Your Texas benefits calendar

The Texas property tax year

Exemption applications are due April 30, and protests by May 15. Both have more give in them than they look.

1. January 1 — appraisal date

   in 114 days

   Value, ownership and exemption status are set on this date. One exception matters: if you qualify for the 100% disabled veteran exemption partway through the year you get it from the date you qualified, not from the next January.

   Tex. Tax Code §11.42; §11.131(d)

2. January 31 — last day to pay last year's taxes without penalty

   in 144 days

   Taxes become delinquent on February 1. This date also starts the clock the five-year late-application window is measured from.

   Tex. Tax Code §31.02

3. April 30 — exemption application deadline

   in 233 days

   File Form 50-114 or 50-135 with your appraisal district by this date. If you are past it, do not stop — the late routes below are real and generous.

   Tex. Tax Code §11.43(d)

4. May 15 — protest deadline

   in 248 days

   The later of May 15 or 30 days after your notice of appraised value was delivered. If your exemption was refused or left off, this is the window to protest it to the Appraisal Review Board.

   Tex. Tax Code §41.44

5. Mid-August — taxing units adopt their rates

   in 340 days

   Your county, school district and city set their rates now. This is when the value of a fixed-dollar exemption like the $12,000 one is actually decided.

6. September 1 — hunting and fishing licence year begins

   in 357 days

   The Disabled Veteran Super Combo runs 1 September to 31 August. You need to show proof of your disability rate each year.

7. October — tax bills mail

   in 22 days

   Read your bill and check the exemption is on it. A granted exemption that was not applied is a protest, not an argument with the tax office.

The triggers nothing else fires on

These are not dates. They are events, and they are where the most value is lost — and gained.

• The VA approves or increases your disability

  This is the most valuable trigger in Texas and almost nobody knows it exists. §11.439 requires the chief appraiser to accept a late application for the 100% disabled veteran exemption if you file within one year of the VA approving your disability — whatever the calendar says. A rating decision that lands in November does not cost you the year.

  Tex. Tax Code §11.439

• Your VA rating changes

  Texas thresholds sit at 10%, 30%, 50%, 60%, 70% and 100%, and crossing any of them opens something: 50% brings the licence plate and the free hunting and fishing package, 60% brings the free driver licence and state park pass, 70% moves you to the top $12,000 bracket. Tell us and we will re-run your match.

• You are granted Individual Unemployability

  An IU determination, with compensation at the 100% rate, entitles you to a TOTAL exemption of your homestead under §11.131 — whatever your combined percentage says. If you have IU and are not exempt, that is the single largest thing to fix on this list.

  Tex. Tax Code §11.131(b)

• The veteran dies

  The surviving-spouse exemptions are real, valuable, not automatic, and permanently lost on remarriage. Nothing in the Texas system tells a spouse they exist or that they must be claimed in their own name.

• You are thinking about moving

  For a surviving spouse this is the expensive one. Moving converts an unlimited exemption into a fixed dollar amount frozen at your last year in the old house. Ask the old district for the §11.131(d) or §11.133(c) certificate BEFORE you go, and work out the number first.