Travis County, Texas Property Tax Protest
Work out how far your assessment sits above comparable sales, what a reduction would save at your local rate, and what each of the three routes to it costs — filing yourself, a flat-fee service, or a contingency service. Every county deadline is cited to the authority that sets it.
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Estimate only — not legal advice. This is the published math for Travis County assessment appeals, shown as a range. Your actual outcome depends on facts, evidence, and decisions this page cannot see.
Protest deadline in Travis County
TCAD states it as: the deadline to file your protest is May 15, or 30 days after your notice is mailed, whichever is later. Alone among the districts verified here it does not restate the weekend-and-holiday rollover on that page — Tex. Tax Code §1.06 supplies it regardless, moving a deadline that lands on a Saturday, Sunday or legal holiday to the next regular business day.
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The rule
Enter your notice date
TCAD states it as: the deadline to file your protest is May 15, or 30 days after your notice is mailed, whichever is later. Alone among the districts verified here it does not restate the weekend-and-holiday rollover on that page — Tex. Tax Code §1.06 supplies it regardless, moving a deadline that lands on a Saturday, Sunday or legal holiday to the next regular business day. Enter the date on your notice to resolve which applies.
There is a second deadline after the first, and it runs on 14 days. Missing it does not end the protest, but it can mean arriving at a hearing with nothing admitted.
Evidence, in this county: TCAD goes materially further than the statute requires: it publishes the chief appraiser's evidence to the online portal at least 14 days before the formal hearing, rather than merely telling owners they may request it. Your own evidence is uploaded through the portal or emailed to the district's evidence address, and you should bring five sets to a formal hearing — a panel will not consider electronic evidence you cannot leave a copy of.
Where it goes
- Assessing authority
- Travis Central Appraisal District ↗
- Hearing body
- the Travis Appraisal Review Board (TARB) — hearings run fifteen to twenty minutes, with the notice of final order arriving by certified mail about three to four weeks later
- File online
- Their own portal ↗
- County taxing unit’s own rate per $100Not your total — see the note below.
- 0.3758
0.375845 is the Travis County taxing unit's own 2025 rate per $100, from the Comptroller's compilation under Tex. Tax Code §5.091. TCAD publishes no combined figure and routes owners to the statewide property tax database instead. Your city, school district, community college and any special districts levy on top, and which apply depends on the parcel. No Texas authority publishes a single combined rate, so none is shown. Source ↗
The authority above is the one that publishes this deadline, and its instructions govern. Most jurisdictions require their own form or portal — a letter alone may not open a protest.
Check whether you are over-assessed with the assessment calculator, see the rest of Texas’s appeal procedure, then organise the evidence with the letter generator.
Verified 2026-08-03 against Travis Central Appraisal District — protest page, with the Travis Appraisal Review Board Formal Hearing Procedures and the district's Submit Your Evidence guidance (effective 2026-04-01)
Verified 2026-08-03 against Texas Tax Code ch. 41 (Local Review) §41.44, §41.45, §41.461, §41.66, §41.67; ch. 6 §6.41; ch. 1 §1.06 as amended by Acts 2025, 89th Leg., R.S., ch. 119 (H.B. 1392) eff. 2026-01-01, and §1.07(c); ch. 41A and ch. 42 for the appeal routes; with Comptroller Publication 96-295 (rev. January 2026) for the published procedure (effective 2026-01-01)
Source of record
- USA.gov — State and local taxes ↗Federal
- Travis Central Appraisal District — protest page, with the Travis Appraisal Review Board Formal Hearing Procedures and the district's Submit Your Evidence guidance ↗County assessing authority
- Texas Tax Code ch. 41 (Local Review) §41.44, §41.45, §41.461, §41.66, §41.67; ch. 6 §6.41; ch. 1 §1.06 as amended by Acts 2025, 89th Leg., R.S., ch. 119 (H.B. 1392) eff. 2026-01-01, and §1.07(c); ch. 41A and ch. 42 for the appeal routes; with Comptroller Publication 96-295 (rev. January 2026) for the published procedure ↗State legislature
Run it against the official tool: TCAD owner portal — sign in with the owner ID and PIN from your notice ↗
🎓 Understand this tool
What it is
A calculator for the two numbers an assessment appeal actually turns on: how far your assessed value sits above comparable sales, and what a reduction would be worth at your local rate. It also puts the published cost of each route to that reduction beside the saving it would produce.
How it works
The comparison uses the MEDIAN of the comparable sales you enter rather than the average, because comparable sales are a small sample and one unusual transaction — a teardown, a family transfer, a distressed sale — drags an average badly. Assessing authorities reason in medians for the same reason. Where a state assesses at a fraction of market value rather than the whole, the assessed figure is divided by that ratio first so the two sides of the comparison are measured the same way. The saving is the reduction multiplied by the combined rate per hundred dollars of value, which is the form counties publish rates in.
Getting the most from it
- Take the assessed value and the rate straight off your notice and your bill — not from memory.
- Enter several recent sales of genuinely similar properties nearby. Three is a realistic minimum; one comparison is easy to dismiss.
- Leave out distressed sales, family transfers and teardowns. Including one weakens the rest of the list rather than lengthening it.
- Check your county deadline before doing anything else. A window that has closed ends the appeal whatever the numbers say.
Reading your result
A gap under about five percent is usually treated as within tolerance — valuation is approximate by design, and authorities expect to be roughly rather than exactly right. A larger gap is the argument, but it is an argument you still have to make with evidence. The saving figure assumes the reduction is granted in full, which is why it is shown as a range: meeting halfway is a common outcome.
What it can't tell you
This cannot tell you whether your comparables are genuinely comparable, whether your county assesses the way you think it does, how a particular review board tends to decide, or whether an appeal risks drawing attention to something else about the property. It does not file anything, and it is not a valuation. A licensed appraiser values property; a lawyer advises on appeals.
Frequently asked questions
Compare the assessed value against recent sales of genuinely similar properties nearby. If the assessment sits meaningfully above the median of those sales, that gap is the argument. A difference of a few percent is usually treated as within tolerance — valuation is approximate by design.
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