I used to mail the notices.
Six years at the Guadalupe Appraisal District, 2016 to 2022. Every spring the envelopes went out, and every spring the phones lit up on May 16 with people who were sure the deadline was the end of the month.
It isn’t. It hasn’t been since 2018.
Here’s the 2027 version, with the one wrinkle almost nobody’s going to notice.
The 2027 deadline: May 15, which is a Saturday
Texas Tax Code Section 41.44 says your protest is due by May 15, or 30 days after your notice of appraised value was delivered, whichever is later.
In 2027, May 15 lands on a Saturday.
Tax Code Section 1.06 says when a deadline falls on a weekend or legal holiday, it moves to the next regular business day. So for most people the real 2027 deadline is Monday, May 17, 2027.
Don’t plan your life around that extra weekend, though. Plan around the date printed on your notice. That’s the number the appraisal review board is going to look at.
The “30 days after delivery” part is where people get it wrong
May 15 is the floor, not the ceiling.
Homestead notices usually go out around April 1. If yours showed up late, your deadline moves with it. A notice delivered April 25 gives you until May 25. Count 30 days from delivery, compare it to May 15, and take the later one.
Didn’t get a notice at all? You can still protest. Districts don’t mail a notice when the value didn’t go up, and you’re still allowed to argue it’s wrong. Look your account up on the district’s website and file anyway.
What counts as “filed on time”
- Online: the timestamp on the portal. Comal and Guadalupe both run taxpayer portals, and you’ll get a confirmation the second it goes through. Screenshot it.
- Mail: the postmark. Under Tax Code Section 1.08, a protest postmarked by the deadline is on time even if it shows up a week later. A postmark one day late isn’t.
- In person: before the office closes on deadline day. Not before you get out of work. Before they lock the door.
You don’t need evidence to file. You don’t need the official form either (Form 50-132 is the easy way, but any written protest with your name, the property ID or address, and your reason works).
Filing is just raising your hand. The arguing comes later.
Why did the Texas protest deadline change?
This is the question Google keeps sending to this page, so here’s the straight answer.
Before 2018 Texas had two deadlines. Homesteads were due May 1. Everything else was due May 31. People mixed them up constantly, and plenty of homeowners missed May 1 thinking they had until the end of the month.
The 2017 Legislature merged them into one date, May 15, starting with the 2018 season. To make the math work, districts had to get homestead notices out earlier, by April 1 instead of late April.
So nobody took two weeks from you. Homesteads actually got two extra weeks. Everybody else lost two. If you own commercial property or rentals and you’re still running on the old May 31 clock, you’re the person this change was going to hurt.
What if you miss it?
You’ve got fewer options, not zero.
A late protest can still get a hearing if you file before the review board approves the appraisal records (that happens by July 20) and you can show good cause, meaning a real reason you missed it that wasn’t just not caring. There’s also a separate protest when the district failed to deliver a notice you were owed, and a correction motion for big errors that runs until taxes go delinquent on February 1.
All of that is harder than filing on time. I wrote a full rundown in what to do if you missed the deadline.
The calendar that actually matters
Here’s the thing I can’t get people to believe.
May 15 is the deadline to file. The work that wins a protest happens long before that.
- September to March: sales data piles up, and I build the comps file before the district’s values are even out.
- Around April 1: notices arrive.
- April 30: homestead exemption applications are due. If you bought last year and never filed one, fix that first. It’s often worth more than the protest.
- May 15 (May 17 in 2027): protest deadline.
- May to July: informal reviews, then ARB hearings.
- October: the tax bill shows up and tells you whether any of it worked.
If the first time you think about your value is the week of May 15, you’re filing a protest with whatever evidence you can find in a weekend.
The district had a year.
County by county
The deadline is the same statewide. The portals, the informal process and the evidence each district takes seriously aren’t.
If you’re in my two home counties, start here: how to protest in Comal County and how to protest in Guadalupe County. Everywhere else in Texas, check your appraisal district’s website for its portal, and look for the date on your own notice before you trust a blog post. Including this one.
Or skip the deadline math entirely
I handle protests across Texas. $100 a year plus 25% of what I save you.
Sign up any time before the deadline and I file it, build the evidence, and show up to the hearing. Sign up in the fall and I’m working on your file while everyone else is still waiting for their notice.
Either way, you don’t have to remember that May 15, 2027 is a Saturday.
Now you do anyway.
Frequently asked questions
What is the Texas property tax protest deadline in 2027?
May 15, 2027, or 30 days after your notice of appraised value was delivered, whichever is later. May 15, 2027 is a Saturday, and Tax Code Section 1.06 moves weekend deadlines to the next business day, so for most owners it’s Monday, May 17, 2027. Always go by the date printed on your notice.
Why did the Texas property tax protest deadline change?
Before 2018, homesteads were due May 1 and all other property was due May 31, and people confused the two. The 2017 Legislature combined them into a single May 15 deadline starting in 2018, and moved homestead notices up to around April 1.
Does a postmark count for a Texas property tax protest?
Yes. Under Tax Code Section 1.08, a protest mailed with a postmark on or before the deadline is on time, even if the district receives it later.
Can I protest if I never got a notice of appraised value?
Yes. Districts don’t always mail a notice, especially when the value didn’t increase. You can still file a protest by the deadline. If the district failed to deliver a notice you were legally owed, you may also be able to protest that failure later.
What happens if I miss the protest deadline?
You can still ask for a hearing if you file before the appraisal review board approves the records (by July 20) and can show good cause for missing the deadline. A correction motion for large errors may be available until taxes become delinquent on February 1.
Sources: Texas Tax Code Sections 41.44 (protest deadline), 1.06 (weekend and holiday deadlines), 1.08 (mailing), 41.12 (records approval by July 20), 41.411 (failure to deliver notice) and 25.25 (roll corrections), via statutes.capitol.texas.gov. 2018 deadline change: Community Impact, May 1, 2018, and the Comal Appraisal District’s protest information page. Updated October 2026 for the 2027 season.