Arkansas property tax bills arrive in late summer. For the senior who turned 65 a year or two ago and never filed the assessment-freeze application, the bill shows what the rest of the county got reassessed to — a 10%, 20%, sometimes 40% increase over a five-year cycle. For the neighbor who did file the freeze, the bill looks exactly like it did the year they turned 65, and will keep looking that way every year for the rest of their life.

That difference is what Arkansas Amendment 79 actually does. Passed by voters in November 2000, the amendment freezes the taxable value of a homestead at the assessment in effect the year the owner turns 65 (or becomes disabled), and prevents subsequent county reappraisals from raising the frozen value.1 The savings compound year after year, often quietly amounting to thousands of dollars annually after a decade. But the benefit requires an application most eligible families never file. This piece walks through how the freeze works, what it actually saves a typical Arkansas family, and the one-page form that activates it.

What the freeze actually does

To understand the freeze, you need to understand how Arkansas counties assess property in normal course. Arkansas requires a county-wide reappraisal at least every five years (and many counties reappraise more frequently). The reappraisal updates the taxable assessed value of every property in the county to reflect current market conditions, then the local millage rates are applied to that updated value to calculate the property-tax bill.

Amendment 79 takes a homestead out of that cycle for senior and disabled homeowners. Under Ark. Code Ann. § 26-26-1118, the taxable assessed value of the homestead is frozen at the value in effect the year the owner turns 65 (or becomes disabled).2Subsequent county reappraisals may identify a higher market value — but the higher value doesn’t flow through to the property tax bill. The frozen value continues to apply for as long as the senior owns the home as their primary residence.

The math, with an example

Consider an Arkansas homeowner who turned 65 in 2018, when their homestead was assessed at $30,000 (Arkansas assesses at 20% of true market value, so this implies a $150,000 market value). At a typical Arkansas millage rate of 50 mills (5%), the property tax bill in 2018 would be $1,500.

The annual saving in 2026 is $375. The cumulative savings from 2018 through 2026 are approximately $1,500. And the savings continue to compound — when the next county-wide reappraisal happens, the gap between frozen and unfrozen values grows further. Over a 20-year ownership horizon in a typical Arkansas housing market, the freeze easily produces $10,000–$25,000 in cumulative tax savings.

Who is eligible

Three categories of Arkansas homeowners qualify for the assessment freeze:

The homestead must be the primary residence and must be owned by the applicant (in whole or in part). A parent who has transferred title to children but retains a life estate generally still qualifies; a parent who has transferred title outright does not. This is one place where the Amendment 79 freeze interacts with estate planning, often unhelpfully — a well-meaning quitclaim deed to a child can extinguish the senior’s freeze eligibility.

How to file: the one-page application

The Assessment Freeze Application is a one-page form filed with the county assessor in the county where the property is located. It requires:

  1. Photo identification(driver’s license or state ID).
  2. Proof of age(driver’s license is sufficient in most counties; birth certificate also accepted).
  3. Proof of homestead ownership and primary residence. The county assessor already has ownership records; primary residence is usually self-certified on the form.
  4. The applicant’s signature. Notarization is not generally required, but some counties prefer it.

Total time at the assessor’s office: 15–30 minutes. Total cost: zero. The form, once filed, is permanent — the freeze applies until the property is sold, the homestead status changes, or the owner moves out.3

The deadline question

Arkansas property is assessed as of January 1 of each year, and the assessment determines the tax bill due the following year. The Assessment Freeze Application, to apply to a given tax year, must generally be on file with the county assessor by October 1 of the prior year.

In practice, this means:

The separate $500 homestead credit

Amendment 79 also created a separate homestead property-tax credit of up to $500 per year on a primary residence.4 This benefit is available to anyArkansas homeowner who occupies the property as their principal residence; it isn’t limited to seniors or disabled applicants. Some counties apply the credit automatically; others require a one-time application. For a senior eligible for both Amendment 79 benefits, the freeze and the credit stack.

Practically, this means a senior who files both the assessment freeze and the homestead credit application can reduce their property-tax bill in two ways: the freeze prevents the assessment from rising; the credit reduces the bill by up to $500/year. For a typical $1,500–$2,500 annual Arkansas property- tax bill, the combined effect can mean an effective property tax of half what an out-of-county or new owner would pay on the same property.

What the freeze doesn’t do

A few common misconceptions worth correcting:

The estate-planning interaction worth knowing

The freeze creates one estate-planning consideration worth flagging. If an Arkansas senior with a long- standing assessment freeze is considering transferring the home (to a child, to a trust, or via some other ownership change), the transfer can extinguish the freeze. The new owner — even if also a senior — starts fresh at the current assessment.

The mitigating moves are familiar:

For most middle-class Arkansas estates with a modestly-valued homestead, the transfer-on-death deed is the cheapest combination of probate avoidance and freeze preservation. It costs $50–$200 to record and requires no ongoing administration during the senior’s lifetime.

The bottom line

Amendment 79 is one of the more substantial state- level senior tax benefits in the country, and it’s also one of the most under-claimed. Filing the assessment-freeze application is a 30-minute project that returns thousands of dollars over the years a senior owns their Arkansas home. If your parent is 65 or older, owns their primary residence in Arkansas, and has never filed the application, that’s the next phone call to make to the county assessor. The form is short, the documentation is simple, and the savings start flowing the next assessment cycle.