In Texas, you must file a property tax protest by May 15 or within 30 days after the appraisal district delivered your notice of appraised value, whichever date is later.1State of Texas. Texas Tax Code Section 41.44 – Notice of Protest Knowing when to protest property taxes in Texas comes down to that single rule, plus a handful of narrow extensions and backup options that can keep your protest alive if the May date slips past you.
The May 15 Deadline
The statutory rule gives you two possible deadlines and tells you to use the later one. May 15 is the default. The 30-day alternative only matters when the appraisal district sends your notice late enough that 30 days from the delivery date lands after May 15.1State of Texas. Texas Tax Code Section 41.44 – Notice of Protest
The crossover sits around April 15. If your notice went out before that date, May 15 controls because 30 days still puts you inside the mid-May window. If it went out after April 15, the 30-day clock runs past May 15 and becomes your real deadline. A notice delivered April 25, for example, gives you until May 25.
Large counties often don’t finish mailing notices until late April or early May, so the 30-day extension genuinely matters for owners who had no realistic chance to react by the standard date. Check the delivery date on your notice before you assume May 15 is the number to circle.
When Your Notice Arrives
The chief appraiser must deliver the notice of appraised value by April 1 for homesteads that qualify for an exemption, and by May 1 for other property.2State of Texas. Texas Tax Code 25.19 – Notice of Appraised Value A homesteaded owner who receives a notice right on April 1 has a comfortable six-week window until May 15. Non-homestead owners with a May 1 notice get the 30-day extension almost automatically, pushing them into early June.
You may not get a notice at all some years. The district is required to send one only when the appraised value went up from the prior year, when the property is newly added to the rolls, when a rendered value is lower than the district’s figure, or when an exemption was reduced or removed.3State of Texas. Texas Tax Code Section 25.19 – Notice of Appraised Value Silence from the district usually means the value held steady or dropped. You can still protest, but your deadline remains tied to May 15 since no later notice date exists to extend it.
When the notice does arrive, read it. It carries the appraised value, the prior year’s value, your exemptions, the taxing units involved, and instructions for protesting and for the informal conference with the appraisal office.
Extensions for Offshore and Military Workers
Two groups get written-in late-filing rights. Workers employed on an offshore drilling platform in the Gulf of Mexico for 20 or more continuous days spanning the deadline can file after May 15 if they provide a letter from their employer. Military members on active duty outside the United States when the deadline passed get the same relief, backed by a military ID and deployment orders.1State of Texas. Texas Tax Code Section 41.44 – Notice of Protest In both cases, the protest still has to be filed before taxes become delinquent.
These extensions don’t help anyone else. Travel, work pressure, or simply forgetting won’t qualify under this part of the statute.
If You Miss May 15
A missed deadline isn’t the end of the road in every case. Texas law has three narrower paths that stay open after the standard window closes, each with its own threshold.
Good Cause
If you file after May 15 but before the ARB approves the appraisal records for the year, the board can still hear your protest if you show good cause for the late filing.1State of Texas. Texas Tax Code Section 41.44 – Notice of Protest The board decides what counts. A documented medical emergency or a verifiable mail problem has a reasonable chance; simply forgetting generally doesn’t.
Failure to Receive Notice
If the appraisal district never delivered a notice you were entitled to receive, you can file a protest any time before your taxes become delinquent, which is normally February 1 of the following year. If the board agrees no notice was sent, it then hears your underlying protest on the merits. You have to comply with the payment requirements in Tax Code Section 41.4115 while the protest is pending, or you forfeit a final determination.4State of Texas. Texas Tax Code Section 41.411 – Protest of Failure to Give Notice
Motion to Correct the Roll
A separate process under Tax Code Section 25.25 lets you ask the ARB to correct the appraisal roll when the district made a significant mistake, whether or not you protested on time. The size thresholds are steep. For a residence homestead, the appraised value has to exceed the correct value by more than one-fourth. For all other property, the gap has to be more than one-third.5State of Texas. Texas Tax Code Section 25.25 – Correction of Appraisal Roll A $400,000 homestead would need a correct value under roughly $320,000 to qualify. The motion also has to be filed before taxes become delinquent.6State of Texas. Texas Tax Code 31.02 – Delinquency Date
How To File
Protests go to the appraisal review board in your county. Texas publishes standardized forms: Form 50-132 for counties with populations over 120,000, and Form 50-132-A for smaller counties.7Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts. Property Owner’s Notice of Protest Both come from the Texas Comptroller. The form asks for your name, the property address, the district’s account number from your notice, and the specific grounds for the protest.
Most districts take protests through an online portal, which gives you instant confirmation that the filing landed. If you file by mail, use certified mail with return receipt so you have proof of the date. Hand delivery to the appraisal district office works too. Texas law allows electronic delivery of communications between owners and districts if the county’s system supports it.8State of Texas. Texas Tax Code 1.085 – Electronic Delivery of Communication
Filing itself costs nothing. The form asks you to pick your grounds. The two most common are that the appraised value exceeds market value and that the appraisal is unequal compared to similar properties. You can also protest a denied or reduced exemption, incorrect ownership, denial of agricultural valuation, placement in the wrong taxing unit, or any other action by the chief appraiser that applies to your property and harms you.9State of Texas. Texas Tax Code Section 41.41 – Right of Protest You can check more than one.
What Happens After You File
Filing by the deadline opens the process; it doesn’t finish it. Most appraisal districts offer an informal meeting with a staff appraiser before the formal hearing, and a large share of protests get resolved there without going before the board.10Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts. Appraisal Protests and Appeals If you don’t settle, the ARB schedules a formal hearing and must send notice of the date at least 15 days in advance.11State of Texas. Texas Tax Code 41.46 – Notice of Protest Hearing You’re entitled to one postponement without stating a reason if you request it before the hearing date and haven’t designated an agent.12State of Texas. Texas Tax Code 41.45 – Hearing on Protest
The point for timing purposes is that none of this starts if you miss the filing window. Mark May 15 on the calendar, and if your notice arrived after mid-April, count 30 days from the delivery date and mark that one too.