If you are 62 or older and own your home in Randolph County, your real estate tax bill can be frozen at the level it was in the year you became eligible. Everyone else’s goes up; yours does not.
It is not automatic. You have to apply, and you have to reapply every year. The window is April 1 to June 30.
The county adopted it in May 2025
Missouri’s legislature passed the senior real property tax credit in 2023 and amended it in 2024, but it only exists in a county that adopts it. The Randolph County Commission adopted it by Ordinance #05062025, enacted May 6, 2025.
Worth knowing where we found that. The ordinance is documented on the Collector’s website and nowhere else. The county’s own ordinances page lists five ordinances and this is not among them — and one of the five listed, the UTV and golf cart ordinance, expired in 2023 and is still posted. The county’s ordinance index is not a reliable record of what the county has enacted.
Who qualifies
Under the ordinance and RSMo 137.1050, an eligible taxpayer is someone who:
Is 62 years of age or older before January 1 of the initial credit year;
Is an owner of record of the homestead, or holds a legal or equitable interest evidenced by a written instrument;
Is liable for paying the real property taxes on it.
The age is 62, not 65. The original 2023 bill tied eligibility to Social Security retirement age, which confused everyone. A 2024 amendment replaced that with a flat 62 and broadened the definition of a homestead. Randolph County’s ordinance uses the amended standard. If someone told you 65, they were reading the old version.
A homestead is real property you actually occupy as your primary residence. You may claim only one.
The deadline
June 30, every year. Open enrolment runs April 1 through June 30. The first year the county ran it, 2025, the deadline was August 15 at 4 p.m.; from 2026 on it is June 30.
Apply at the Randolph County Collector’s Office, 372 Highway JJ, Huntsville — online or in person. 844-277-6555 ext. 310.
The three documents you need
You must prove residency, age and ownership. Any one item from each group:
Residency — a utility bill, voter registration, or a bank statement
Age — a driver’s licence, birth certificate, or passport
Ownership — a tax receipt, the deed, a trust agreement, or LLC documentation
If you cannot put your hands on the deed, the Recorder of Deeds will sell you a copy for $1 a page at Suite 1H, and a free online account will let you find it first.
How the freeze actually works
It is not an exemption and it is not a discount. It is a credit equal to the difference between what you owe now and what you owed in your initial credit year — the year you first qualified and applied.
The county’s own example: “if you apply and are approved for the 2024 base year, you can expect to see any eligible credit applied to your 2025 real estate tax bill.”
So the base year is set when you apply, and everything above it after that is credited back. If your bill was $900 in your base year and rises to $1,150, you pay $900.
One wrinkle that works in your favour. If in any later year your bill comes in lower than your base year, that lower year becomes your new base year for everything afterwards. The freeze ratchets down but never up.
This is not the circuit breaker
Two different programs get confused constantly, and mixing them up will cost you money.
The senior freeze is what this page is about. County program, adopted by county ordinance, administered by the County Collector, age 62, applies to real estate you own and live in, deadline June 30.
The Missouri Property Tax Credit, the “circuit breaker,” is a state refund claimed on Form MO-PTC through the Missouri Department of Revenue. It has income limits, it covers certain renters as well as owners, and the county has nothing to do with it. No Randolph County page mentions it. Do not go to the courthouse to claim it, and check the current income thresholds with Revenue rather than trusting a figure you read somewhere.
You may qualify for both. They are claimed in different places.
What we could not confirm
The signed text of Ordinance #05062025 is not published. If you want to read what the Commission actually enacted — including anything the Collector’s summary leaves out — ask Commission Clerk Stacey Roth at ext. 340.
We also cannot tell you how many Randolph County households have enrolled. If you have applied and hit a snag, tell us.
Do this
If you turned 62 this year or last and you own your house, put April 1 in your calendar and take three documents to the Collector’s office. It takes one visit and it is worth doing the first year you are eligible, because the base year is whatever year you apply — wait three years and you have frozen three years of increases into your bill permanently.
Randolph County Collector — 844-277-6555 ext. 310 · 372 Highway JJ, Suite 1G, Huntsville · senior tax credit page
Verified against the Randolph County Collector’s published program page and RSMo 137.1050, September 2026. Moberly Mainline is not a tax advisor. Confirm your own eligibility with the Collector before relying on any of this.
