How a Texas protest works
Texas has no state property tax. Your county's appraisal district sets a value for every home each year, and the school district, county, city and other local units tax you on it. If you think the value is too high, you protest to the appraisal review board, a panel of local citizens that is separate from the district.
In the Comptroller's words, the protest is “one of your most important rights as a taxpayer.” Here is the whole season:
The notice arrives
The district mails a Notice of Appraised Value when your value goes up. State law says it goes out by April 1 for a home with a homestead exemption, by May 1 otherwise, or as soon as practical after. It shows two figures: the market value, what the district thinks your home would have sold for on January 1, and the appraised value, which is lower if the 10% cap holds it down. The notice also carries the numbers you need to file online (an owner ID and a PIN, named differently in each county). Keep it.
File by the deadline
The Comptroller states it this way: “In most cases, you have until May 15 or 30 days from the appraisal district notice's delivery date — whichever is later. Note that the deadline is 30 days from the date the appraisal district mails a notice, not from the delivery date.” File online in your district's portal, or send the Comptroller's Form 50-132, Notice of Protest. A letter that names the property, the owner and what you disagree with also counts.
The informal meeting
Before any hearing, a district appraiser reviews your protest and can offer a lower value. In several counties the offer comes through the portal and you accept or decline it online. If the offer is good enough, take it and you're done for the year. If not, your protest moves to the board.
The appraisal review board hearing
You get written notice at least 15 days before the hearing. You can appear in person, by phone or video, or send a sworn written statement instead of appearing. Phone or video has to be asked for: on the protest form, or in writing to the board at least five days before the hearing (ten if you've named an agent). Both sides present; you choose whether to go first. The board rules on the value and mails or emails its written order. Its decision binds only that tax year.
After the board
Still disagree? A homeowner can take the board's order to binding arbitration through the Comptroller or to district court, each within 60 days. Details are under If you disagree with the board.
Protest every year. The board's decision lasts one year.
A win doesn't freeze anything. Next April the district values your home again, and a new protest is a new case. One thing does carry over: if your value was lowered last year (other than by a signed agreement) and you deliver your evidence to the district 14 days before the hearing, the law makes the district prove its new value by clear and convincing evidence, a higher bar.
The two things you can argue
The Tax Code gives a homeowner two grounds that matter, and you can check both boxes on the same protest. On either one, the district has the burden of proof: if it can't make its case at the hearing, you win.
The market value is too high
Your home would not have sold for the district's figure on January 1. Evidence: recent sales of similar homes nearby for less, what you paid if you bought recently, photos and written repair estimates for problems the district can't see, or errors on your record (square footage, lot size, year built). Texas doesn't publish sale prices, so the district's comps and yours are both worth reading closely.
Your home is valued unequally
The Texas Constitution requires taxation to be “equal and uniform.” In plain terms: even if your value is a fair price, if a reasonable number of comparable homes carry lower values on the district's own roll, yours should come down to the middle of that group. The statute's test is whether your value is above “the median appraised value of a reasonable number of comparable properties appropriately adjusted.” The comparison is the district's values, not sale prices, so the evidence comes from the district's public records.
Both arguments need a number. Decide what you think the value should be and write it on the protest: the informal offer, the hearing and any arbitration all turn on your figure against the district's. The Dallas district puts the second argument this way: “This type of protest will require more evidence than other types of protests.” It is also the one that reaches a home whose price is fair but whose neighbors are valued lower.
The 10% cap, and why a lower value still matters
Once you've had the homestead exemption for a full year, state law caps how fast your appraised value (the taxable figure) can rise: at most 10% a year over last year's appraised value, plus the value of anything new you built. The market value on the notice can jump 30%; the taxable figure climbs 10%.
That is why many Texas homeowners see two numbers on the notice and assume a protest is pointless when the market value is far above the capped one. Three reasons it usually isn't:
- The cap is a ceiling on the climb, not a discount. Your appraised value keeps rising 10% every year until it reaches the market value. Lowering the market value shortens that climb. If it's $400,000 and your capped value is $330,000, you have two more years of 10% increases ahead; bring the market value to $360,000 and you have one.
- The appraised value can never exceed the market value. The statute caps it at “the lesser of” the two. Lower the market value below your capped figure and the taxable figure drops with it, this year.
- The cap resets when the home sells and doesn't apply at all in your first year with the exemption. Recent buyers are taxed on the full value, so the protest is the only lever.
The Harris district puts the two figures simply: “The appraised value will be either the same as the market value, or it may be lower if your value is ‘capped.’” The cap is Tax Code § 23.23.
The homestead exemption
If you own your home and live in it as your principal residence, the exemption takes $140,000 off the value your school district taxes, and any city, county or other unit may take off up to 20% more. Homeowners 65 or older, or disabled, get another $60,000 off the school value and a ceiling on their school taxes. The exemption is also what turns the 10% cap on.
Three things to know:
- You apply once, to your appraisal district, on the Comptroller's Form 50-114 or in the district's portal, with a copy of your Texas driver license or ID showing the home's address. Free. It stays on until you move.
- The deadline is April 30 for the year you're claiming, and you must own and live in the home on January 1 (a buyer who moves in mid-year can often claim for the rest of that year if the seller had no exemption).
- Missed it? You have two years. State law makes the district accept a late application “if it is filed not later than two years after the delinquency date for the taxes on the homestead.” Taxes go delinquent February 1 of the following year, so a 2026 exemption can be claimed until January 31, 2029, and taxes already paid on the exempted amount are refunded.
Check the notice or your tax bill: if “HS” or “Homestead” isn't listed, file the form before you do anything else. The amounts are Tax Code § 11.13; the late application is § 11.431.
How to file it yourself
You don't need anyone to do this. Every district in this guide takes the protest online and shows you its evidence online, and the Comptroller's free video, How to Present Your Case at an ARB Hearing, walks through the hearing. The steps:
- Read the notice. Note the market value, the appraised value, the deadline printed on it, and the login numbers for your district's portal.
- Pick your number. What should the value be? Write it down; the form asks for it and the informal offer is measured against it.
- File online before the deadline, checking both “value is over market value” and “value is unequal compared with other properties.” Filing on time is the only thing that preserves your hearing. In some counties the evidence can only be attached at filing; see your county below.
- Request the district's evidence and read its comps. Then gather yours: nearby sales, the district's values on similar homes, photos, written repair estimates, a closing statement if you bought recently, and anything that shows an error on your record. The Comptroller's list is on its protests page.
- Take the informal offer if it's fair. Otherwise go to the hearing: bring copies of your evidence, keep to the value of the home (the board can't consider what you can afford), and give your number.
- Someone else can present for you. A family member, neighbor or friend can appear if you file the Comptroller's Form 50-162, Appointment of Agent. Nobody who charges for it needs to be involved.
Can Jasmine Lane do this for me?
Not in Texas today. We represent homeowners in Georgia and help them file in California; this page exists so a Texas homeowner can do it alone, and everything on it is free. The district's own portal is the tool.
County by county
Same law, same deadline. Each appraisal district has its own portal and its own habits. Open yours; every detail comes from the district's site, so call the district if something has changed.
Dallas County
Dallas Central Appraisal District, dallascad.org. Notices go out from April 15, and the district's booklet names May 15 as the deadline.
Hearings run from about April 15 to mid-July. Questions: the residential protest line, 214-905-9402, in season, or customer service, 214-631-0910. The Protest Process booklet (PDF) covers the rest.
Tarrant County
Tarrant Appraisal District, tad.org. Two portals run side by side in 2026; the district's Which Portal Should I Use? page says which does what.
Questions: (817) 284-0024, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., or the contact form on the site.
Collin County
Collin Central Appraisal District, collincad.org. Real property notices went out April 15 in 2026. The review board has its own site, collinarb.org.
Questions: 469-742-9200, 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. The district's Homestead Exemption FAQs cover the cap and the late application.
Harris County
Harris Central Appraisal District, hcad.org. In the district's own words, win online and “you won't have to share your tax savings with an outside tax consultant.”
Saturday hearings in June and July. Questions: (713) 957-7800, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Travis County
Travis Central Appraisal District, traviscad.org. A notice goes only to owners whose market value rose at least $1,000; everyone else looks the value up, and the deadline still applies. The Protest Process page has a short video for each step.
No owner ID or PIN? Customer service issues one: 512-834-9317.
If you disagree with the board
The board's written order starts a 60-day clock. A homeowner has two ways forward, and a third for very high values.
- Binding arbitration, through the Comptroller. Open to any residence homestead whatever its value. You file the request and a deposit within 60 days of the order; an arbitrator, not a judge, sets the value. If the result is closer to your number than the board's, the deposit comes back minus the Comptroller's $50 fee and the district pays the arbitrator. No lawyer needed. The Comptroller's arbitration page has the forms and the deposit schedule.
- District court. A petition in the county's state district court within 60 days. The Comptroller advises consulting an attorney first, and you must keep paying the taxes that aren't in dispute before they go delinquent.
- State Office of Administrative Hearings, only when the board's value is over $1 million: a notice within 30 days and a $1,500 deposit within 90.
Two doors stay open after May 15.
The board can hear a late protest if you show good cause for missing the date, as long as it hasn't approved the records yet. And for a home with a homestead exemption, a motion to correct is allowed when the district's value is at least one-fourth too high; you file it and pay the undisputed taxes before the delinquency date. The Comptroller's protests page lists both under Late-Filed Protests.