Property taxes in DFW: how to protest, and what the rate does to a rental

A Texas property tax bill is two numbers multiplied together: the value your appraisal district puts on the house, and the rates your city, school district, county and a few others adopt. You can’t protest the rate. You can protest the value, every year. The notice of appraised value even has to say so in italics: “The Texas Legislature does not set the amount of your local taxes. Your property tax burden is decided by your locally elected officials.”

The calendar

Jan. 1. The date your value is set as of. With few exceptions, appraisal districts appraise property at its market value as of Jan. 1, per the Comptroller.

By April 1 (homesteads) or May 1 (everything else), “or as soon thereafter as practicable.” The appraisal district mails a notice of appraised value if, among other things, the value went up (Tax Code §25.19).

May 15, or 30 days after the notice, whichever is later. That’s the protest deadline under Tax Code §41.44. The Comptroller points out that the 30 days run from the date the district mails the notice, not the day it reaches your mailbox.

Late spring through summer. An optional informal conference with the appraisal district, then a hearing in front of the appraisal review board (ARB) if you don’t settle. The ARB has to give you at least 15 days’ notice of the hearing.

Within 60 days of receiving the ARB’s written order. The deadline to appeal to district court, or to request regular binding arbitration through the Comptroller.

October. Tax bills start going out.

Jan. 31 of the next year. In most cases, the last day to pay. Unpaid taxes are delinquent on Feb. 1 and pick up a 6% penalty and 1% interest that day.

Miss the May deadline and a late protest needs “good cause,” filed before the ARB approves the year’s appraisal records. In practice, put May 15 on the calendar now.

What the appraisal district is actually doing

DCAD in Dallas County, TAD in Tarrant and the other appraisal districts value all the taxable property in their counties. The Comptroller describes the method: in a mass appraisal, the district “classifies properties using a variety of factors, such as size, use, construction type, age and location,” then uses “data from recent property sales” to value typical properties in each class. For houses, the sales comparison approach (what similar houses sold for) “is typically preferred.”

That’s your opening. A model built from your neighbors’ sales assumes your house is like theirs. The Comptroller says districts “must evaluate the individual characteristics that affect the property’s market value,” but a district can only weigh what it knows. A cracked slab, a 25-year-old roof or an original kitchen isn’t in its file until you put it there.

Evidence that works

The Comptroller is blunt: “You cannot go to the hearing and just say the appraisal district is wrong.” Its list of evidence to bring includes:

• Closed comps. Sales of similar houses near yours, as close to Jan. 1 as you can find. The Comptroller lists “sales price documentation, such as listings, closing statements.” Sold prices make a stronger case than asking prices.
• Repair estimates and receipts. Dated, itemized and signed by whoever wrote them.
• Photos. Of your house, and of the comps.
• Engineering reports. A foundation engineer’s letter counts.
• Your own closing statement, if you bought the house recently.

If your argument is that your house is appraised higher than comparable houses, that’s an unequal-appraisal protest, and the evidence is a calculation of the median level of appraisal for those comparables.

Two more things help. At least 14 days before the hearing, the district must tell you that you can request copies of the information it plans to use. Ask for it, because it’s the evidence the district will bring, usually including the comparable sales it picked. And leave hardship out of it: the Comptroller says the ARB “cannot take into account your personal economic situation.” Its job is the market value.

In Dallas County you can file online through DCAD’s uFILE system; the other districts post their own protest forms and portals.

The 10% homestead cap, and why market value still matters

If the house is your homestead, Tax Code §23.23 limits how far its appraised value can rise in a year: to the lesser of its market value, or last year’s appraised value plus 10%, plus any new improvements. The cap takes effect Jan. 1 of the year after you first qualify for the homestead exemption.

So why protest a market value that’s already above your capped value? Because the cap limits the increase, not the value. Say the district has your market value at $380,000 and your capped value is $330,000. Next year the cap allows $363,000, and the year after, $380,000, even if no house on your street sells for more. Every dollar of overstated market value is room for next year’s increase. Protest it down and the runway gets shorter.

The cap is tied to the owner, not to the house. Under §23.23, it expires on Jan. 1 of the first tax year that neither you nor your spouse or surviving spouse qualifies for the homestead exemption. It doesn’t move to your next house, and a buyer starts over.

What 2% a year does to a rental

The Comptroller’s own example shows what a homestead is worth: school districts must give a $140,000 homestead exemption, so on a home appraised at $300,000, “you will pay school taxes on the home as if it was worth only $160,000.” To qualify, the home has to be your principal residence. Rent it out and it isn’t, so the exemption and, later, the 10% cap both end, and the whole appraised value is taxed at the full combined rate.

Here are 2025 combined rates (the ones on the bills due Jan. 31, 2026) for a house inside each city and its main school district. Each adds up the city, school district, county, hospital district and community college rates from DCAD’s and TAD’s 2025 tables. The Fort Worth row also adds the Tarrant Regional Water District’s $0.0265, which is on about 99% of Fort Worth ISD houses in the city, per TAD’s 2025 property data:

City · school district	Rate per $100	Yearly tax on a $300,000 rental
Dallas · Dallas ISD	$2.2267	$6,680
Garland · Garland ISD	$2.3947	$7,184
Mesquite · Mesquite ISD	$2.3457	$7,037
Fort Worth · Fort Worth ISD	$2.1891	$6,567
Arlington · Arlington ISD	$2.1862	$6,559
North Richland Hills · Birdville ISD	$2.1479	$6,444

That’s 2.15% to 2.39% of the appraised value every year, before any MUD, other special district or assessment. In Dallas, it’s $557 a month to the taxing units before insurance, repairs, vacancy or a property manager. For a lot of “let’s just rent it out” plans, it’s the line that settles the question.

One more rental footnote: Texas has a temporary 20% “circuit breaker” cap on the appraised value of non-homestead property valued at $5,320,000 or less in 2026. The Comptroller says it expires Dec. 31, 2026.

If you hire help

Under Occupations Code chapter 1152, anyone who protests for a fee has to hold a registration from the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation (TDLR) unless an exemption applies; attorneys and CPAs are two. Check it before you sign anything. We don’t protest for a fee. This guide is the do-it-yourself version.

What we’d do

If you’re keeping the house, protest the market value in any year it’s wrong, with closed comps and repair estimates. If you’re weighing rent against sell, put the full rental tax bill on the table first: $6,680 a year on a $300,000 house in Dallas. And if you’re selling, the TREC resale contract prorates the current year’s taxes through the closing date, so the tax line shows up on all three of your numbers.