LETTER TO THE EDITOR: Forgot to mention senior tax benefits

To the Editor:

I was happy to see the writeup in a recent edition of the paper about property tax information provided by the tax appraisal district. It certainly contained a lot of helpful information.

However, one thing missing was a description of the benefit that is provided to senior homeowners over the age of 65. I am referring to the benefit of a property tax freeze for both the Greenville ISD tax and the City of Greenville tax.

 This benefit has been offered by the Greenville ISD for years but the City of Greenville now offers the same tax freeze for homeowners age 65 or older on their residential homestead property.

This benefit places a ceiling on the dollar amount of property taxes you pay each year to the City of Greenville but it must be your primary residence.

If you have already filed the forms to receive the over 65 exemption from the Greenville Independent School District, you do NOT need to take any action or complete a new application.

If you are age 65 or over and are NOT currently receiving the over 65 exemption from the Greenville Independent School District, then you MUST file an application with the Hunt Central Appraisal District.

An application can be found at:   https://www.hunt-cad.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/Homestead-Application-50-114-1-20.pdf .     

If you are unsure if you currently have the over 65 exemption now or not you should call the Hunt CAD at 903-454-3510. They can tell you if you need to do anything to claim your legal benefit.

John Kelso

Greenville