Georgia Senior Property Tax Relief: Exemptions for 62+

Georgia senior property tax relief comes down to one lever: the homestead exemptions your own county has adopted, which as a rule are worth more than the state's.1 The state sets a floor of modest exemptions, and some counties have raised theirs above it by local legislation. This guide covers both, plus the income test that trips people up and how to claim what you qualify for.

The state exemptions in the table below go to homeowners who apply. You file with your county tax commissioner's office or, in some counties, the tax assessor's office.1

In This Guide

• Key Takeaways
• State Exemptions at a Glance
• The Standard Homestead Exemption
• The Age-65 County Exemption
• The Age-62 School Tax Exemption
• How the Income Test Works
• The Floating Inflation-Proof Exemption
• Where the Relief Really Lives: Your County
• How to Claim It
• Frequently Asked Questions
• Next Steps

State Exemptions at a Glance

These are the homestead exemptions the State of Georgia offers to all qualifying homeowners. Your county may have raised its own above them.1 Each one is explained in its own section below.

The dollar figures here are the state amounts. County exemptions aren't listed because they differ from county to county. The county section below covers how they compare.1

An honorably discharged veteran who lives in Georgia and meets the state's disability criteria has a separate homestead exemption on the home they own and live in: the greater of $32,500 or a maximum tied to a federal VA index.2 It applies to state, county, city, and school taxes, and it carries over to an unremarried surviving spouse or minor children who keep living in the home.2 Our guide to the disabled veteran property tax exemption in Georgia covers who qualifies and how to file.

The Standard $2,000 Homestead Exemption

Start with the baseline. Georgia allows every owner-occupant who applies a standard homestead exemption of $2,000 off the assessed value of their primary residence.1 You don't have to be a senior to get it. You have to own the home and have it as your legal residence as of January 1 of the tax year, and you have to apply.1

The $2,000 comes off county and school taxes. It does not reduce school taxes levied by a municipality, and it does not reduce taxes levied to pay interest on and retire bonded indebtedness.1 So if part of your bill is a city school tax or a bond levy, the standard exemption doesn't touch that part.

The Department of Revenue says the $2,000 is deducted from the 40% assessed value of the homestead.1 That lowers the value your tax is figured on, not the bill itself. Treat this as the floor. The age-65 county exemption and the age-62 school exemption below come on top of it.1

Here is how assessed value becomes a bill. The Department says each county's tax rate, or millage, is set annually by the board of county commissioners, or other governing authority of the taxing jurisdiction, and by the Board of Education. A rate of one mill is one dollar of tax per $1,000 of assessed value.1 In the Department's own example, a house worth $100,000 has an assessed value of $40,000, which is 40 percent of its fair market value, and in a county where the millage rate is 25 mills the property tax on that house would be $1,000.1

As an illustration only, at that same 25-mill example rate: each mill is one dollar per $1,000, so $2,000 of assessed value comes to 2 x $25, or at most $50 a year.1 That $50 is a ceiling, not what you save. It holds if all 25 mills were county and school levies the exemption applies to, and the exemption doesn't apply to school taxes levied by a municipality or to taxes levied to pay interest on and retire bonded indebtedness.1 The $50 is our arithmetic from the Department's example rate, not a Department figure. Your millage will differ, so ask your tax commissioner what the exemption works out to on your own bill.

The Georgia Department of Revenue publishes the statewide exemption rules. You file with your county, not the state.

The Age-65 County Exemption

At 65, a homeowner can claim a $4,000 exemption from all county ad valorem taxes, if the combined income of the owner and spouse for the prior year does not exceed $10,000.1 That $4,000 comes off the value county taxes are figured on, on top of the standard $2,000.

That income cap is not what it looks like, because Social Security and retirement income are set aside, up to a published maximum, before it's applied. The income test section below shows how.

The Age-62 School Tax Exemption

At 62, a homeowner may claim an additional exemption of up to $10,000 of assessed value from school taxes, under the same $10,000 income test, with the same Social Security and retirement exclusion. The state rule measures your age as of January 1 of the year you file the application.1 The income test is the one the county exemption uses, so you run the math once for both.

This state-level school exemption is worth claiming, but keep it in perspective. It removes up to $10,000 of assessed value.1 A local exemption adopted by your county can also cover school taxes, and the county section below covers how those compare.1 Ask your county tax commissioner whether your county has its own senior school-tax exemption.

How the $10,000 Income Test Works

The age-65 county exemption and the age-62 school exemption share one income test. The $10,000 income cap sounds impossibly low. It isn't, and that's the part most people miss. The test excludes Social Security, retirement, pension, and disability income up to the maximum the federal Social Security Act allows to be paid to an individual and spouse, so the income that actually counts is what's left after you set those aside.1

The Georgia Department of Revenue states that maximum for an individual and spouse together. Its page gives the Social Security maximum benefit for 2025 as $96,432.1

DeKalb County's tax commissioner publishes 2026 amounts on its own exemptions page: up to $49,824 for an individual or $99,648 for joint applicants in Social Security and retirement benefits may be excluded when calculating Georgia Net Income.1 DeKalb describes that income requirement as a formula provided by the Georgia Department of Revenue.1

Those 2026 amounts are DeKalb County's published figures. The Department of Revenue figure given here is the 2025 one.1 Ask your own county tax commissioner which amount applies to your filing year, and to you alone or with a spouse, before you run the numbers.

Because of that exclusion, the effective income ceiling is much higher than $10,000 in practice.1 Don't rule yourself out because your gross income looks too high. Run the math after the exclusions, or ask your tax commissioner to run it with you.

The Floating Inflation-Proof Exemption

Rising home values can push a tax bill up even when nothing else changes. Georgia has a tool for that.

A floating, inflation-proof homestead exemption is available to homeowners 62 and older with income up to $30,000, counting your spouse and anyone else living in the house.1 It shields natural increases in your home's appraised value from county taxes, and it benefits an owner whose appraised value has risen by more than $10,000.1

It comes with limits. It doesn't affect school or city taxes, and it doesn't reach taxes levied to pay interest on and retire bonded indebtedness. It's also meant to be used in place of any other county homestead exemption, not stacked on one.1 So this one protects you over time rather than cutting the bill all at once. Ask your tax commissioner whether it would serve you better than the county exemption you'd give up for it.

Where Georgia Senior Property Tax Relief Really Lives: Your County

The state exemptions above are only a floor. The most valuable senior breaks in Georgia are usually local, adopted by individual counties through local legislation, and the Department of Revenue says that as a general rule the county's exemptions are more beneficial to the homeowner.1

A local exemption can cover county taxes, school taxes, city taxes, or a mix.1 Several counties have also adopted an exemption that freezes the home's value at a base year for as long as the homeowner lives there, though in some counties the law may allow that base-year value to rise by a set percentage each year.1 Ask specifically whether your county has a senior school-tax exemption and what it requires.

The Department's page says the following have implemented that base-year exemption: Baldwin, Barrow, Camden, Carroll, Chatham, the City of Atlanta, Cherokee, Clarke, Cobb, Dade, DeKalb, Douglas, Effingham, Fannin, Floyd, Forsyth, Fulton, Gilmer, Glynn, Greene, Gwinnett, Habersham, Henry, Liberty, McIntosh, Meriwether, Murray, Muscogee, Oconee, Pierce, Putnam (printed on the page as "Putnum"), Toombs, Towns, Walton, Ware and White.1 It tells homeowners to contact the county for details about this exemption in their county.1 The Department doesn't call the list complete, so ask even if your county isn't on it.

Georgia also has a statewide floating homestead exemption that local governments can opt out of. A Department of Revenue bulletin issued January 22, 2025 says House Bill 581 (2024) authorized it for all local governments. Unless a county, consolidated government, municipality, or school district elects to opt out, each resident of this state is granted an exemption on their homestead from ad valorem taxes, equal to the amount by which the homestead's current year assessed value exceeds its previous adjusted base year assessed value.1

For the 2025 digest year, the bulletin sets the base year at the 2024 digest year assessed value for all eligible homesteads, so that in effect the assessed value on a homestead will not change from 2024 to 2025. It says the inflation index rate isn't used to set the adjusted base year value until 2026. A state rule sets that rate as the change in the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers, U.S. city average, as reported by the Bureau of Labor Statistics for the most recent calendar year.1

The bulletin doesn't say which counties, cities, or school districts opted out, and it doesn't say how this exemption works alongside the age-62 floating exemption above. Ask your tax commissioner both questions for each government that taxes your home.

In some counties, age and income restrictions apply, and the amounts vary from county to county.1 There is no statewide answer.

So a Georgia senior must check with their own county tax commissioner to find out what actually applies where they live.1 Don't assume your county matches a neighboring one, and don't assume the state exemptions are all you can get. The county-specific exemption is usually the one worth the most, and it's the one no general guide can tell you the dollar figure for.

How to Claim Georgia Senior Property Tax Relief

You file with your county, not the state. The Department of Revenue says the application must go to the county tax commissioner's office, or, in some counties, to the tax assessor's office that has been delegated to receive them.1

The age-62 school-tax exemption routes by which school district you live in. Residents of county school districts file with the county tax receiver or tax commissioner. Residents of Georgia's independent city school districts file with the municipality's governing authority, which has to designate in writing the official who receives those applications.1 If you live inside a city school district, the county office is not where that one goes.

Ask whether you'll have to file again in later years, because that answer is local. DeKalb County's tax commissioner states that once granted, an exemption there remains in place as long as the applicant continues to reside on the property or until a different exemption is applied for and approved.1 Don't assume your county works the same way.

If you hold the age-65 or age-62 exemption and stop meeting the requirements for any reason, the Department of Revenue says you must notify your county tax commissioner.1 When you turn 62 or 65, ask your county office whether you need a new application to get the age-based exemption.

Next Steps

Start with one phone call to your county tax commissioner. That office knows exactly which exemptions apply to your address, and it's the place to get the county-specific amounts.

• Call or visit your county tax commissioner and ask what senior and school-tax exemptions your county has adopted.
• File your homestead exemption by April 1. If April 1 has already passed, you can still apply up to the end of your 45-day window to appeal your assessment notice.1
• Run the income test after exclusions. Don't rule yourself out on gross income; Social Security and retirement income come out first.
• Ask about new exemptions as you age in. When you turn 62 or 65, ask your county office whether you need a new application to get the age-based exemption.

If property taxes are one piece of a larger question about affording care, our guide to paying for senior care in Georgia covers Medicaid, VA benefits, and private-pay options alongside home equity.

Learn More

Find personalized help claiming Georgia senior property tax exemptions at brevy.com.

The information on Brevy.com is for educational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional legal, financial, or medical advice. Rules vary by state and program and change frequently. Always verify with the relevant agency or a qualified professional. Brevy is not a law firm, financial advisor, or healthcare provider.