New Braunfels Property Tax: Valuation, Exemptions, and Protests

Property owners in New Braunfels pay taxes to four or five overlapping government entities, and the combined property tax rate typically runs above $2 per $100 of assessed value. The city’s own share for 2025 is $0.408936 per $100, while the school district — either New Braunfels ISD at $1.0377 or Comal ISD at roughly $1.07 per $100 — usually takes the biggest bite.¹² Knowing which entities appear on your bill, how the appraisal works, and which exemptions you qualify for is how homeowners keep the total manageable.

Who Taxes Your Home

A single New Braunfels home usually owes taxes to several jurisdictions, each setting its own rate.

City of New Braunfels. The 2025 adopted rate is $0.408936 per $100, split between operations and debt service. It funds roads, parks, libraries, police, and fire.¹
School district. Depending on location, your property sits in New Braunfels ISD ($1.0377 per $100 for 2024–25) or Comal ISD (about $1.07 per $100). Schools are almost always the largest line on a Texas tax bill.²
County. New Braunfels straddles Comal and Guadalupe counties. Your physical address determines which one taxes you for courts, roads, and the sheriff’s office.
Special districts. Many properties also fall inside an Emergency Services District or a Municipal Utility District. Comal County ESD 5, for example, adopted a rate of $0.099762 per $100 for 2025. MUDs are common in newer subdivisions where bonds paid for water and sewer infrastructure, and those rates generally drop as the bonds are retired.³

Your detailed tax statement from the county tax office lists every entity, its adopted rate, and the dollar amount owed. If a line looks unfamiliar, that’s where to start.

How Your Property Is Valued

Before rates apply, an appraisal district decides what your home is worth. The Comal County Appraisal District handles properties on the Comal side of New Braunfels; the Guadalupe County Appraisal District handles the rest. Both must appraise at market value as of January 1 each year under the Texas Property Tax Code.⁴

Appraisers look at square footage, age, condition, and recent renovations, then compare your home to recent sales of similar nearby properties. Each spring you’ll receive a Notice of Appraised Value showing the district’s number. Read it carefully. That figure drives everything downstream.

The 10 Percent Homestead Cap

If you have an active homestead exemption, Texas Tax Code Section 23.23 caps how much your appraised value can rise year to year. The increase can’t exceed 10 percent of the prior year’s appraised value, plus the market value of any new improvements.⁵ The cap holds even if true market value has jumped further.

You must have qualified for the homestead exemption in both the previous and current tax year for the cap to apply. First-year owners see full market value on their first appraisal, and the cap starts protecting them the year after.⁴ In a market like New Braunfels, this cap is one of the most valuable protections you have.

Exemptions That Lower Your Bill

Exemptions reduce your taxable value before any rate is applied, so they shrink the bill from every entity that recognizes them. Apply through your local appraisal district. The general deadline is before May 1, and your Texas driver’s license or state ID must show the property address.⁶

General Homestead Exemption

Any owner who uses the property as a primary residence qualifies. School districts must exempt $140,000 of appraised value.⁷ Cities, counties, and special districts may add a local-option exemption of up to 20 percent of appraised value on top.⁶ On a $350,000 home, the school district exemption alone drops taxable value to $210,000 before the rate is applied.

Over-65 and Disability Exemptions

Owners who are 65 or older or who are disabled get an additional $60,000 school district exemption stacked on top of the standard $140,000, for a combined $200,000 off school-taxable value.⁷

The more valuable piece is the school district tax ceiling. Once you qualify, your school district taxes are frozen at the dollar amount imposed in the first qualifying year. The district cannot raise that amount even if values or rates climb.⁸ Move to a different homestead within the same district and the ceiling transfers proportionally.

Disabled Veteran Exemptions

Veterans with a service-connected disability from the VA qualify under Tax Code Section 11.22, with the amount tied to the rating:

10 to 29 percent: up to $5,000 off assessed value
30 to 49 percent: up to $7,500
50 to 69 percent: up to $10,000
70 percent or higher: up to $12,000

A disabled veteran aged 65 or older with at least a 10 percent rating, one who is totally blind, or one who has lost the use of one or more limbs qualifies for the full $12,000 regardless of rating.⁹ Veterans rated at 100 percent may qualify to exempt the home’s entire value under Section 11.131.

Disaster Damage Relief

When the governor declares your area a disaster zone and your property sustains at least 15 percent damage, Tax Code Section 11.35 provides a temporary exemption scaled to severity:

Level I (15 to under 30 percent damage): 15 percent exemption
Level II (30 to under 60 percent): 30 percent
Level III (60 to under 100 percent): 60 percent
Level IV (total loss): 100 percent

The exemption covers the structure, not the land, and it’s prorated based on days remaining in the tax year after the declaration. You have 105 days from the governor’s declaration to apply, and the exemption expires January 1 of the first year the property is reappraised.¹⁰

How the Bill Is Calculated

The math is simple. Take the appraised value on your notice, subtract every exemption you qualify for, and you have the taxable value. Multiply by each entity’s rate per $100. Add every entity’s share for your total.

Example: a $350,000 appraisal with the $140,000 school homestead exemption gives $210,000 in school-taxable value. At the NBISD rate of $1.0377 per $100, school tax alone is roughly $2,179. The city, county, and any special district add their own shares, and each may use a slightly different taxable value if it offers additional local exemptions.

Worth understanding: the appraisal district only sets value. Each taxing unit’s elected officials set the rate through a separate process, so the office that values your property has no say in how much of that value gets taxed.⁴

How Rates Are Set

After receiving the certified appraisal roll, each taxing unit calculates two benchmark rates. The no-new-revenue rate would produce the same total revenue as the prior year on properties taxed both years — so when values rise, this rate falls. The voter-approval rate is the ceiling a unit can adopt without triggering an election.¹¹

A governing body that proposes a rate above the voter-approval rate must hold a public hearing and then send the rate to voters. If voters reject it, the rate reverts to the voter-approval rate.¹² These hearings run in late summer before rates are finalized. Any resident can attend and speak.

Protesting Your Valuation

If the appraised value looks too high, file a protest. It’s the most effective tool a homeowner has, and in a fast-rising market it’s worth doing any year the number jumps significantly.

The deadline for a written protest is May 15 or 30 days after the notice was mailed, whichever is later.¹³ With the Comal Appraisal District, you can file through their online e-file portal, by email, by mail, or in person. A formal form isn’t required. Any written document with your name, the property ID or address, and the reason for the protest will do.¹⁴

Informal Meeting First

After filing, you’ll usually be offered an informal meeting with an appraiser. Bring comparable sales for similar homes at prices below your appraised value. Many protests settle here — if your evidence is convincing, the appraiser can offer a reduced value and the process ends.

Formal Hearing Before the ARB

If no informal agreement is reached, the case goes to a formal hearing before the Appraisal Review Board, an independent citizen panel. You and the appraisal district each present evidence, and the panel decides. Hearings typically last 15 to 20 minutes and take place from June through August, with the final order sent by certified mail.

Miss the formal hearing and your protest is dismissed. If you have a good reason for not appearing, request a new hearing in writing within four business days.¹⁴ If you disagree with the ARB’s decision, you can escalate through binding arbitration or file suit in district court.

Paying the Bill

Tax bills go out in October and are due on receipt. Taxes become delinquent if not paid before February 1 of the following year, so January 31 is the effective cutoff for a mailed check.¹⁵

Both the Comal and Guadalupe county tax offices accept online payments. E-check payments usually carry a small flat fee, and credit card payments carry a convenience fee in the two-to-three-percent range, charged by the third-party processor. You can also pay in person at the county tax assessor-collector’s office or by mailing a check to the address on your bill.

If Your Lender Handles Escrow

Most mortgage lenders collect a portion of the estimated annual taxes each month through an escrow account and pay the county when the bill comes due. Each year the lender runs an escrow analysis. If taxes rose, your monthly payment goes up to make up the shortfall. If there’s a surplus, you get a refund or credit.

Even with escrow, verify the tax office shows your payment as received. Supplemental tax bills, HOA fees, and certain special assessments usually aren’t part of escrow and remain your responsibility to pay directly.

Installment Plan for Qualifying Homeowners

Homeowners who are 65 or older, disabled, or disabled veterans with a qualifying exemption under Section 11.22 can split homestead taxes into four equal installments without penalty or interest. The first payment must be made before February 1, along with written notice to the taxing unit that you intend to use installments. The remaining three are due before April 1, June 1, and August 1.¹⁶

Miss that first February deadline without written notice and the option is gone. You can’t set installments up retroactively. The same quarterly schedule applies to every taxing unit on the bill.¹⁷

Penalties If You Don’t Pay

The penalty and interest structure escalates fast. A delinquent tax picks up a 6 percent penalty in February, then an additional 1 percent per month through June. On July 1 the penalty jumps to 12 percent regardless of the running total. Interest accrues separately at 1 percent per month from the delinquency date.¹⁸ By midsummer, a homeowner who missed February 1 can face combined penalty and interest above 18 percent of the original tax.

Once the account is turned over to a collection attorney, an additional penalty tied to the attorney’s contract is added. Taxing units can sue to foreclose. Texas property tax liens outrank virtually every other lien, mortgages included, so a tax foreclosure sale can occur even on a home with an active loan. After a foreclosure sale, the former owner has two years to redeem a homestead by paying all taxes, fees, and a redemption premium of 25 percent in the first year or 50 percent in the second. Non-homestead properties get only six months.

Property tax delinquency in Texas isn’t something to ignore and revisit later. The penalty math alone costs more than most payment plans, and the foreclosure risk is real. If you can’t pay in full, look at the installment option or contact the tax office before February 1 rather than after.

1
New Braunfels, TX – Official Website. Tax Information
2
New Braunfels ISD. NBISD Approves Tax Rate for 24-25 School Year
3
Comal County Emergency Services Districts. Emergency Services District 5
4
Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts. Valuing Property
5
State of Texas. Texas Tax Code 23.23 – Limitation on Appraised Value of Residence Homestead
6
Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts. Property Tax Exemptions
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State of Texas. Texas Tax Code 11.13 – Residence Homestead
8
State of Texas. Texas Code Tax 11.26 – Limitation on School District Taxes
9
State of Texas. Texas Tax Code 11.22 – Disabled Veterans
10
Guadalupe Appraisal District. Section 11.35 Property Tax Code
11
Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts. Tax Rate Calculation
12
State of Texas. Texas Code Tax 26.06 – Hearing and Vote on Tax Increase
13
State of Texas. Texas Code Tax 41.44 – Notice of Protest
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Comal Appraisal District. Protest Information
15
State of Texas. Texas Tax Code 31.02 – Delinquency Date
16
State of Texas. Texas Code Tax 31.031 – Installments
17
Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts. Payment Options
18
State of Texas. Texas Code Tax 33.01 – Penalties and Interest