Providing Information about Property Tax Loans.

If your property taxes are higher than last year’s, the district will send you a notice of the increase by April 1, if your property is a residential homestead, or May 1 if it is not.

The notice of increased taxes also includes the date and place the appraisal review board (ARB) will begin hearing protests.

Step 1: File a Notice of Protest with the ARB.

This form identifies you, describes the property you’re protesting, the reasons you’re protesting, and the facts that may help resolve your case.

Click here to get the form from tx.us, the official site

The deadline for filing the notice is midnight of May 31, unless:

• your notice of appraised value was delivered to you after May 2,
• the ARB did not send you a notice about the property as required by law, or
• a few other exceptions, as indicated on the form.

The checkboxes of reasons for protesting include:

• Value is over market value.
• Value is unequal compared with other properties.
• Failure to send required notice.
• Other.

File this Notice of Protest through your ARB. To find out how, search for “file notice of protest [YOUR] county. The page that comes up will likely have the address to mail the protest to or the website where you can electronically file the protest.

Informal Resolution

Some appraisal district will review your concerns and informally try to resolve your objections. However, file a Notice of Protest before the deadline, even if you expect to resolve your concerns at the informal review. This preserves your right for a formal resolution, should the informal means not work out.

After your protest is filed

If the informal resolution didn’t work out, or didn’t happen, the ARB will notify you 15 days before of the date, time, and place of your protest hearing. The hearings will usually be between May 15 and July 20.

The ARB will also send you a copy of the Property Taxpayer Remedies pamphlet, a copy of ARB procedures, and a statement that you can inspect and get a copy of the information the chief appraiser plans to use at your hearing.

This article is the first in a series on protesting property taxes. To prepare for your hearing, look at our next article, Step 2: Prepare for Your Hearing.