Property Tax Today features content regarding upcoming deadlines, action items and information releases.

Please let us know what you would like to see in future editions by sending property tax questions and/or suggested topics to Property Tax Communications. We will gladly address property tax matters under our authority.

Message from the Acting Comptroller

On Feb. 4, we launched Texas Education Freedom Accounts (TEFA), the largest day-one school choice program in the U.S. TEFA represents a significant investment in expanding educational opportunity and supporting long-term workforce readiness, and our team is committed to ensuring students have access to learning environments that prepare them for success.

The family application period opened Feb. 4 and closed March 31. Demand was evident immediately when enrollment opened, with more than 8,000 applications submitted in the first hour and more than 42,000 received on the first day alone. By the midway point of the eight-week family application window, we had received more than 150,000 student applications and more than 2,100 schools had signed up to participate. In total, we received more than 274,000 applications and more than 2,400 schools signed up to participate.

Funding notifications began April 22, starting with priority tier 1 families – children with disabilities from families earning at or below 500% of the federal poverty level.

We encourage you to visit EducationFreedom.Texas.Gov for more information about the TEFA program.

The Property Tax Assistance Division (PTAD) had an eventful first quarter. Our office certified the 2025 School District Property Value Study (SDPVS) preliminary findings to the commissioner of education; released the 2025 Methods and Assistance Program (MAP) final reports; and published the 2025 Appraisal District Ratio Study (ADRS) preliminary results; and continued updating property tax information, publications, forms and videos to reflect law changes from the 89th Legislature.

Finally, it is important to note that the second quarter is a busy time for the property tax industry in Texas with many property tax deadlines. We have included some of those deadlines in this newsletter, but we encourage you to visit PTAD's Property Tax Law Deadlines webpage for a full list.

SDPVS Preliminary Findings

We certified the 2025 SDPVS preliminary findings to the commissioner of education on Jan. 30 and March 11 and posted the findings on the SDPVS webpage. Of the 1,351 school district splits evaluated for the 2025 SDPVS, we certified local values in the preliminary findings for 1,291 (95.6%).

Currently, we are working on 311 appeals by school districts and eligible taxpayers to the 2025 SDPVS preliminary findings certified on Jan. 30. Of those, 227 (73%) are appeals to change information in the data previously reported to PTAD. Eligible taxpayers filed four appeals, and school districts or their representatives filed the remaining 74 appeals.

School districts with amended findings certified on March 11 had until April 20 to file a protest. The protest process continues through the spring. We will certify the 2025 SDPVS final findings to the Texas Education Agency and publish them on the SDPVS webpage in August.

ADRS Preliminary Results

Tax Code Section 5.10 requires PTAD to conduct a ratio study in each appraisal district at least once every two years. We conduct this study to determine the degree of uniformity and the median level of appraisals by the appraisal district within each major property category.

We published the 2025 ADRS preliminary results on the Appraisal District Ratio Study Results webpage and will post the 2025 final results in August.

MAP Results

In January, we released 2025 MAP final reports and notified chief appraisers whose districts received reviews. Superintendents can learn more about MAP reviews and download copies of reports for submission to their boards of trustees by accessing the MAP webpage. We also referred 19 appraisal districts to the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation (TDLR) for failure to complete the recommendations included in their 2024 final MAP reports. TDLR will work with these appraisal districts over the next year on the recommendations.

Appraisal districts reviewed in 2023 had until February 2026 to substantially implement recommendations. We released the 2023 TARP final reports on April 6, 2026 that include the initial findings and recommendations issued in February 2025 and the results of the follow-up reviews to determine substantial compliance. The reports are available on the TARP webpage.

2023 TARP Review Final Results

In February 2025, we completed the 2023 Targeted Appraisal Review (TARP) for appraisal districts with school districts that received three consecutive invalid final findings for the 2020, 2021 and 2022 SDPVS.

Appraisal districts reviewed in 2023 had until February 2026 to substantially implement recommendations. We released the 2023 TARP final reports on April 9, 2026, that include the initial findings and recommendations issued in February 2025 and the results of the follow-up reviews to determine substantial compliance. The reports are available on the TARP webpage.

Depreciation, Trend Factors and Life Expectancy

Each March, we typically update our depreciation schedule, trend factors and life expectancy charts. These tables are for use in the SDPVS and are subject to change until we certify the preliminary SDPVS findings. Appraisal districts should develop independent schedules relevant to their local jurisdiction and the tax year for which they are appraising. The 2026 charts are in the resources section on the SDPVS webpage.

• Business Personal Property Depreciation Schedule (PDF)
• Business Personal Property Trend Factors (PDF)
• Common Furniture, Fixture, Machinery and Equipment Life Expectancies (PDF)

Rendition Statements and Property Report Deadlines

Rendition statements and property report deadlines depend on property type. The statements and reports are due to chief appraisers after Jan. 1, 2026, and no later than the deadline indicated below. Allowed extensions vary by property type as referenced below.

Rendition Statements and Reports	Deadline	Allowed Extension(s)
Property generally*	April 15	May 15 upon written request Additional 15 days for good cause shown
Property regulated by the Public Utility Commission of Texas, the Railroad Commission of Texas, the federal Surface Transportation Board or the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. Tax Code Section 22.23(d).	April 30	May 15 upon written request Additional 15 days for good cause shown

*If the chief appraiser extends the deadline for a rendition statement or property report to May 15, the chief appraiser must also extend the deadline for the property owner to file an allocation application or freeport exemption application to May 15. For good cause shown, the chief appraiser may allow an additional 30 days for allocation applications and 60 days for freeport exemption applications.

ARB Procedures

ARBs must hold a public hearing and adopt hearing procedures before May 15 each year as required by Tax Code Section 41.01(c). The ARB must distribute copies of the adopted hearing procedures to the appraisal district board of directors, the taxpayer liaison officer, the appraisal district and PTAD within 15 days of adopting the hearing procedures.

Tax Code Section 5.103(d) and (e) require the ARB to adopt hearing procedures that incorporate our model hearing procedures (PDF) and submit the adopted hearing procedures to our office for review. We review submissions and determine if the ARB has met the requirement to incorporate the model hearing procedures. ARBs may submit adopted hearing procedures to ptad.arb@cpa.texas.gov.

Exemption and Application Deadlines

The last day for property owners to file most exemption and special appraisal applications is April 30. Certain property owners may late file residence homestead exemption applications, as indicated below:

• A property owner may file an age 65 or older exemption application up to two years after the date on which he or she became age 65.
• A property owner may file a donated residence homestead of a partially disabled veteran exemption application for up to two years after he or she qualifies.
• A property owner may file a residence homestead exemption application up to two years after the date the taxes become delinquent.
• A property owner may file a disabled veteran exemption application up to five years after the date the taxes become delinquent.

A religious organization denied a Tax Code Section 11.20 exemption because of its charter must amend the charter and file a new application by May 31 or before the 60th day after the exemption denial notification date, whichever is later.

A private school denied a Tax Code Section 11.21 exemption because of its charter must amend the charter and file a new application by June 30 or the 60th day after the exemption denial notification date, whichever is later.

Arbitration Information

Limited Binding Arbitration (LBA)
Tax Code Section 41A.015 gives property owners who meet certain criteria the option to request LBA to compel the ARB or the chief appraiser, as appropriate, to comply with certain procedural requirements related to protests.

You can find information regarding LBA on our LBA webpage.

Regular Binding Arbitration (RBA)
Tax Code Chapter 41A gives property owners who meet certain criteria the option to request RBA as an alternative to appealing an ARB decision to district court.

You can find information regarding RBA on our RBA webpage.

Taxpayer Assistance Pamphlet

Property owners are entitled to an explanation of the remedies available when they are dissatisfied with their property’s appraised value. The deadline for property owners to file most ARB protests is May 15 or by the 30th day after delivery of the notice of appraised value, whichever is later. Our Taxpayer Assistance Pamphlet (PDF) explains the remedies available to taxpayers and procedures to follow in seeking remedial action.

Electronic Appraisal Roll Submission

We use data appraisal districts and tax offices provide to develop and publish reports and datasets including but not limited to the SDPVS required by Government Code Section 403.302; the ADRS required by Tax Code Section 5.10; the tax rate information publication required by Tax Code Section 5.091; and biennial data required by Tax Code Section 5.09.

Tax Code Section 5.03 allows us to require appraisal districts to submit the data electronically. Appraisal districts must provide certain data submissions in specific formats as referenced below.

Tax Code Section 26.01(b) requires chief appraisers to certify appraisal district appraisal rolls to our office at the same time the chief appraiser submits an appraisal roll for county taxes to the county assessor-collector. Appraisal districts must provide appraisal roll information to our office in a standard electronic format. The Electronic Appraisal Roll Submission (EARS) is the standardized format.

The 2026 EARS Manual (PDF) provides more detailed information and guidance to appraisal districts for submitting electronic data in the appropriate format.

Important changes in the EARS process this year include new fields for the new property tax exemptions approved by the voters in November 2025. As of April 20, we no longer accept Form 50-253 with aggregated data. You must submit all data at the account level using the Form 50-897-b spreadsheet within your EARS submission.

Property Classification Guide

We publish the Texas Property Classification Guide to assist appraisal districts in their classification of property for consistency in the data reported to our office.

This month, we published the updated 2026 Texas Property Classification Guide (PDF) which reflects some important changes to property categories. Within the EARS file, the appraisal district must classify property by the appropriate category. Noting the changes in these categories is important for your EARS file as accounts with categories that are no longer in the Property Classification Guide will be rejected in the EARS files.

Property Taxes in Disaster Areas

On Jan. 25, the governor amended and renewed a disaster declaration originally issued on Jan. 22, for severe winter weather in 219 counties.

On Jan. 28, the governor amended and renewed the July 4, 2025, disaster declaration due to heavy rainfall in 30 counties and the July 8, 2022, disaster declaration for exceptional drought conditions posing a threat of imminent disaster in 77 counties.

On Feb. 7, the governor amended and renewed the Aug. 10, 2025, disaster declaration due to increased fire weather conditions in 190 counties.

On Feb. 16, the governor amended and renewed the July 4, 2025, disaster declaration due to heavy rainfall in 30 counties and the July 8, 2022, disaster declaration for exceptional drought conditions posing a threat of imminent disaster in 89 counties.

On March 9, the governor amended and renewed the Aug. 10, 2025, disaster declaration due to increased fire weather conditions in 168 counties.

On March 18, the governor amended and renewed the July 4, 2025, disaster declaration due to heavy rainfall in 30 counties and the July 8, 2022, disaster declaration for exceptional drought conditions posing a threat of imminent disaster in 125 counties.

On April 8, the governor amended and renewed the Aug. 10, 2025, disaster declaration due to increased fire weather conditions in 126 counties.

Tax Code Section 11.35, Temporary Exemption for Qualified Property Damaged by Disaster, allows qualified properties that are at least 15% damaged by a disaster in counties included in the declaration to receive a temporary exemption of a portion of the property’s appraised value. Qualified property includes:

• tangible personal property used for income production;
• improvements to real property; and
• certain manufactured homes.

Property owners must apply for the temporary exemption no later than 105 days after the governor declares a disaster area. Form 50-312, Temporary Exemption Property Damaged by Disaster (PDF), is available on our Property Tax Forms webpage.

You can find more information on statutory relief for property owners in disaster areas on our Property Taxes in Disaster Areas and During Droughts webpage.