Senior Freeze Exemption: Income Limits, Qualifying, and Renewal

Illinois’s Senior Freeze Exemption locks in the equalized assessed value of a qualifying homeowner’s property so that rising assessments cannot push up the tax bill. To qualify, you must be 65 or older, own and live in the home as your principal residence, and keep total household income under the annual ceiling: $65,000 for tax year 2025 (bill payable in 2026), rising to $75,000 for tax year 2026 under a law signed in late 2025.¹ The program is codified at 35 ILCS 200/15-172, and you apply on form PTAX-340 through your county assessor every year.²

How the Freeze Works

The exemption fixes your home’s equalized assessed value (EAV) at a “base year” level, which is the year you first qualify and apply.³ Each year after that, the county subtracts the frozen base-year value from your property’s current EAV and removes the difference from your assessment before calculating the tax. If your EAV was $50,000 in your base year and climbs to $70,000 five years later, the exemption strips out that $20,000 increase and you are taxed as though the assessment were still $50,000.

Improvements you add after the base year, such as an addition or a major renovation, get added to your base amount. The freeze is a shield against market-driven assessment increases, not against value you choose to build into the property.²

Your Tax Bill Is Not Frozen

This trips up nearly everyone. The freeze applies to your assessed value, not to the dollar amount you owe. Local taxing bodies (school districts, municipalities, park districts) set their rates every year, and those rates can go up. If they do, your bill can rise even with a frozen assessment.⁴ Most participants still see meaningful savings, because rising assessments are usually the bigger driver of higher bills, but the freeze cannot control what taxing districts levy.

Who Qualifies

Three requirements must be met for each tax year you apply: age, residency, and ownership.

Age

You must be 65 or older during the tax year you’re claiming.² Turning 65 at any point in the year is enough.

Residency

The property has to be your principal residence, and you must have occupied it as of January 1 of both the tax year at issue and the year before. You cannot claim a primary residence elsewhere.¹

Ownership

You need a legal or equitable interest in the home. A recorded deed is the cleanest proof, but a contract for deed or a beneficial interest in a trust also counts. If the property sits in a trust, you’ll need documentation naming you as a beneficiary.⁵ Rental properties and vacation homes are not eligible.

Income Limits Are Rising

The income ceiling had been flat for years while costs climbed. Public Act 104-0452, signed in December 2025, phases in higher limits:¹

Tax year 2025 (payable 2026): $65,000 maximum household income, using 2024 income
Tax year 2026 (payable 2027): $75,000 maximum household income, using 2025 income
Tax year 2027 (payable 2028): $77,000 maximum household income, using 2026 income
Tax year 2028 (payable 2029): $79,000 maximum household income, using 2027 income

The one-year jump from $65,000 to $75,000 is substantial. If you were previously shut out because your household income landed between those two figures, apply for tax year 2026. Your base year is set the first year you qualify, so applying as soon as you’re eligible locks in a lower starting assessment.³

What Counts as Household Income

Illinois defines “household” more broadly than most applicants expect. It includes you, your spouse (even a spouse living somewhere else), and everyone who uses the property as their principal residence on January 1 of the tax year.⁶ Every household member’s income gets combined into one total. An adult child or other relative living with you adds their income to the count, which is where many applicants stumble.

The reportable income list also goes well beyond what shows up on a federal return. It includes Social Security and SSI at the gross amount before Medicare is deducted, pensions and annuities, retirement account distributions, Railroad Retirement benefits, wages, tips, interest, dividends, net capital gains, public assistance from any government agency, workers’ compensation, Illinois income tax paid during the year (added back in), and net operating loss and capital loss carryover deductions.

Two of those catch people off guard. The Illinois income tax you paid gets added back into the household income total, and Social Security is counted gross, not net of Medicare premiums. As a result, your household income for this program will almost always be higher than the adjusted gross income on your federal return.⁶ Leaving out any household member’s income can cost you the exemption.

How to Apply

The application is form PTAX-340, filed with your county assessor’s office. First-time applicants generally need a photo ID that verifies age and identity, plus income documentation for the prior calendar year for every household member.⁴ Federal tax returns are the standard proof. For anyone in the household who doesn’t file a return, an SSA-1099 or similar record of income received can stand in.

The form asks you to list every person using the property as a principal residence and to break down income by category for each of them. Gather all your income documents before you start, because the form walks through each type of income line by line.⁷ If the home is held in a trust, include the pages of the trust agreement naming you as beneficiary.⁵

Filing methods and deadlines vary by county. Many assessor offices accept applications by mail, in person, or through an online portal, and filing windows open at different times. Check with your local assessor’s office early in the year. In Cook County, the filing period for tax year 2025 opens March 9, 2026.⁴

You Have to Renew Every Year

The Senior Freeze does not renew automatically. A new application is required each year to reconfirm age, residency, and income.⁴ Most assessor offices mail reminders in the spring to taxpayers who received the exemption the year before, but the responsibility to file on time is yours.⁸

Missing the deadline loses the exemption for that year. Your bill is then calculated on the property’s full current assessed value, which can be jarring after several years of frozen assessments. When you reapply and qualify the following year, your base year resets to the new year of qualification rather than reverting to your original base year.³ That reset permanently erases whatever assessment gap had built up. For someone whose EAV has risen sharply since the original base year, a single missed renewal can cost hundreds or thousands of dollars going forward.

Selling, Moving, or Entering Care

The frozen assessment is tied to a specific property and to your continued eligibility there. Selling the home ends the freeze, and the property reverts to full current assessed value for the new owner. Buying another home means starting fresh: you apply at the new address and your base year is set the first year you qualify there. Illinois law provides no mechanism to carry a frozen base-year value from one property to another.²

The same rule applies if you move to a nursing home or assisted living facility. Once the home is no longer your principal residence as of January 1, eligibility ends. Some homeowners keep the property as their legal residence while receiving temporary care elsewhere, which can preserve eligibility depending on the circumstances, but the test is always whether the home remains your principal place of residence on January 1.

1
Kane County Assessment Office. Low-Income Senior Citizen Assessment Freeze Homestead Exemption
2
Illinois General Assembly. Illinois Code 35 ILCS 200/15-172 – Low-Income Senior Citizens Assessment Freeze Homestead Exemption
3
Illinois Department of Revenue. Property Tax – Exemption Information (PIO-74)
4
Cook County Assessor’s Office. Low-Income Senior Freeze Exemption
5
Warren Township Assessor’s Office. Low-Income Senior Citizen’s Assessment Freeze
6
Rock Island County, IL. New State Law Makes Changes to Senior Freeze Eligibility
7
Lee County. PTAX-340 Low-Income Senior Citizens Assessment Freeze Homestead Exemption Application and Affidavit
8
Cuba Township. Low-Income Senior Citizen’s Assessment Freeze