is a different law

Separate from the tax exemption, Article X, Section 4 of the Florida Constitution protects a natural person's homestead from forced sale and judgment liens. It has no dollar cap. Instead it is limited by land area: "a homestead, if located outside a municipality, to the extent of one hundred sixty acres of contiguous land and improvements thereon ... or if located within a municipality, to the extent of one-half acre of contiguous land, upon which the exemption shall be limited to the residence of the owner or the owner's family." A rural homestead's protected acreage "shall not be reduced without the owner's consent by reason of subsequent inclusion in a municipality."

The protection has exceptions written into the constitution: it does not apply to "the payment of taxes and assessments thereon, obligations contracted for the purchase, improvement or repair thereof, or obligations contracted for house, field or other labor performed on the realty." Other limits can apply, so this is not a promise that any particular home is safe from every creditor.

No filing is required to have the constitutional protection. Fla. Stat. § 222.01 lets an owner record an optional written statement in the circuit court declaring the property to be a homestead. In bankruptcy, Florida has opted out of the federal exemption list: under Fla. Stat. § 222.20, Florida residents "shall not be entitled to the federal exemptions provided in s. 522(d) of the Bankruptcy Code of 1978." For how the homestead is treated in a bankruptcy case, see our guide to bankruptcy in Florida.

Homestead after the owner dies

Florida restricts who can inherit a homestead by will. Under Fla. Stat. § 732.4015, the homestead "shall not be subject to devise if the owner is survived by a spouse or a minor child or minor children, except that the homestead may be devised to the owner's spouse if there is no minor child or minor children." For how this works in an estate, see our guide to probate in Florida.

Where to get help

Your county property appraiser decides entitlement and processes DR-501, renewals and portability. The Department of Revenue's property tax exemptions page and its PT-113 homestead exemption guide explain the statewide programs. To check the recorded deed on your property, see our guide to Florida property records.

Related

• Homestead exemptions by state
• Florida bankruptcy guide
• Florida probate guide
• Florida property records

Disclaimer: This article provides general legal information about Florida's homestead exemption and related programs under the Florida Constitution and Florida Statutes, verified on October 7, 2026. It is not tax or legal advice, and it does not predict the result of the November 3, 2026 ballot measure. For your specific situation, contact your county property appraiser, the Florida Department of Revenue, or a lawyer licensed in Florida.

Last updated: October 7, 2026.

Frequently Asked Questions

How much is the homestead exemption in Florida?

Florida exempts the first $25,000 of assessed value from all property taxes, plus an additional exemption of up to $26,411 for 2026 on assessed value above $50,000 for non-school levies only (Fla. Stat. § 196.031; Department of Revenue).

When is the deadline to file for homestead exemption in Florida?

The DR-501 application is due to your county property appraiser by March 1, and you must hold title and permanently reside in the home on January 1. Under Fla. Stat. § 196.011, missing March 1 waives the exemption for that year unless a late-filing exception applies.

Can I still file for homestead exemption in Florida after March 1?

Possibly. Fla. Stat. § 196.011 allows a late application by the 25th day after the property appraiser mails the notice of proposed property taxes, with extenuating circumstances or a petition to the value adjustment board ($15 nonrefundable fee).

Do I have to reapply for homestead exemption every year in Florida?

Not with a new original application. The property appraiser mails a renewal application by February 1 each year, and a county may waive the annual renewal; you must refile if the home is sold, you stop living there, or your status changes (Fla. Stat. § 196.011).

What is the Save Our Homes cap in Florida?

Once a home has the homestead exemption, its assessed value can rise each year by no more than the lower of 3 percent or the change in the Consumer Price Index (Fla. Stat. § 193.155). The cap starts the year after the exemption is first received.

Can I transfer my Save Our Homes savings to a new house in Florida?

Yes. Portability under Fla. Stat. § 193.155 lets you carry the assessment difference, up to $500,000, to a new Florida homestead if you had a homestead exemption on January 1 of any of the 3 preceding years. It is claimed on Form DR-501T.

Is the $250,000 Florida homestead exemption law now?

No. CS/HJR 1-F is on the November 3, 2026 ballot as Amendment 3 and needs at least 60 percent approval; if approved, it would take effect January 1, 2027. The current $25,000 exemption and inflation-adjusted additional exemption remain in force for 2026.

Is there an extra homestead exemption for seniors in Florida?

Only where your county or city adopted one. The local-option senior exemption is up to $50,000 for owners 65 or older with household income at or below $38,686 for 2026, and it applies only to the adopting government's levy.

Does the Florida homestead exemption protect my house from creditors?

The tax exemption does not, but a separate law does: Article X, Section 4 of the Florida Constitution protects a homestead of up to 160 acres outside a municipality or one-half acre inside one, with exceptions for taxes and for purchase, improvement, repair and labor obligations.