🏘️California Property Tax Appeals

When your protest is due in California

The regular filing period opens July 2 statewide and closes on one of two dates, decided per county. Under Rev. & Tax. Code §1603(b)(1) it closes September 15; under §1603(b)(3) it is extended to November 30 in any county whose assessor does not send a §619 notice to ALL assessees of real property on the local secured roll by August 1. For 2026 the Board of Equalization's Letter To Assessors 2026/023 puts eleven counties on September 15 — Alameda, Alpine, Inyo, Kings, Mono, Placer, San Francisco, San Luis Obispo, Santa Clara, Sierra and Ventura — and all forty-seven others, including Los Angeles, Orange, San Diego, Riverside, Sacramento, San Bernardino, San Mateo and Contra Costa, on November 30. A separate route exists under §1603(b)(2) where the notice arrives late: if you did not receive the §619 notice at least 15 calendar days before the deadline, you may file within 60 days of receiving the notice or 60 days of the tax bill being mailed, whichever is earlier, with an affidavit under penalty of perjury. Supplemental, escape and roll-change appeals run on 60 days from the mailing or postmark of the notice or tax bill, whichever is later; a calamity reassessment appeal runs six months.

If the last day falls on a weekend or holiday: Rev. & Tax. Code §1603(b)(4): if a final filing date falls on a Saturday, Sunday or legal holiday, an application mailed and postmarked on the next business day is timely. If the county's offices close before 5 p.m. on the final day, or for that whole day, that day counts as a legal holiday for this purpose. §166 makes the general postmark rule liberally construed in favour of the taxpayer. This is observably operating: the Board's 2024 list showed September 16 and December 2, because September 15 fell on a Sunday and November 30 on a Saturday.Rev. & Tax. Code §1603(b)(4)

The date above is this state’s published rule applied to what you entered. Confirm it against the notice itself and the authority’s own instructions — most jurisdictions require their form or portal, and a letter alone may not open a protest.

How the appeal runs

First-level appeals are heard by the county assessment appeals board, or the board of supervisors sitting as the county board of equalization — every county has one and each county decides which form it takes ↗.

1. 01Talk to the county assessor's office first. Many disagreements are resolved there without an application.
2. 02Obtain the official application form for your county — the form is county-issued, not statewide.
3. 03File within your county's regular filing period. An application mailed and postmarked on or before the last day counts as filed within the period.
4. 04Exchange information with the assessor before the hearing.
5. 05Attend the hearing before the assessment appeals board or the board of equalization, which will notify you of the date and of who carries the burden of proof.
6. 06Receive the board's decision.
7. 07If still dissatisfied, file a claim for refund and pursue the further appeal rights described in Board of Equalization Publication 30.

Fees: Neither §1603 nor Publication 30 states any fee for the application itself. Two costs are published: §1611.5 lets a county charge a reasonable fee for preparing written findings of fact, with no statewide amount, and Publication 30 puts comparable sales data at little or no cost, not to exceed $10.

Rev. & Tax. Code §401 requires every assessor to assess at full value, so the ratio is 100%. What that percentage applies to is the catch: under Article XIII A the TAXABLE value is the base-year full value adjusted for inflation, or the current full cash value, whichever is lower. A long-held property is therefore commonly assessed far below what it would sell for, and comparing its assessment against recent sales will not show an over-assessment even when one exists on the market-value measure.

Cal. Rev. & Tax. Code §1603(b)