Bankruptcy exemptions in Texas: what you can keep

What property Texas law protects in bankruptcy, item by item.

Checked against official sources: October 25, 2026.

Short answer

In Texas you choose state or federal exemptions (exemptions are the property the law lets you keep). Your home (homestead): no dollar limit.

Exemption system: State or federal, your choice
Car or other vehicle: One motor vehicle (two-, three- or four-wheeled) for each family member or single adult who has a driver's license, or who relies on someone else to drive for them.
Amounts: Texas amounts are fixed by statute, not indexed: $100,000 / $50,000 personal property limits since H.B. 2706 (2015, eff.

What Texas lets you keep

Exemptions are the property the law lets you keep. You pick one whole set: the Texas list or the federal list. You can't mix them.

Law: In re Sager (Bankr. N.D. Tex. 2005); 11 U.S.C. 522(b)(1)-(2); 11 U.S.C. 522(d)

What	Texas exemption	Federal exemption
Home (homestead)	No dollar limit. The limit is by land area: up to 10 acres for an urban home (city lots, may include a place of business); for a rural home, up to 200 acres for a family or 100 acres for a single adult. Applies to your family's home or a single adult's home. A home listed as your residence homestead on the county appraisal roll (property tax exemption) is treated as designated. It does not protect against the mortgage (purchase money), property taxes, written home-improvement contracts, valid home equity loans or reverse mortgages. Money from selling your homestead stays protected for six months. Burial lots are also exempt. Federal bankruptcy law can cap a homestead bought within about 3.3 years before filing. Law: Tex. Prop. Code 41.001, 41.002, 41.005	$31,575 Law: 11 U.S.C. 522(d)(1)
Car or other vehicle	One motor vehicle (two-, three- or four-wheeled) for each family member or single adult who has a driver's license, or who relies on someone else to drive for them. It counts toward the overall $100,000 / $50,000 personal property cap. Law: Tex. Prop. Code 42.002(a)(9)	$5,025 Law: 11 U.S.C. 522(d)(2)
Household goods and clothing	Listed types of personal property up to $100,000 total for a family or $50,000 for a single adult (value after subtracting liens): home furnishings and heirlooms, food, clothing, jewelry (up to 25% of the cap: $25,000 family / $12,500 single), two firearms, sports equipment and bicycles, vehicles (see above), farm and ranch vehicles and tools, some animals (2 horses/mules/donkeys with tack, 12 cattle, 60 other livestock, 120 fowl) and household pets. Law: Tex. Prop. Code 42.001(a), 42.002(a)	Household goods: $800 per item, $16,850 total Jewelry for personal or family use: $2,125 Law: 11 U.S.C. 522(d)(3); 11 U.S.C. 522(d)(4)
Wildcard (any property)	—	$1,675 plus up to $15,800 of any unused part of the (d)(1) homestead amount Law: 11 U.S.C. 522(d)(5)
Tools of your trade	Tools, equipment, books and apparatus used in your trade or profession, including boats and motor vehicles, within the $100,000 / $50,000 total cap. Law: Tex. Prop. Code 42.002(a)(4)	$3,175 Law: 11 U.S.C. 522(d)(6)
Wages	Current wages for personal services are fully exempt (outside the cap), except for child support. Unpaid commissions are exempt up to 25% of the cap ($25,000 family / $12,500 single) and count toward it. Law: Tex. Prop. Code 42.001(b)(1), (d)	—
Retirement accounts	Tax-qualified retirement and savings plans are exempt without a dollar cap, outside the $100,000 / $50,000 limit: employer and church plans, IRAs and Roth IRAs (including inherited ones), SEPs, health savings accounts, Coverdell and 529 college plans, prepaid tuition, ABLE accounts. Excess contributions are not covered. Money withdrawn stays exempt for 60 days (longer if rolled over). Law: Tex. Prop. Code 42.0021	No dollar limit (IRAs are capped under 522(n)) Money in traditional and Roth IRAs is protected up to $1,711,975 in total. Law: 11 U.S.C. 522(d)(12); 11 U.S.C. 522(n); 90 FR 8941
Public benefits	Unemployment benefits are exempt (if not mixed with other money; except debts for necessities while unemployed). Workers' compensation benefits are exempt. TANF cash assistance is exempt, including from insolvency law. Law: Tex. Lab. Code 207.075; Tex. Lab. Code 408.201; Tex. Hum. Res. Code 31.040	Your right to receive Social Security, unemployment, public assistance, veterans' and disability benefits; alimony and support you reasonably need; and certain pension or annuity payments you reasonably need: No dollar limit (some only as much as you reasonably need) Your right to certain payments: crime victim awards, wrongful-death and life-insurance payments for someone you depended on, personal bodily injury payments (not pain and suffering or actual money losses), and payments for lost future earnings: Crime-victim awards: no limit. Personal injury payment: up to $31,575. Others: as much as you reasonably need Law: 11 U.S.C. 522(d)(10); 11 U.S.C. 522(d)(11)
Other exemptions	Life, health and accident insurance and annuity benefits, including the cash value of a policy, are fully exempt. Alimony, support or separate maintenance you receive, and prescribed health aids, are exempt outside the cap. A religious Bible or other book of sacred writings is exempt outside the cap. Law: Tex. Ins. Code 1108.051; Tex. Prop. Code 42.001(b)(2), (3); Tex. Prop. Code 42.001(b)(4)	An unmatured life insurance policy you own (not credit life insurance): No dollar limit Cash value of life insurance: $16,850 Health aids prescribed by a professional for you or a dependent: No dollar limit Law: 11 U.S.C. 522(d)(7); 11 U.S.C. 522(d)(8); 11 U.S.C. 522(d)(9)

Federal limit on a newly bought home

If you use your state's exemptions, you can protect no more than $214,000 of home equity that you acquired in the 1,215 days (about 3 years and 4 months) before you filed. Equity moved from an earlier home in the same state, bought before that period, does not count. The cap does not apply to a family farmer's main home.

Law: 11 U.S.C. 522(p); 90 FR 8941

Amounts: Texas amounts are fixed by statute, not indexed: $100,000 / $50,000 personal property limits since H.B. 2706 (2015, eff. Sept. 1, 2015); homestead acreage rules in Prop. Code ch. 41 (last amended 2023). The 2025 regular session (89th Legislature) made no changes to Prop. Code ch. 41 or 42. Read on the Texas Legislature's statutes site, October 2026.

Federal amounts: Amounts in effect for cases filed on or after April 1, 2025 (next automatic adjustment due April 1, 2028)

Law: 11 U.S.C. 104; 90 FR 8941-8942

These amounts are per person. If a married couple files one joint case, each spouse can claim the federal exemptions separately.

The Texas homestead exemption

No dollar limit. The limit is by land area: up to 10 acres for an urban home (city lots, may include a place of business); for a rural home, up to 200 acres for a family or 100 acres for a single adult.

Applies to your family's home or a single adult's home. A home listed as your residence homestead on the county appraisal roll (property tax exemption) is treated as designated. It does not protect against the mortgage (purchase money), property taxes, written home-improvement contracts, valid home equity loans or reverse mortgages. Money from selling your homestead stays protected for six months. Burial lots are also exempt. Federal bankruptcy law can cap a homestead bought within about 3.3 years before filing.

Law: Tex. Prop. Code 41.001, 41.002, 41.005

Federal limit on a newly bought home

Law: 11 U.S.C. 522(p); 90 FR 8941

Retirement money

Tax-qualified retirement and savings plans are exempt without a dollar cap, outside the $100,000 / $50,000 limit: employer and church plans, IRAs and Roth IRAs (including inherited ones), SEPs, health savings accounts, Coverdell and 529 college plans, prepaid tuition, ABLE accounts. Excess contributions are not covered. Money withdrawn stays exempt for 60 days (longer if rolled over).

Law: Tex. Prop. Code 42.0021

Retirement money in tax-exempt accounts is protected whichever set of exemptions you use (IRAs subject to the 522(n) cap).

Law: 11 U.S.C. 522(b)(3)(C), 522(d)(12), 522(n)

Which state's law applies

You use the exemption law of the state where you lived (your domicile) for the full 730 days (2 years) before you filed. If you moved between states during those 2 years, you use the law of the state where you lived for the 180 days before that 2-year period, or where you lived the longest part of those 180 days.

Law: 11 U.S.C. 522(b)(3)(A)

If this rule leaves you with no exemptions at all (for example, the state's exemptions apply only to its residents and you no longer live there), you can use the federal exemptions instead.

Law: 11 U.S.C. 522(b)(3), flush language

How the choice works in Texas

In some states you can choose either the state exemptions or the federal exemptions. You must pick one whole set; you cannot mix them. Other states allow only the state exemptions. A married couple filing together must both pick the same set.

Law: 11 U.S.C. 522(b)(1)-(2); In re Sager (Bankr. N.D. Tex. 2005); 11 U.S.C. 522(d)

In nearby states

Oklahoma: State exemptions only. Home (homestead): unlimited in value — in a city or town: up to 1 acre that you own and live in as your principal residence.
Louisiana: State exemptions only. Home (homestead): $35,000 in value of the home you own and live in, with the land and buildings: up to 5 acres inside a municipality or up to 200 acres outside one.
New Mexico: State or federal, your choice. Home (homestead): $150,000 in your primary residence.
Arkansas: State or federal, your choice. Home (homestead): only if you are married or the head of a family — Rural home: up to 160 acres worth up to $2,500, but never less than 80 acres regardless of value.

Steps to protect what you can in Texas

List what you own
Write down your home, car, bank accounts, household goods and other property, with a value for each. The form for this is Official Form 106A/B.
Match each item to an exemption
The table above shows the Texas amount for each kind of property.
Fill in Schedule C
The exemptions you choose go on Official Form 106C.
Ask for free help
Free help: Legal Aid of NorthWest Texas and Lone Star Legal Aid (also takes bankruptcy clinic calls from outside Houston, per the Southern District court).

Where to get free help in Texas

Questions about exemptions in Texas

State or federal exemptions in Texas?

You can. Texas lets you choose the state exemptions or the federal exemptions in 11 U.S.C. 522(d). You must pick one whole set.

What is the homestead exemption in Texas?

Can I keep my car in Texas?

One motor vehicle (two-, three- or four-wheeled) for each family member or single adult who has a driver's license, or who relies on someone else to drive for them. It counts toward the overall $100,000 / $50,000 personal property cap.

What household goods can I keep in Texas?

Listed types of personal property up to $100,000 total for a family or $50,000 for a single adult (value after subtracting liens): home furnishings and heirlooms, food, clothing, jewelry (up to 25% of the cap: $25,000 family / $12,500 single), two firearms, sports equipment and bicycles, vehicles (see above), farm and ranch vehicles and tools, some animals (2 horses/mules/donkeys with tack, 12 cattle, 60 other livestock, 120 fowl) and household pets.

What happens to retirement money in Texas?

Are my wages protected in Texas?

Current wages for personal services are fully exempt (outside the cap), except for child support. Unpaid commissions are exempt up to 25% of the cap ($25,000 family / $12,500 single) and count toward it.