Texas homeowners often rely on homestead exemptions to keep their property taxes in check. But the slight discount and valuation cap that these measures provide is not enough. In 2022 alone, Dallas County saw a 24% residential appraisal value increase, and Tarrant County saw a 20% increase.
To keep property taxes in check and ensure appraisal values don’t balloon, individual homeowners should also protest their property taxes every year. Through this process, you can contest your County Appraisal District’s appraisal value, present your case in front of a review board, and fight to ensure your taxes are as low and fair as possible.
However, whether this is your first year considering a property tax protest or you’ve tried to wade into the process before, it can be incredibly overwhelming and detailed. In this guide, learn the basics of how property tax protests work and the benefits you can access. Then, we’ll walk through the process in detail and give you the resources you need to see the best possible results.
Property Tax Protests: Overview + Benefits
While everyone calls the process ‘protesting your property taxes,’ it’s important to draw back the curtain and understand that that’s not quite what’s happening. To start, here’s a quick overview of how your property taxes are done:
- Your local County Appraisal District appraises your property’s value as of January 1st of a given year.
- You’re informed of that new value, which will likely have increased over the previous year. You’ll have an opportunity to contest or question the value.
- The information is sent to the County Tax Assessor. This office will use the appraised value to calculate your taxable property value and final property tax bill.
- The tax bills are sent out to homeowners around October, and payment is due no later than January 31st.
Where the protest fits into this process is in the second step. Once the appraiser determines your home’s market value, you can review the number and determine whether it’s reasonable. If you think the value is too high or isn’t supported by the real market situation, you can protest the appraisal. You’ll gather and present evidence, communicate with the County Appraisal District to reach a compromise, or present an argument to a board and receive their ruling.
Benefits of Protesting Your Property’s Appraised Value
Protesting your property taxes offers several potential benefits. These include:
- Potentially lowering your property tax bill that you receive in the fall: This is the primary reason why many property owners across the state do and should protest their property taxes. The average property tax rate across the state is 1.80%, and it can be much higher depending on your city or county. If you can protest and you argue down your appraisal value even $20,000, that can result in around $360 of savings.
Related: Texas Property Tax Relief: What May Change and What Will It Mean for You?
- Long-term savings over the years: This benefit is a little less clear-cut, but it can be just as important. The savings you can win every year will build on each other over time. For example, suppose you have a $350,000 house that is seeing a 12% increase in appraised value to a total of $392,000.
But if you successfully complete the protest process and shrink the appreciation to a 7% gain, that’s a $17,500 difference—which would be approximately $315 in savings that year. Then, suppose you see another 12% increase the next year, which you successfully protest down to 7%. Consider these potential outcomes:
- You didn’t protest either year, so your appraised value increased to $392,000 the first year and $439,040 the second. You would have paid around $14,958.72 across both years.
- You protested one year but not the other, so by the end of the second year, your home’s appraised value is $419,440. You would have paid around $14,605.92 across both years.
- You protested both years, making your appraised value $374,500 in the first year and $400,715 in the second year, with an approximate aggregate tax bill of $13,953.87. That’s over $1,000 saved.
- Keeping your appraisal value in check: Your appraisal value doesn’t directly determine your tax bill—your assessed property value does. Local tax assessors will calculate your assessed property value based on both your appraised value and any exemptions you have in place. So, it’s easy for homeowners to accidentally lose focus of their appraised value as long as a homestead exemption is protecting them from full tax obligations.
However, if you lose your exemption or you sell your home to a new owner, the appraised value becomes the new baseline for tax calculations, and it can be radically higher than your assessed value. Check your next property tax bill or your current property profile to see how different those two numbers are!
What Is the Texas Property Tax Protest Process?
Once you see the value in protesting your property taxes, especially in protesting your property taxes every single year, the next step is understanding the process. It can be a very lengthy, detailed process, but it’s important not to miss any steps.
In the spring, the County Appraisal District will update your property profile with the new appraisal value for the current tax year. If your property value has increased, then you will also receive a Notice of Appraised Value.
At that point, you have until May 15th or 30 days after the notice was sent to file a protest form. Fill out a Form 50-132 Notice of Protest with your property’s details, a countering appraisal value, and evidence that supports your protest, and submit it to your jurisdiction’s County Appraisal District office.
After the office has processed the form, you will receive a notice about your formal hearing, with information about the date, time, location, and subject. However, the county may also offer a second appraisal value or agree to your counter value. From there, you can agree to their communication and conclude the protest or continue with the process. Before your formal hearing, you might also receive a request for an informal conversation, when you can negotiate a fair appraisal value or discuss the particulars of your property.
If you don’t come to an agreement before the formal hearing, you will attend the hearing to present your arguments before an Appraisal Review Board (ARB). Both you and the county appraiser or a representative of the County Appraisal District will provide evidence, explain to the board why you believe the appraisal value should be a certain number, and point out flaws in the other side’s evidence.
At this hearing, the ARB will review the evidence and provide a final appraisal value. This number will be entered into the final documents that are sent to the County Tax Assessor, though there are avenues to appeal at a later date.
Review by Arbitrator, SOAH, or District Court
If the ARB’s decision does not satisfy you, it’s best to appeal to the district court initially. Alternatively, you can appeal via an independent arbitrator. You can also appeal through the State Office of Administrative Hearings (SOAH) if you meet certain criteria.
If you’ve decided to submit an appeal to the district court, you must do it within 60 days of receiving the ARB’s decision. Meanwhile, if you have decided to appeal via an arbitrator, you must file a request for it within 60 days of receiving the ARB order notice.
For SOAH, you should file the appeal within 30 days of receiving your ARB order notice. You have to pay a certain deposit or fee in all three cases.
If you think the chief appraiser or the ARB did not comply with a particular procedural requirement, you can file a complaint about it at the local taxpayer liaison.
Protesting Leased Property
If you’re leasing a property and have to pay the property tax on it as per the lease contract, you can appeal the property’s appraised value to the ARB in the same way.
However, you are only authorized to do that if the property owner doesn’t file the appeal. In Texas, the right to appeal is given to personal property owners, leased property owners, and building owners.
The property owner will get a notice of the property’s appraised value from the appraisal district. They are required by law to send a copy of the notice to you. Once you file an appeal, the subsequent ARB correspondence will be with you.
If the lease contract requires you to pay the tax on the property, you can also request that the appraisal district send the notice to you.
Who Can Protest?
Texan property owners can protest actions surrounding their property tax appraisals. You can file an appeal if you have any concerns pertaining to:
- Your property’s appraised value
- Unequal or incomparable value of your property compared to others
- Exemptions applicable to your property or particular case
- Taxing units applying taxes on your property
- Inclusion of your property on appraisal records
You can also protest if you did not get the notice from the appraisal review board or the chief appraiser.
Filing Late Protests
The Texas property tax protest process can be quite complicated, which is why some property owners may be unable to meet the deadline. Additionally, you may not even know how to proceed after an ARB determination that you disagree with.
In this case, your only resort is to submit a late application. Although it’s not recommended nor favorable, you may be able to file a late protest after the deadline has passed.
Related: How to Protest Property Tax in Texas
You can file a protest for the failure of the ARB or appraisal district to send you a notice they were required to deliver to you through mail or email. Make sure you file your protest before the delinquency date so that your taxes don’t go delinquent.
Likewise, you can file a motion if there is some sort of error on the notice, such as a clerical mistake or error of ownership. In this case, the past five tax years may also be included along with the current year.
Filing an Arbitration Appeal
If you don’t want to file an appeal to the district court, you can appeal through binding arbitration. You can take advantage of this option if your property is a residential homestead, irrespective of its value, or a property with a market value of $5 million or less.
When you receive the order notice from the ARB, you have 60 days from that date to file an arbitration appeal. You need to fill out the Comptroller’s request form. You’re also required to pay a certain deposit based on your property.
The deposit is payable to the Comptroller of Public Accounts Texas by cashier’s check or money order. You then need to file the deposit with the appraisal district where you received the ARB notice. The district will further complete your application and forward it to the Comptroller’s office.
Once the Comptroller’s Office receives your request through the appraisal court, they will review it. If your request is approved, you will be assigned an arbitrator by the Comptroller’s office.
You can also request the Comptroller’s office to assign you an arbitrator who resides in the same county as your property’s location. If there are no arbitrators in that area, the Comptroller’s office will randomly assign you another arbitrator.
Although you can request an independent arbitrator in your region, do note that you cannot specifically ask for someone by their name.
Filing an Appeal at the State Office of Administrative Hearing (SOAH)
If the ARB’s appraised value for your property is above $1 million, you can file an appeal with the State Office of Administrative Hearing (SOAH). You can file this appeal for your personal property, exclusive of industrial property.
You will need to file the Notice of Appeal by Property Owner and submit it to your district’s chief. Keep in mind that the deadline for this application is 30 days from the date you receive the determination order by the ARB.
Along with the form, you also have to deposit an amount of $1,500 within 90 days of getting the determination order from the ARB. The chief appraiser of your district will review your appeal and further forward it to the SOAH along with your deposit.
They will also request a qualified administrative law judge to be appointed for your case.
You Can Have a Representative Manage the Entire Process
If the property tax protest process sounds overwhelming, know that you don’t have to represent yourself. An experienced family member, an attorney, or a third-party tax protest service can represent you and manage the entire process, from filling out the form to presenting arguments in a formal hearing. By hiring a service, you can access benefits like:
- Having experienced professionals calculate your home’s market value and know if the county’s numbers are unreasonable
- Not worrying about filing the tax protest form by the proper date
- Having an expert collect evidence and represent you in communications with the county
- Maximize your chance of savings without spending hours on the protest, missing a day of work, or stressing about the process
Maximize Your Savings Through a Property Tax Protest With Help From Home Tax Shield
As evident from the details of the Texas property tax protest process outlined above, the whole procedure is quite complicated, especially if you’re not well-versed in administrative matters. From filing forms and meeting submission deadlines to putting down deposits, there’s a lot that goes into protesting Texas property tax. Having the right help can make the process streamlined and simple.
Protesting your property taxes every year is an essential part of keeping your taxes as low and fair as possible. Home Tax Shield is an organization that’s dedicated to helping homeowners across the state fight back against steeply rising property values and taxes. Sign up today for automatic property tax protests and case management.