Your appraisal is probably too high.
Every Texas tax bill starts from the value your appraisal district puts on your home. You have the right to protest that number every year. Fill in three lines and see what it costs you.
Notice of Estimated Property Tax
Rates loadingBox A Protest deadline May 17, 2027
Built from 2025 rates published by the Texas Comptroller. Line 1a defaults to the largest school district in your county. Leaves out local optional exemptions, the over-65 school tax ceiling, and any district you didn’t add. An estimate, not your bill.
Tax Code 41.43(b)(3)
The argument the law hands you.
Texas doesn’t make home sale prices public, so a market-value case is hard to build on your own. An equal-appraisal case is different. Every home’s appraised value is public.
Your protest wins unless the district shows your home is valued at or below the median of a reasonable number of comparable homes, adjusted for their differences. We pull those homes from the district’s own records, adjust them, and show you the gap.
The comparables check is opening county by county before notices go out in April.
Subject: 2,000 sq ft, built 2004. Appraised $420,000.
| Home | Sq ft | Appraised | Adjusted |
|---|---|---|---|
| Comp 1 | 1,940 | $361,000 | $372,000 |
| Comp 2 | 2,080 | $396,500 | $381,500 |
| Comp 3 | 2,010 | $391,000 | $389,000 |
| Comp 4 | 1,960 | $388,000 | $396,000 |
| Comp 5 | 2,120 | $427,000 | $404,000 |
Median adjusted
$389,000
Overassessed by
$31,000
Form 50-132
The 2027 protest, line by line.
A few hours spread over four months. One date you can’t miss.
- 01Apr 2027
Your notice arrives
Districts mail notices from April 1 on. It lists a market value and an appraised value. You're taxed on the appraised value.
- 02May 17, 2027
Protest deadline
File Form 50-132 or use your district's online portal by May 15, or within 30 days after your notice was mailed if that's later. May 15 is a Saturday in 2027, which moves the deadline to Monday, May 17. File the week before.
- 03May to Jul
Informal meeting
Most districts offer a meeting with a staff appraiser first, and many protests settle there. Take the offer only if it matches your evidence.
- 04Summer
Review board hearing
If the meeting doesn't settle it, a panel of local citizens hears both sides. On an unequal-appraisal claim, the board has to rule for you unless the district shows your home is valued at or below the median of comparable homes.
- 05By Jul 25
The roll is certified
Your value for the year is set. The taxing units adopt their rates against it.
- 06Jan 31, 2028
Taxes are due
Bills go out in the fall. Then the notice comes again in April.
Pay off your house and you still pay rent on it. Every year. Forever.
Stop paying the property tax and the taxing units can foreclose and sell the house. Every year the appraisal district puts a new price on a home you aren’t selling, and you pay tax on a gain you never collected.
The protest system exists because the appraisals are expected to be wrong. Many owners who fight get reductions. Owners who don’t fight pay more for the same house.
We’ll help you win your protest every year it takes. We’d rather there were nothing left to protest.
The 2027 protest calendar for your county