Travis Bunn

Founder, AppealDesk · Published March 27, 2026 · Updated August 3, 2026

The Freeze Dies With the Owner: How Arkansas Amendment 79 Benefits Unwind When You Inherit a Homestead

Updated August 2026

On paper, Arkansas is one of the gentlest states in which to inherit a house. There is no state inheritance tax, no state estate tax, and no rule that reappraises a property just because a deed moved. Counties reappraise on their own 3-year or 5-year cycles under Ark. Code Ann. 26-26-1902, not when someone dies.

So why do heirs in Little Rock, Fayetteville, and everywhere in between open a tax bill a year or two after probate and find a number their parents never paid? Because Amendment 79 to the Arkansas Constitution, the law behind the state's famous homestead credit and senior freeze, hands its benefits to a qualifying person, not to the parcel forever. When that person dies, the benefits begin unwinding on a schedule most families never see coming. This guide walks the ledger: what the deceased owner had, what survives the year of death, what disappears the following January 1, and what you can do about the number that replaces it.

The Four Amendment 79 Benefits, and Which Pile Each Falls Into

The state's Assessment Coordination Division describes Amendment 79 as four distinct taxpayer benefits, implemented at Ark. Code Ann. 26-26-1120 through 26-26-1124:

• The homestead property tax credit, a dollar-for-dollar cut in the bill on an owner's principal residence.
• The 5% cap on annual increases in a homestead's taxable assessed value after a countywide reappraisal.
• The 10% cap on annual increases for non-homestead property.
• The assessed value freeze for owners who are 65 or older or disabled, which stops the taxable assessed value of their homestead from rising at all.

Sorted by what happens at death: the credit survives the year of death and then must be re-earned. The freeze simply ends, because the person who qualified for it is gone. And the caps depend on what the parcel becomes in your hands, homestead or not. Take them one at a time.

The Homestead Credit Rides Out the Year, Then Falls Off

Arkansas's homestead credit is unusually generous right now, and getting more so. Three numbers matter to an estate settling in 2026:

• $500 was the credit through the 2024 assessment year, the amount on bills paid in 2025.
• $600 applies to assessment years beginning January 1, 2025, the amount on the bills mailed in 2026.
• $675 is next. In the 2026 fiscal session, House Bill 1103 passed the House 92 to 0 and the Senate 34 to 0 and became Act 174 of 2026, raising the credit for assessment years beginning on or after January 1, 2026, which is the 2027 billing.

Under Ark. Code Ann. 26-26-1118(b), the credit is not personal to the owner within a given year. Once a parcel qualifies as of January 1, the credit sticks to the parcel for that entire year, no matter who inherits it, who pays the bill, or how the property is used after the death. The estate and the heirs can even prorate it between themselves. So the tax bill that arrives during probate, which pays the prior year's assessment, should still show the credit.

The cliff is the next assessment year. To keep the credit going forward, the new owner must register their own eligibility with the county assessor, on or before October 15 of the year after the assessment, and the property must actually be the new owner's principal place of residence. An heir who lives elsewhere, rents the house out, or leaves it empty does not qualify, and the credit comes off.

The mechanics are forgiving about method, strict about substance. Under Ark. Code Ann. 26-26-1118:

• The registration can be attached to the deed and filed with the circuit clerk, who forwards it to the assessor, or submitted directly to the assessor's office.
• The property must qualify as your homestead before January 1 of the year following the assessment year you want covered.
• One credit per owner, period. Ark. Code Ann. 26-26-1119 penalizes a second claim, so an heir who already claims a credit on their own home cannot stack another on the inherited one.

Do not plan on the county simply not noticing. Ark. Code Ann. 26-26-1118(b)(7) requires the Division of Vital Statistics to email every county assessor a monthly list of residents who have died. Assessors in Arkansas learn about deaths as a matter of statutory routine, and claiming a credit you are not entitled to carries penalties under Ark. Code Ann. 26-26-1119.

The Senior and Disability Freeze Unwinds Completely

What the decedent had

Here is the benefit whose loss actually moves the needle. Under Ark. Code Ann. 26-26-1124, a homeowner who is 65 or older or disabled has the taxable assessed value of their homestead frozen, locked at the value when they qualified, or a later, lower value if a reappraisal ever went down. A parent who qualified fifteen or twenty years ago has been taxed all this time on a number from that era, while the county's appraised value marched upward through every 3-year or 5-year reappraisal since.

That gap between the frozen figure and today's full assessed value, 20% of market value under Ark. Code Ann. 26-26-303, is the invisible subsidy in the family home. The ACD's guidance is plain about when it ends: a frozen value changes when the current owner no longer qualifies under Amendment 79 for the freeze. Death is the ultimate disqualification. Once the qualifying owner is gone and no protected arrangement continues (more on those below), the parcel returns to its full assessed value at the following January 1.

A purely hypothetical illustration: a Pulaski County homestead frozen years ago at an assessed value of $18,000 might carry a full assessed value of $34,000 today. At a millage rate around 50 mills, unwinding the freeze adds roughly $800 a year to the bill, before the separate loss of a $600 to $675 credit is counted. Nothing about the house changed except whose name is on the deed.

What an heir can rebuild

One wrinkle heirs often miss: the freeze is not inheritable, but it is re-earnable. An heir who is themselves 65 or older or disabled, and who makes the house their principal residence, can apply for their own freeze with the county assessor. It locks at the value after the reset, not at the parent's old number, per Ark. Code Ann. 26-26-1123 and 26-26-1124. A new freeze at today's value is worth far less than the old one, but it stops the next reappraisal from raising the bill further, so claim it early.

The 5% and 10% Caps Follow the Label, and You Choose the Label

Amendment 79's caps limit how fast taxable assessed value can climb after a countywide reappraisal: 5% per year for a homestead, 10% per year for everything else, until the parcel catches up to full assessed value. Unlike the freeze, the caps are not senior benefits, and a version of them will protect you too. But two things change at a transfer.

First, the protected base resets. Ark. Code Ann. 26-26-1123 provides that when property is sold, the assessor assesses it at 20% of appraised value at the next assessment date, and the new owner cannot claim any limitation until the second assessment date after the transfer. The statute speaks in terms of sales, and the ACD's guidance applies the same full-value reset when a person acquires a capped or frozen parcel without qualifying for the benefit themselves. The practical assumption for an heir: whatever below-market taxable value the deceased enjoyed, your starting point is the county's current full assessed value, and the caps only slow future increases from there.

Second, which cap you get depends on what you do with the house:

• Move in and register it as your homestead: 5% cap on future reappraisal increases, plus the credit, plus a new freeze if you qualify by age or disability.
• Rent it out or leave it vacant: it is non-homestead property, the 10% cap applies, and there is no credit and no freeze.

Because counties reappraise on staggered 3-year and 5-year cycles, the timing of your county's next reappraisal decides how quickly the difference between 5% and 10% compounds. Ask the assessor where the county sits in its cycle; the answer belongs in any keep-or-sell analysis.

One renovation caution before you swing a hammer: neither cap, and no freeze, shelters a substantial improvement. Under the state's ACD Rule 4.08.2, renovation that changes the property's use or adds 25% or more to an improvement's contributory value gets assessed at full value on top of the protected base. Updating a dated inherited house for your own family is often worth it anyway; just budget for the assessment consequence rather than discovering it on next year's notice.

What Survives Death: Trusts, Life Estates, and Qualifying Co-Owners

Arkansas law does leave three doors open, and estates that planned ahead walk through them:

• A jointly owned homestead with a qualifying co-owner. Under Ark. Code Ann. 26-26-1124, if a homestead is jointly owned and one owner qualifies for the freeze, all owners receive the benefit. A surviving spouse or co-owner on title who is 65 or older or disabled, and who keeps living in the home, continues under their own qualification rather than inheriting the decedent's.
• A trust the decedent formed. The Amendment 79 definition of homestead in Ark. Code Ann. 26-26-1122 includes a dwelling owned by a revocable or irrevocable trust and used as the principal residence of the person who formed it, and, for irrevocable trusts, of a beneficiary. A parent who deeded the house into a trust did not forfeit the credit or freeze while living there, and a beneficiary who occupies the home should bring the trust document to the assessor before assuming anything lapsed.
• A retained life estate. Ark. Code Ann. 26-26-1123(c) exempts transfers where the owner kept a life estate. A parent who deeded the remainder to children but retained a life estate kept every benefit until death. The unwind then happens at the life tenant's death instead of at a probate transfer.

Notice what is not on the list: a will, or intestate succession. The ordinary ways property passes at death carry no Amendment 79 protection with them.

Heir Property: When Nobody Can Re-Register Anything

Plenty of Arkansas land passes for generations without probate or deeds, leaving dozens of relatives as fractional co-owners and no one with clear record title. That status blocks the fixes this guide describes. An occupying heir who cannot document an ownership interest has trouble registering the homestead credit, claiming a new freeze, or even appealing effectively, while the tax bills keep coming and unpaid taxes remain a lien that can end in a tax sale after the October 15 delinquency date.

Since 2015, Arkansas's Uniform Partition of Heirs Property Act, Ark. Code Ann. 18-60-1001 through 18-60-1014, has protected families from the old abuse where a speculator bought one heir's sliver and forced a courthouse auction of the whole tract; it applies to partition actions filed on or after January 1, 2016 and gives co-owner families appraisal, buyout, and open-market safeguards. It does not, however, clear title for tax purposes. If you are occupying inherited Arkansas property without a deed in your name, resolving title through probate or a quiet title action is the gateway to every property tax benefit discussed here.

Selling Instead of Keeping: Two Details Worth Knowing

If the family's plan is to sell, Amendment 79 still shapes the transaction:

• The buyer starts at full value, twice over. Under Ark. Code Ann. 26-26-1123, a sale puts the parcel at 20% of appraised value at the next assessment date, and the buyer cannot claim any Amendment 79 limitation until the second assessment date after the transfer. A savvy buyer, or their agent, will estimate taxes off the full assessed value, not off the frozen figure on the last bill. Quoting the decedent's old tax amount in a listing invites a mistrustful negotiation later.
• An appeal can still pay off during the holding period. The estate pays taxes until closing, and if the county's appraised value overshoots what the market will actually bear, a successful Equalization Board petition lowers both the estate's carrying cost and the tax estimate every buyer sees. The petition rides on the same third Monday in August deadline covered below.

Either way, clear any delinquent taxes early. Unpaid Arkansas property taxes are a lien that follows the land into whoever's hands it passes, and title companies will insist the balance is resolved before closing.

The Two Januaries That Decide Your Bill

• The January 1 before the death set the status quo: the decedent's credit, freeze, and cap all attach to that assessment year, and the bill for it, payable between March and October 15 of the following year, is unchanged by the death. The estate or heirs must still pay it on time; the 10% delinquency penalty does not care about probate.
• The first January 1 after the death is when the unwind lands: credit off unless a new qualifying owner registered, freeze gone unless a trust, life estate, or qualifying co-owner carries it, value reset toward 20% of the county's current appraisal. The bill reflecting all of this arrives the year after that, which is why the jump surprises families 12 to 24 months after the funeral.

And to close a common worry: there is no Arkansas death tax layered on top of this. Act 645 of 2003 eliminated the state estate tax for deaths on or after January 1, 2005, and Arkansas has never taxed inheritances themselves. The property tax unwind is the whole state-tax story.

When the Unfrozen Number Is Just Wrong: The Equalization Board

Everything above assumes the county's appraised value is right. After a freeze unwinds, that assumption deserves scrutiny, because the parcel may not have been seriously examined in years. Long-frozen homes are exactly where stale record cards live: square footage from an old addition that was never finished, a garage listed as living space, condition ratings that predate the roof leak. If the market value behind the new assessment is too high, Arkansas gives you a short, hard window to fight it, laid out in our Arkansas property tax appeal guide:

• Watch for the value-change notice, due within 10 business days after July 1 under Ark. Code Ann. 26-23-203.
• You have the right to an informal meeting with the assessor first, including evening hours at least one day a week.
• Petition the County Equalization Board, which convenes August 1, by the third Monday in August. The board can adjust a value that is unfair compared to similar properties, clearly erroneous, or manifestly excessive under Ark. Code Ann. 26-27-315.
• The board must send its written decision within 10 business days after the hearing under Ark. Code Ann. 26-27-317.
• If the board says no, appeal to county court, then circuit court, under Ark. Code Ann. 26-27-318.

Heirs hold a piece of evidence most appellants never have: a date-of-death appraisal or the estate's sale listing analysis. If the estate had the home professionally appraised and the county's figure is materially higher, that document, plus comparable sales and photos of the home's actual condition, is the core of a strong petition. The burden of proof is yours, so bring paper, not frustration. Overpaid in a prior year because of an actual error on the rolls? Refunds reach back at most three years, so do not sit on it.

The pattern to remember: Arkansas does not punish inheritance, it just stops subsidizing the previous owner. The credit, the freeze, and the caps were earned by a person who is gone, and the parcel drifts back to full freight unless a new person re-earns what can be re-earned, on the assessor's calendar, with the assessor's paperwork. Registration by October 15, occupancy decisions before the next January 1, and an Equalization Board petition by the third Monday in August: those three dates are the whole game.

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