Texas Comptroller\u2019s property tax guidance<\/a>.\u00a0 After that, the ordinary late-protest path is usually closed.<\/p>\nA few narrow remedies still exist after the deadline: challenging a required notice you never received, fixing clerical or ownership errors, or seeking a correction if a residence homestead was appraised at least 25% above its market\u00a0value. Those come with extra conditions, including payment rules and filing requirements before a tax bill goes delinquent.<\/p>\n
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A line of property owners waiting to submit their protest forms gathered in May 2017 at the Travis County Appraisal District office in Austin. [NICK WAGNER\/AMERICAN-STATESMAN\/FILE]<\/p>\n
Austin American-Statesman<\/p>\n
One new wrinkle this year:\u00a0TCAD warned in January that a U.S. Postal Service change means postmarks may now be applied later in the mail stream, not when an envelope first enters the system. The district says protests or exemption forms mailed too close to a deadline could be treated as late. Its recommendation: submit online, use certified mail, or hand-deliver.<\/p>\n
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The most expensive deadline to miss: property tax payment deadline<\/p>\n
This is the one where consequences arrive fast.<\/p>\n
Unpaid property taxes become delinquent\u00a0Feb. 1. State law automatically adds a scaling percentage for each month you are late:<\/p>\n
7% in Feb.
\n9% in March
\n11% in April
\n13% in May
\n15% in June
\n18% in July\u00a0<\/p>\n
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And interest keeps accruing after that. Travis County says it has no legal authority to waive those charges.<\/p>\n
A payment postmarked\u00a0Feb. 1 or later is considered late. The county says homeowners are still responsible for paying even if a bill never arrived in the mail.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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Property tax bills for people with homestead exemptions won’t reflect the big increase in market values because the taxable value of an existing home with a homestead exemption can’t go up more than 10% per year under state law.<\/p>\n
Jay Janner\/American-Statesman, Jay Janner\/American-Statesman, Austin American-Statesman<\/p>\n
In January, TCAD warned that a U.S. Postal Service change means postmarks may now be added later in the mail stream rather than when an envelope first enters the system. The district said that could cause protests or exemption forms mailed too close to a deadline to be treated as late, and it urged property owners to submit documents online, use certified mail or take them in person instead.<\/p>\n
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Ignoring the bill makes things worse. A tax lien automatically attaches to your property on Jan. 1 to secure whatever is owed. If taxes stay unpaid long enough, the county can pursue a foreclosure lawsuit \u2014 described on the county\u2019s foreclosure page as its last resort for collection. Delinquent bills can also pick up an additional penalty of up to 20% for attorney fees, depending on timing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Property owners wait in line to submit their protest forms at the Travis County Appraisal District office in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":202832,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[132,134,133,72721],"class_list":["post-202831","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-austin","tag-austin","tag-austin-headlines","tag-austin-news","tag-dante"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/202831","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=202831"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/202831\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/202832"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=202831"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=202831"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=202831"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}