The short answer: if you owned your Georgia home and lived in it on January 1, file for the homestead exemption with your county. The state amount is small ($2,000 off the assessed value). But filing also gets you any bigger county exemptions, and Georgia's cap that holds your taxable value to the rate of inflation. Starting in 2027 that cap applies in every county, city and school district. The usual deadline is April 1, and you file once.
Answer the questions below to see which Georgia exemptions you're likely to get, and what to ask your county about.
Georgia taxes homes on 40% of their fair market value (the "assessed value"). Exemptions come off that assessed value. The state sets a few small ones. Most of the real savings come from your county, city and school district, so the most useful thing you can do is get the homestead on file and then ask your county what else applies.
Every owner-occupied primary residence can get $2,000 off its assessed value for county and school taxes (O.C.G.A. §48-5-44). It doesn't apply to school taxes levied by cities or to taxes that pay off bonds. On a $300,000 home (assessed at $120,000) that brings the taxable value to $118,000. It isn't large, but it's what unlocks everything below.
Since 2025, a 2024 law (HB 581, §48-5-44.2) has held a homestead's assessed value to the rate of inflation each year, unless the local government opted out. You don't apply for it separately: having the homestead exemption is enough. The cap is measured from a base year: 2024 for most homes, so assessed values didn't change from 2024 to 2025. From 2026 they can rise only by the inflation rate the Department of Revenue sets. Many counties, cities and school districts did opt out.
A 2026 law (SB 33, the HOME Act, in effect since May 11, 2026) removes the opt-out. For places that had opted out, the base year is 2026 and the cap starts in 2027. The value resets to market value when the home is sold, and major improvements are added on top.
The state's senior exemptions have tight income limits.
Many counties have much more generous senior exemptions, some removing school taxes entirely at a certain age. These are set county by county, so ask yours.
Honorably discharged Georgia veterans can get a large exemption on their homestead from all property taxes (state, county, city and school) if they are any of these:
The amount follows a federal figure (38 U.S.C. §2102) that rises most years. For 2025 it was $121,812; the state hadn't published the 2026 figure when we checked. Value above that amount is still taxed. It passes to an un-remarried surviving spouse or minor children who keep living in the home.
Counties can create their own homestead exemptions by local law, and these are usually worth more than the state ones. Several counties freeze a homestead's value at a base year for as long as the owner lives there. The Department of Revenue lists Baldwin, Barrow, Camden, Carroll, Chatham, Cherokee, Clarke, Cobb, Dade, DeKalb, Douglas, Effingham, Fannin, Floyd, Forsyth, Fulton (and the City of Atlanta), Gilmer, Glynn, Greene, Gwinnett, Habersham, Henry, Liberty, McIntosh, Meriwether, Murray, Muscogee, Oconee, Pierce, Putnam, Toombs, Towns, Walton, Ware and White.
You don't reapply each year; the exemption renews as long as you keep living there (§48-5-45). If you stop qualifying for an exemption, for example because your income rises above a senior limit, you must tell the tax commissioner.
You must own and live in the home on January 1. The usual filing deadline is April 1 (the date property tax returns are due in your county), and you can now also file up to the end of the 45-day window to appeal your assessment notice.
The state standard homestead exemption is $2,000 off the assessed value (40% of market value) for county and school taxes, except city school taxes and bond debt. Many counties add larger local exemptions, and the homestead also qualifies the home for the statewide cap that limits yearly increases in assessed value to the inflation rate.
A 2024 law (HB 581) limits yearly increases in a homestead's assessed value to the inflation rate set by the Department of Revenue, from a base year. Local governments could opt out, but the 2026 HOME Act (SB 33) removed the opt-out: in places that had opted out, the base year is 2026 and the cap starts in 2027. The value resets when the home is sold.
The state offers $4,000 off for county taxes at 65 and up to $10,000 off for school taxes at 62, both for you and your spouse's income of $10,000 or less (retirement income excluded up to the Social Security maximum), and a floating county exemption at 62 when the federal adjusted gross income of everyone in the home is $30,000 or less. Many counties offer more generous senior exemptions.
For qualifying disabled veterans (100% rated, entitled to the 100% rate for unemployability, or with certain loss-of-limb or sight awards) it was $121,812 for 2025, off all property taxes, and it is indexed to a federal amount that rises most years. It continues for an un-remarried surviving spouse or minor children.