Louisiana Special Assessment Level Freeze at 50%

This is the other half of Louisiana's property tax picture and it is routinely confused with the exemption. The exemption removes dollars of assessed value. The special assessment level freezes the assessment itself, so rising values stop raising the bill. A veteran at 50 percent or more can hold both. Under Article VII, Section 18(G) the assessment of a homestead owned and occupied by a person with a service-connected disability rating of 50 percent or more shall not be increased above the total assessment for the first year the owner qualifies and receives the freeze, as long as the owner stays qualified. The same paragraph covers people 65 and older, members of the armed forces or the Louisiana National Guard who owned and last occupied the property and were killed in action or were missing in action or a prisoner of war for more than 90 days, and people permanently totally disabled by court judgment or agency certification. The income cap is the gate that disqualifies people, and it moves. A person is barred from the freeze if adjusted gross income, as reported on the federal return for the year before the application, exceeds $100,000. For married filing separately, both returns are combined. Beginning with tax year 2026 the $100,000 limit is adjusted annually by the Consumer Price Index, so the live number is above $100,000 and only the assessor can tell you what it is this year. Do not rely on a figure from a guide, including the one in this sentence. A further change is pending. The constitutional amendment proposed by Acts 2025, No. 220 would raise the cap to $150,000 effective January 1, 2027 on ratification, indexed annually from tax year 2028, and would let the assessor verify income eligibility from the federal adjusted gross income reported on the Louisiana return. Until that is ratified the $100,000 indexed figure governs. Here is the obligation almost nobody mentions. An owner below the age of 65 who has received the freeze must certify to the parish assessor each year that adjusted gross income in the prior tax year still satisfied the income requirement. That annual certification does not apply to owners who qualified as 65 or older, or to owners who qualified as permanently totally disabled. It does apply to a veteran under 65 who qualified on a 50 percent rating. Miss the certification and you lose the freeze. Duration is generous once you have it. The freeze remains while the 50-percent-disabled owner, or that owner's surviving spouse who is 45 or older or who has minor children, remains the owner. Note that age: for the 65-and-older category the spouse must be 55, but on the disability path it is 45. A surviving spouse's ownership interest may be a usufruct and still count. Two ways it ends. The value of the property increasing more than 25 percent because of construction or reconstruction breaks the freeze. And on a sale the freeze expires automatically on the last day of December in the year before the sale, with the property immediately revalued at fair market value. A buyer does not inherit the seller's level, though a new owner may claim a freeze if independently eligible. One technical point in the veteran's favor: any millage rate applied to the special assessment level is not subject to a limitation, and under the pending 2027 language the taxing authority absorbs the revenue loss rather than shifting it to other taxpayers. Apply by filing a signed application with the assessor of the parish, or in Orleans Parish the assessor of the district where the property is located. The owner, the owner's spouse, or another legally qualified representative may file.