How do I protest my property taxes in Texas?

You file a Notice of Protest with your county appraisal district by the deadline, then back it up with evidence. The steps are: read your Notice of Appraised Value when it arrives in the spring, file Comptroller Form 50-132 (or protest online) by May 15 or 30 days after the notice, whichever is later, gather comparable sales and any condition problems, and present your case at an informal meeting with an appraiser and, if needed, a formal Appraisal Review Board hearing. Evidence wins these, not opinions, and most protests settle at the informal stage.

What is the deadline to protest property taxes in Texas?

May 15, or 30 days after the appraisal district delivered your Notice of Appraised Value, whichever is later, under Texas Tax Code Section 41.44. The 30-day clock runs from the date on the notice, so a later notice gives you a later deadline. The separate deadline to file a homestead exemption is April 30. Dates can shift, so confirm the current deadline printed on your notice or with your county appraisal district.

What are the grounds for protesting property taxes in Texas?

The two main grounds are that your market value is too high (over-appraised) and that your appraisal is unequal compared to similar properties, both under Tax Code Section 41.41. The second one, unequal appraisal, is the one most homeowners miss. Under Section 41.43, you can win if your appraised value is higher than the median appraised value of a reasonable number of comparable properties, appropriately adjusted, even when the district's market value looks defensible. It is an equity argument, and it is powerful.

What comps do I need to win a property tax protest?

You want a handful of genuinely comparable properties, adjusted for the differences, and you can argue two ways with them. For market value, use recent comparable sales near your home, adjusted for size, condition, age and location, ideally showing sales below your appraised value. For unequal appraisal, use the appraised values of similar homes from the district's own records to show your value sits above the median of comparables. The appraisal district's own equity grid is often your best evidence. Add photos of condition problems and contractor repair estimates, plus your closing statement if you recently bought below the assessed value.

How much can my home's appraised value go up in Texas?

If you have a homestead exemption, the appraised value of your primary residence generally cannot rise more than 10 percent per year, plus the value of any new improvements, under Tax Code Section 23.23. A separate 20 percent circuit-breaker cap applies to non-homestead real property valued at 5 million dollars or less under Section 23.231, but that one is temporary and is set to expire at the end of 2026 unless the Legislature extends it. Neither cap files itself or protests for you; they limit increases, they do not guarantee a fair value.

What happens if I lose my property tax protest at the ARB?

You have appeal options, and you generally have 60 days from the ARB's written order to act. A homestead of any value, or other property valued at 5 million dollars or less, can go to regular binding arbitration administered by the Texas Comptroller for a refundable deposit. You can also appeal to district court within 60 days, or, for property over 1 million dollars, to the State Office of Administrative Hearings. Most homeowners never need these, because most protests settle long before an ARB order, but the path exists.

Is it worth protesting property taxes every year in Texas?

Usually yes, because your appraised value resets every year, so a win this year does not carry forward automatically. In fast-growing North Texas counties, appraisals often jump year over year, and the owners who never open the notice are the ones who quietly overpay. According to the Texas Comptroller's annual survey of appraisal review boards, a large share of owners who protest see their value reduced, so it is worth the hour it takes, every year.

Do I have to hire a company to protest my property taxes?

No. Any owner can file and present their own protest, and you keep 100 percent of any savings. Protest firms take a share of your first-year savings or an annual fee and run on volume, so your home is one file among thousands. I pull the comparable sales and walk my clients through the process for free, or for a flat 79 dollars for homeowners who are not working with me yet, and you still file your own protest. I am a REALTOR®, not a tax advisor or attorney, so filing and legal questions go to the right professional.

Does protesting my taxes hurt my home's value or resale?

No. Protesting your appraised value for tax purposes does not lower your home's market value or what it will sell for, and it does not put a mark on the property. Appraised value for taxes and market value for a sale are two different numbers set for two different purposes. Winning a lower tax appraisal lowers your bill; it does not lower your equity or hurt your resale.

How to Protest Your Property Taxes in Texas (and Actually Win)

Q: Can I request the appraisal district's evidence before my hearing?

Yes, and it is one of the most useful things you can do. Under Tax Code Section 41.461 you have the right to request the data, schedules, formulas and other information the district plans to use at your hearing. Under Section 41.67, if you requested that information and the district did not deliver it at least 14 days before the hearing, the district generally cannot use it as evidence. Requesting the district's evidence lets you see their case in advance and can limit what they are allowed to spring on you.

Q: What is the difference between the informal review and the ARB hearing?

The informal review is a one-on-one meeting with a district appraiser where you present your evidence and try to settle on a value. Most protests are resolved here. If you cannot agree, your protest goes to a formal Appraisal Review Board (ARB) hearing, an independent panel that hears both sides and issues a written order. You can settle informally and stop, or take an unresolved case to the ARB. Bring the same evidence to both.

Every spring, your county appraisal district mails you a Notice of Appraised Value, and in most of North Texas that number has been climbing fast. Here is the part most homeowners never act on: you can push back on it, you do not have to pay a company a cut of your savings to do it, and the evidence that wins is something a good agent can hand you. Protesting your property taxes is one of the most reliable ways to lower a bill you actually control, and most people never even open the envelope.

This is the plain-English guide to doing it right: the deadline, the two grounds that win (including the one most homeowners miss), exactly what comparable sales and evidence you need, and a couple of insider moves that tilt the hearing your way. I am a REALTOR®, not a tax advisor or attorney, so treat this as a map of how the process works, then confirm the specifics with your county appraisal district. What I do for my clients is the part that decides the outcome: pull the comps and help you build a real case.

How to protest your property taxes in Texas, step by step

The whole process is four moves, and only one of them takes real work:

Read your notice. Each spring the appraisal district mails a Notice of Appraised Value, generally by May 1, or by April 1 for a homestead. That number drives your bill, so open it.
File your protest on time. File the Comptroller’s Form 50-132, the Property Owner’s Notice of Protest, or file online, which most North Texas districts allow. The deadline is May 15 or 30 days after your notice was delivered, whichever is later.
Build your evidence. Comparable sales, the district’s own equity data, photos of condition problems and repair estimates. This is the step that decides the outcome, and the step I help my clients with.
Present it. Almost every protest starts with an informal meeting with an appraiser, and most settle there. If yours does not, you present to the Appraisal Review Board.

That is the shape of it. The rest of this guide is how to do each step so you actually win, not just file.

Want your comps pulled before the deadline? Send me your address and I will show you whether your appraisal is worth protesting this year, free for my clients and a flat $79 otherwise.

The deadline: May 15, or 30 days after your notice

Mark the date the day your notice arrives. Under Texas Tax Code Section 41.44, the protest deadline is May 15, or 30 days after the appraisal district delivered your Notice of Appraised Value, whichever is later. The 30-day clock runs from the date on the notice, so if your notice goes out late, your deadline moves later too. Miss it and you generally lose the right to protest that year, so this is the one date that matters most.

One deadline people confuse with it: the homestead exemption filing deadline is April 30, a separate thing under Tax Code Section 11.43. If you bought a home and have not filed your homestead exemption, do that first, because it both lowers your taxable value and unlocks the 10 percent cap discussed below. If you missed it, Texas lets you file a late homestead application up to two years after the delinquency date, so it is worth checking.

The two grounds that win, including the one most people miss

You can protest on two main grounds under Tax Code Section 41.41, and knowing both is where most homeowners leave money on the table:

Your market value is too high. The district’s number is more than your home would actually sell for. This is the ground everyone knows.
Your appraisal is unequal. Your value is out of line with comparable properties, even if the market-value number looks defensible on its own. This is the one most homeowners never raise.

That second ground, unequal appraisal, is quietly the stronger play for a lot of North Texas homes. Under Tax Code Section 41.43, you are entitled to relief if your appraised value exceeds the median appraised value of a reasonable number of comparable properties, appropriately adjusted. In plain terms: if the district values your house higher than the middle of your true comparables, you can win on fairness alone, regardless of what the open market is doing. It is an equity argument, the same test that carries all the way to a court appeal under Section 42.26, and it is exactly the kind of thing the district’s own records can prove.

Three similar two-story brick suburban homes standing side by side on a North Texas street, comparable houses of the same era with neat front lawns, under soft overcast light. — Concept image. Unequal-appraisal protests turn on comparable homes like these: if the district values yours above the median of its true comps, you can win on fairness alone.

What comps and evidence do I need to win?

This is the question that decides everything, so here is the honest answer: you want a handful of genuinely comparable properties, adjusted for the real differences, plus proof of anything wrong with your home. Specifically:

Recent comparable sales, adjusted. Homes near yours that sold recently, adjusted for size, age, condition and location, ideally showing sales at or below your appraised value. This is your market-value evidence.
The district’s own equity grid. The appraised values of similar homes pulled from the appraisal district’s records, used to show your value sits above the median of comparables. For an unequal-appraisal argument, the district’s own data is often your single best piece of evidence.
Photos of condition problems. A dated roof, foundation issues, deferred maintenance, an unfinished space. The district appraised your home sight unseen; photos show what the model missed.
Repair estimates. A contractor’s written bid for real repairs puts a dollar figure on those condition problems.
Your closing statement. If you recently bought the home for less than the appraised value, your settlement statement is powerful evidence of true market value.

Pulling and adjusting those comparable sales, and finding the equity comps that actually help you, is the work most homeowners are not set up to do, and it is exactly what I do for my clients. A protest backed by real comps is a case. A protest backed by “it feels too high” is a complaint, and complaints lose.

Not sure which comps actually help your case? Tell me your address and I will pull the comparable sales and the equity comps for your home and your street.

The insider move: request the district’s evidence

Here is a step almost no homeowner uses, and it is written right into the law. Under Tax Code Section 41.461, you have the right to request the data, schedules, formulas and all the information the appraisal district plans to use against you at your hearing. Send that request in writing after you file.

Why it matters is Section 41.67: if you requested that information and the district did not deliver it to you at least 14 days before your hearing, the district generally cannot use it as evidence or argument at the hearing. So requesting the district’s evidence does two things at once. It lets you see their case and prepare for it, and it can quietly strip the district of surprise evidence if they do not turn it over in time. It costs you nothing but a written request, and it is one of the biggest advantages available to an ordinary homeowner.

Informal review versus the ARB hearing

Most protests never reach a formal hearing. After you file, the district usually offers an informal review, a one-on-one meeting with a staff appraiser where you lay out your evidence and try to agree on a value. Bring your comps, your photos and your repair estimates, and be specific. The large majority of protests settle right here, which is why the evidence you walk in with matters so much.

If you cannot reach agreement, your protest goes to a formal Appraisal Review Board hearing. The ARB is an independent panel, not district staff. You present your evidence, the district presents its case, and the board issues a written order. It is more formal, but it is not a courtroom, and the same evidence that would have settled it informally is what wins it here.

Facing a hearing and not sure your evidence is strong enough? Send me your address and I will pull the comparable sales so you walk in with a real case, not a complaint.

What if I lose at the ARB?

You are not out of options, though most homeowners never need them. From the date of the ARB’s written order, you generally have 60 days to pursue an appeal, and the path depends on your property:

Regular binding arbitration. For a homestead of any value, or other real property valued at 5 million dollars or less, the Texas Comptroller administers a binding-arbitration process for a deposit that is largely refundable if you prevail.
District court. You can file a petition for judicial review within 60 days of the order.
SOAH. For property valued over 1 million dollars, an appeal to the State Office of Administrative Hearings is available.

For a typical North Texas home, the realistic story is that a well-supported protest settles at the informal meeting or the ARB, and these later steps stay in your back pocket.

The caps that protect you, and the one that is expiring

Two appraisal caps limit how fast your value can climb, and it is worth knowing both:

The 10 percent homestead cap. Under Tax Code Section 23.23, the appraised value of your qualified homestead cannot rise more than 10 percent per year, plus the value of new improvements. This is a big reason to make sure your homestead exemption is actually on file.
The 20 percent circuit-breaker cap. Under Section 23.231, non-homestead real property valued at 5 million dollars or less is limited to a 20 percent annual increase. This one is temporary. It applies through the 2026 tax year and is set to expire at the end of 2026 unless the Legislature extends it, which matters for rental and investment property owners planning ahead.

Neither cap protests for you. They limit how fast the number grows; they do not promise the number is fair. That is still on you, or on the agent helping you.

Do most protests actually work?

Often enough that skipping it is the real mistake. According to the Texas Comptroller’s annual survey of appraisal review boards, a large share of owners who protest see their value reduced. Combine that with the fact that your value resets every single year, and in fast-growing counties like Collin, Denton and Grayson it usually climbs, and the math is simple: an hour of preparation against a bill you pay every year is one of the best-returning hours a homeowner spends. The people who overpay are almost always the ones who never opened the notice.

How I help, and where to start

Here is where I fit, and where I do not. I am a REALTOR®, not a tax advisor or attorney, so I do not file your protest for you or give legal advice. What I do is the part that wins it: I pull the comparable sales and the equity comps for your specific home, help you see whether the appraisal is genuinely out of line, and walk you through the process so you show up with a real case. That is free for my clients, and a flat $79 for homeowners who are not working with me yet, with your most recent $79 credited when you buy or sell with me. You file your own protest and keep every dollar of the savings.

I take this one personally, because I relocated to Texas myself and watched how fast North Texas appraisals move, and how many good people quietly overpay just because no one showed them the notice was worth opening. My full North Texas property tax guide covers the exemptions and the county appraisal districts, and if your land carries an agricultural valuation, my guides to the ag valuation and the wildlife-management valuation cover that side. If you are new to Texas and sorting out the whole tax picture, my guide to moving to North Texas puts it in context.

When your notice arrives, or before the next deadline, send me your address, call or text me at (903) 568-6626, or book a 30-minute consult. I will pull the comps so you can decide, on facts, whether to protest this year.

I am a REALTOR®, not a tax advisor, attorney or appraiser, and nothing here is tax or legal advice or a guarantee of any result. Property tax protest deadlines, forms, exemption rules, appraisal caps and appeal procedures are set by the Texas Property Tax Code, the Texas Comptroller and your county appraisal district, and they change and vary by county and year. Statutory references here include Tax Code Sections 41.41, 41.43, 41.44, 41.461, 41.67, 23.23 and 23.231; the 20 percent circuit-breaker cap is scheduled to expire after the 2026 tax year. Confirm all current deadlines, forms and rules with your county appraisal district and the Texas Comptroller, and consult a qualified tax professional or attorney for advice on your situation. Current as of August 2026.