Travis County will let a homestead owner 65 or older pay a property tax bill in four equal installments with no penalty and no interest, but the plan does not start on its own. The Tax Office’s installment page requires a signed Letter of Intent to Make Four Installment Payments, sent with a quarter of the bill, by January 31. After that date, the county says, an unpaid bill begins to carry penalty and interest.
The people the four-payment plan was written for
The county names four groups: homeowners 65 or older, disabled homeowners, disabled veterans, and the unmarried surviving spouse of a disabled veteran. In every case the property must be the owner’s homestead. A tax bill on a rental house or a second property does not qualify, no matter how old the owner is.
The county’s own letter of intent form spells out the tests. A senior must hold a residence homestead exemption and have reached 65 before or during the tax year. A surviving spouse who lives in the home qualifies from age 55, and a disabled owner qualifies on a Social Security Administration disability determination.
A homeowner who turned 65 this year and already receives the homestead exemption has to settle two things before January 31: whether the Tax Office shows the exemption on the account, and whether the letter and the first installment are ready to go out together. The county treats them as a pair, so one without the other leaves the plan unstarted.
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A quarter first, then thirds of what is left
The form lays out the schedule for the last cycle it covered. Payment 1 is due January 31 and is “one fourth or more of the total tax bill.” Payment 2 is due March 31 and is one third of the remaining balance, with the third and fourth payments due May 31 and July 31, each one third.
That arithmetic only produces four equal payments if the first one is exactly a quarter. The words “or more” let a homeowner pay a larger first installment, in which case the later thirds shrink with the balance. Nothing on the form turns a bigger opening payment into a discount, only into smaller later ones.
The penalty for slipping is spelled out on the county page. A late installment draws a 6 percent penalty plus 1 percent interest for each month it stays unpaid, and the form cites Section 31.031 of the Texas Property Tax Code for those charges.
Online, by email or by mail by January 31, and two county pages that disagree on the date
The Tax Office gives three routes: online enrollment, email and mail. The page puts “by January 31st” beside each one. The mailed or emailed version carries the signed letter and one quarter of the taxes, and the online route starts from the county’s account search.
The page also carries a notice that those same options “are no longer available for tax year 2025 as the deadline has passed.” The date is attached to each tax year’s bill, and the closed 2025 window shows that the county treats it as a cutoff.
Travis County’s separate property tax important dates list gives a different cutoff for the same step. It calls Feb. 28 (Feb. 29 in a leap year) the last day to enroll by filing the letter and paying the first quarter, then lists March 31, May 31 and July 31 for the rest.
The enrollment page and the letter of intent both say January 31, and January 31 is also the last day the calendar gives for paying taxes without penalty and interest. A letter and a quarter payment delivered by that date meet either deadline. The February date is the one a homeowner should not rely on, because the pages the enrollment steps live on do not repeat it.
Deferral is a different tool with a lasting cost
The Tax Office’s over-65 and disabled exemption page describes a separate option, a tax deferral. Owners who qualify “may defer or postpone paying property taxes” on the home for as long as they live in it. Deferred taxes accrue 5 percent interest a year and become payable when the property is sold or passes to heirs.
Deferral also needs a notarized Tax Deferral Affidavit, mailed to P.O. Box 149328, Austin, TX 78714-9328, or filed in person at 2433 Ridgepoint Dr., Austin, TX 78754. The four-payment plan carries no interest when payments are on time. It also never reaches past July 31, so the bill is gone within the year, while a deferral can last as long as the owner lives in the house.
The county has a third tool for people who have already fallen behind. A homestead owner with delinquent taxes can ask for a payment agreement spread over twelve monthly payments, or six if the property has no homestead exemption. The county adds that partial payments made before the January 31 deadline are not charged penalty and interest.
The letter is what the Tax Office has to hold before the first payment lands
The county’s instructions ask for the letter and one quarter of the taxes together, whether by mail, by email or online. The letter states the choice and the quarter starts the payments, and the page puts January 31 beside every route.
That sets the practical question for any Travis County homeowner turning 65 this year. Does the Tax Office already show a homestead exemption on the account, and is the letter written and on its way with the first quarter before the last week of January?
Is the letter of intent written before the first quarter goes out?
A letter of intent and a quarter payment are two separate pieces of paper trail, and a county that holds only one of them has no plan to honor. For a Travis County owner, the cost of getting the order wrong is a full tax bill carrying penalty and interest.
The Senior Property Tax & Home-Cost Relief Kit covers the 5 kinds of property-tax relief, so a homeowner can compare an installment plan with an exemption, a freeze or a deferral. It also includes an application log and renewal calendar for tracking which letter went to which office and when.
The kit runs 64 pages, and Part 7, The Yearly Routine, is the section built around dates that come back every year.
Get the kit with the application log and renewal calendar for Travis County installments →
This article was produced with AI assistance and edited for accuracy against the sources linked above.
