For hundreds of thousands of homeowners across Texas, protesting property taxes is a well-practiced process that they manage every year—and for hundreds of thousands of others, it’s a brand new challenge to navigate amid all the other tasks of new homeownership.
But for both the new and experienced alike, the common knowledge surrounding property tax protests is surrounded by a lot of misinformation, generalizations, and myths that can get in the way of optimizing your savings potential and paying fair property taxes. For example, when you protest your property taxes, you aren’t actually protesting the taxes themselves or arguing with any representative from your local tax assessor’s office.
In this article, we’ll address these common myths and sources of confusion so you’ll have a better understanding of the property tax protest process, what it does (and doesn’t) accomplish for homeowners, and how you can better navigate it from start to finish. We’ll start with an overview of the process and its key benefits, then break down the myths that you may have encountered from friends, family, and media.
What Is the Property Tax Protest Process?
Your local tax appraisal district assesses your home’s value at least once every three years through an individual process; during the in-between years, the tax authority uses a series of calculations to raise, lower, or maintain the stated assessed value for the purpose of recalculating your property tax bill.
However, you don’t have to simply accept the number that the county provides. Instead, you have the right as a Texas taxpayer to protest the assessed value and your property tax bill as a whole in the event that you think the amount(s) are wrong.
This protest is lodged with your local appraisal review board, and there are a series of codified steps for resolving any errors. More than that, you also have the right to contest the findings of your appraisal review board and take additional steps to protest your property taxes.
If you’ve never protested your property taxes before, the process can feel overwhelming. Here is an overview of the general processes established by the Texas Comptroller’s Office.
Getting Started
The protest process can start in April for owners of a primary homestead residence. If your county is going to raise your property’s assessed value to increase the total property taxes collected, they must send you a notice in the spring. This notice of appraised value includes the new assessed value of your home, details of the calculations, where to go for more information about the protest process, and other details.
Property Tax Timeline
If you think your property’s appraisal is too high, now is the time to begin your protest. You can file Form 50-132, Notice of Protest (which is the same across the state, regardless of county), within 30 days of your notice’s delivery or no later than May 15th. In this form, you’ll note the following:
- General information about yourself (including information about your age or potential disabilities that may make you eligible for property tax exemptions)
- A description of your property
- The reason for your protest
- Additional information that supports your reason for protesting
- What type of hearing you want to resolve your protest, and how you prefer to be contacted
There are many different reasons why you might file a protest. Some of the details describing you or your property may be incorrect, rather than the property value itself. Your property may also be accidentally filed as a typical residential property when you believe it should be appraised as an agricultural space.
If you’ve recently moved or qualified for a tax exemption, the county may have improperly managed that exemption. Each of these reasons warrants an official protest via Form 50-132. However, the most common reason for filing a protest form is due to the appraisal value (and is the first check box under Section 3: “Incorrect appraised (market) value and/or value is unequal compared with other properties.“
Related: Ways to Cut the Tax Value of Your Property
At this time, you can submit evidence to support your claim, including descriptions of your reasoning, photos of your property, or “comps” (property appraisals of comparable properties in your neighborhood). By providing additional details, you may be able to streamline the process and reach a faster resolution.
It is even more important to bring copies of this evidence to your formal hearing. However, the board and the district can only consider the property value itself, not any economic hardship you face in paying the taxes.
You don’t have to fill out this form or manage the process yourself. Instead, a third-party agent, such as a tax protest service or even an adult child, can manage the process on your behalf through the filing of Form 50-162, Appointment of Agent for Property Tax Matters.
Key Benefits (And Real Outcomes) of Protesting Your Property Taxes
Protesting your property taxes is a longstanding right you have as a property owner (or as a tenant who is required to pay property taxes on behalf of the property owner). Exercising this right is an important mechanism for ensuring you pay a fair amount of property taxes and don’t overpay because of a mistake or oversight. Some of the benefits of protesting your property taxes include the following:
Direct Tax Bill Reduction
If the board agrees with your assessment and lowers your property’s assessed value, that directly lowers your tax bill. For example, if your home is assessed at $350,000 and you pay an effective property tax rate of 2%, your tax bill is $7,000. But if you protest that assessed value and receive a more fair assessment of $325,000, that lowers your bill to $6,500, a saving of $500.
Long-Term Savings Implications
While the board’s decision only applies to the tax year in which it was made, it has implications on your bill for every subsequent year. If you have a homestead exemption, the county can only raise your home’s assessed value by 10% each year (aside from direct property improvements), so lowering the starting point lowers the potential tax bill for the following years.
Related: The Best Ways to Get Texas Property Tax Relief
Consider the previous example. If you don’t successfully protest your property taxes, your Year 2 assessment may be as high as $385,000. If you do successfully protest, that Year 2 assessment would be no greater than $357,500. Even if you don’t protest your assessment again, that’s another $550 in savings at the 2% property tax rate.
Myths Surrounding the Property Tax Protest
Because the process can be complex and overwhelming, there are a lot of myths and misinformation surrounding the property tax protest process. Here are some of the most common points of confusion and what you need to know to protect your rights as a property owner:
Does Protesting Your Property Taxes Lower Your Property Value?
No! The tax district’s assessment of your property’s value is loosely based on the market value of your property. But it does not affect how much or how little you can sell your home for if you put it on the market. While your home will be appraised as part of the selling process, it is not the same as your county’s appraisal or assessment process. So you can rest assured that protesting your property taxes won’t hurt your future ability to sell your home.
Can You Lower Your Property Tax Rate?
Yes! The same protest form can be used to address mistakes the county may have made in calculating your effective property tax rate. However, this is much less common than protesting the actual assessed value of your property.
Another way to reduce your effective property tax rate is by filing property tax exemptions. These measures remove part of your property’s assessed value from tax calculations, commonly in regard to school district levies.
Are You Actually Protesting Your Property Taxes?
The top of the article briefly addressed this. Far from being just an issue of semantics, knowing what ‘protesting your property taxes’ does is essential for completing the process on time and as effectively as possible.
When you file a protest form, you aren’t actually protesting the property tax bill you receive in October of every year. Instead, the protest process is much earlier in the year, and it allows you to contest the appraisal value that your County Appraisal District sends to your County Tax Assessor, which that office then uses to calculate your property’s taxable value and, after that, your property tax bill.
Here’s why the distinction matters:
- The protest happens in the spring; in fact, the deadline for filing a protest form is May 15th or within 30 days of receiving your Notice of Appraised Value. If you wait for your tax bill, it’s too late.
- You can use this process to argue against increases in your property’s appraised value, which your local government tracks for a wide variety of applications. As a homeowner, you want to guard this number and ensure it stays fair instead of creeping up due to renovations and irrelevant market activity in your neighborhood.
Does Protesting Your Property Taxes Always Result in Savings?
Sometimes, homeowners navigate through the entire process, only to be told by their Appraisal Review Board that the county’s initial appraisal amount will stand. This can be incredibly frustrating and even deter homeowners from feeling motivated to protest in the future. Sometimes, even if you do argue down a high appraisal amount—for example, an increase of 20% down to an increase of 13%—your homestead exemption will cap the taxable value increase at 10%. In this circumstance, the actual tax bill itself isn’t changed.
Related: Is It Worth It to Protest Your Property Taxes?
While there’s no guarantee that every protest will result in a drop in your property tax bill or even your appraisal value, there are many reasons to faithfully ensure it gets done every year:
- Peace of mind—Annual protests ensure you aren’t just leaving money on the table.
- Direct savings—Just because the conclusion of the hearing didn’t go your way one year doesn’t mean it won’t the next. Even a single successful year can result in hundreds of dollars in savings that year and have a compounding effect in the future.
- Controlling the appraisal value—While you may be focused just on your home’s taxable value and the total on your property tax bill, don’t let the appraisal value itself fade out of sight. This number is important if you ever lose your homestead exemption.
The Entity That You Protest with and the Entity That Calculates Your Tax Bill Are Completely Separate
The property tax process can seem very opaque, especially because every county manages the process slightly differently. But instead of simply thinking of property taxes as being managed by your county or a single organization, know that there are two organizations involved:
- The County Appraisal District, which calculates your home’s appraisal value every year and the entity you will submit protest notices to
- The County Tax Assessor, which uses the County Appraisal District’s data to calculate your property’s taxable value and your tax bill
The County Tax Assessor is completely uninvolved in the protest process. Knowing this can help you keep your documents organized and make strategic arguments.
You Don’t Have to Be the One to Protest Your Property Taxes
The property owner of a residential property doesn’t have to be the one to show up at hearings or gather evidence. You don’t even have to be the person to submit the forms and additional documentation. Instead, you can choose a family member, tax professional, or company to represent you. There’s even a form you can use to appoint someone and give them the rights and responsibilities of managing the process. This is an easy alternative if you don’t have time to manage the process or you want a more experienced representative.
Financial Hardship Is Not a Consideration—the Arb Cannot Consider Your Finances, Income, or Need for Assistance
Earlier, we mentioned the importance of knowing which entity is involved in appraisal values. Because you’re dealing directly with the County Appraisal District, they aren’t involved in tax calculations or tax bill enforcement.
That means the practical reality of paying high tax bills can’t enter into your arguments. Financial hardship, rising costs of living, and even fixed incomes for seniors aren’t something your Appraisal Review Board can take into consideration. Instead, your arguments and evidence need to focus on market trends, the value of comparable properties in your neighborhood, and other appraisal-focused details.
Do You Have to Just Accept Your Property Tax Bill?
No! Protesting your property tax bill is your right as a property owner in Texas. If you believe the county overvalued your property or that there are other errors in your tax bill, you or a designated agent can protest your bill.
Home Tax Shield Is Here to Help You Protest Your Property Taxes
Protesting your property taxes is hard, even if you’re familiar with the process and are continually learning more about how property taxes work. Instead of representing yourself throughout the protest steps, consider appointing a professional service to represent you instead.
At Home Tax Shield, we represent homeowners, manage the hearing process, gather evidence to support a lower appraisal value, and more. Even better, we do it annually so you can get the most possible savings every year without having to sign up again and again. Reach out today to start letting professionals manage your property tax protest for you.