Harris Central Appraisal District (HCAD) decides what your home is worth. The Harris County Tax Office — a separate agency — mails the bill, collects the payment, and runs the penalty clock. Bills go out around October; the deadline is January 31.
Check your home FREE →Almost every point of confusion about a Harris County tax bill comes back to the same mix-up: homeowners call HCAD about their bill, or call the Tax Office about their value, and get bounced to the other agency. They are not the same office, they do not share a phone line, and they do not do the same job. This page walks through who does what, exactly when the bill arrives and is due, the penalty-and-interest schedule if you miss it, the real payment-plan options, and what to do if you genuinely cannot pay.
Last updated: July 26, 2026 · Harris County, Texas.
Harris Central Appraisal District (HCAD) determines how much your property is worth, processes your exemptions, and handles your protest if you file one. It does not send you a bill and it does not collect your payment.
The Harris County Tax Office, led by the Tax Assessor-Collector, is a completely separate county agency. It takes HCAD's value, applies your exemptions, multiplies by the tax rate each taxing unit adopted that year, mails you the resulting bill, and collects the money. Every penalty, every payment plan, every "can I get more time" question runs through the Tax Office — not HCAD.
| Harris Central Appraisal District (HCAD) | Harris County Tax Office | |
|---|---|---|
| What it does | Sets your property's value; processes exemptions and protests | Calculates, mails, and collects your bill; runs payment plans and delinquency collection |
| Website | hcad.org / search.hcad.org | hctax.net / myharriscountytax.com |
| Phone | (713) 957-7800 | (713) 274-8000 |
| Address | 13013 Northwest Freeway, Houston, TX 77040-6305 | 1001 Preston St., Houston, TX 77002 (downtown office) |
If your question is "what is my house worth" or "how do I protest," that's HCAD. If your question is "when is my bill due," "can I pay in installments," or "what's this penalty," that's the Tax Office. Calling the wrong one just costs you time.
Once every taxing unit that appears on your bill — the school district, Harris County, your city, a MUD, a junior college, and others — has adopted its tax rate for the year (typically in the late summer or early fall), the Tax Office calculates and mails statements. That mailing generally begins in October. Under Tax Code §31.01, the Tax Office is required to mail (or otherwise deliver) the bill by that point in the year.
Under §31.02, the tax is due by January 31 of the following year and becomes delinquent February 1 if unpaid. (A narrow exception exists under §31.04: if a bill is mailed unusually late, the delinquency date can be postponed — but for a normally-mailed Harris County bill, January 31 is the date to plan around.) The Tax Office's own current guidance to homeowners repeats this exact deadline every January.
Once a Harris County property tax is delinquent, Tax Code §33.01 sets out precisely how much it grows, and it is worth reading closely because the numbers stack:
These are four different, real, statute-based mechanisms — not the same option under different names. Which one applies depends on who you are and whether the tax is delinquent yet.
| Option | Who qualifies | How it works |
|---|---|---|
| §31.03 split payment | Anyone — but only if the taxing unit has adopted it | Pay half by the delinquency date, the rest by the following July 1, with no penalty or interest if both halves are on time. Not every taxing unit offers this — confirm with the Tax Office before counting on it. |
| §31.031 quarterly installments | Homestead owners who are 65+, disabled, or qualify for the §11.22 disabled-veteran exemption | Pay in four equal installments with no penalty or interest, as long as the first installment is paid by the delinquency date along with notice that you'll pay the rest in installments. |
| §31.032 disaster-area installments | Homestead or qualifying small-business property in a declared disaster or emergency area that was damaged | Same four-installment structure as §31.031, available for taxes imposed within a year of the disaster or emergency. |
| §33.02 delinquent installment agreement | Anyone already delinquent (the Tax Office must offer this on request to a homestead owner who hasn't used one in the past 24 months) | A written agreement for 12, 24, or 36 months. For a homestead, no §33.01(a) penalty accrues while you're current on the plan (1% monthly interest still applies) — and the account is not referred to the collection attorney, avoiding that fee, as long as you keep making payments. |
The first three prevent delinquency in the first place if you use them before the deadline; the fourth is what the Tax Office offers after a tax has already gone delinquent. Ask the Tax Office directly which ones apply to your specific bill — split payment in particular depends on whether that taxing unit adopted it.
If you are 65 or older, disabled, or qualify for the disabled-veteran exemption, the strongest tool is the Tax Code §33.06 deferral, covered in full on our over-65 tax freeze guide. Filing the deferral affidavit stops lawsuits and tax sales while it's on file with HCAD. Be honest with yourself about what it is: it is not forgiveness. Interest keeps accruing at 5% a year, and the full deferred balance, plus interest, becomes due 180 days after you no longer own or live in the home — it becomes a debt your estate or heirs eventually have to settle.
If you do not qualify for deferral, the Tax Office's own §33.02 installment agreement (see above) is the main real option once a bill is delinquent — it is free to set up, spreads the balance over up to 36 months, and, for a homestead, avoids the collection-attorney fee as long as you stay current.
This is worth stating plainly because it is a common point of confusion at bill time. A successful protest with HCAD lowers your property's appraised value — that's the number HCAD controls. It has zero effect on the tax rate — that number is set separately, every year, by each taxing unit on your bill (the school district, Harris County, your city, a MUD, and others), usually in the late summer or early fall, well after most protests are decided. Your final bill is value (after exemptions) multiplied by rate. Lowering the first number and lowering the second are two entirely separate processes run by two entirely separate kinds of bodies — protesting your value does not, and cannot, touch the rate. See our full protest guide if you think your value is too high.
| What you need | Where |
|---|---|
| Pay your bill online | myharriscountytax.com |
| Mail a property tax payment | Harris County Tax Office, P.O. Box 4622, Houston, TX 77210-4622 |
| Mail general correspondence (not payments) | Harris County Tax Office, P.O. Box 4663, Houston, TX 77210-4663 |
| Set up an installment agreement | hctax.net/Property/PropertyInstallment |
| Tax Office questions (billing, penalties, payment plans) | (713) 274-8000 · tax.office@hctx.net · downtown office: 1001 Preston St., Houston, TX 77002 (closed Wednesdays) |
| HCAD questions (your value, exemptions, protests — a different agency) | (713) 957-7800 · 13013 Northwest Freeway, Houston, TX 77040-6305 |
| File your protest if your value looks too high | Our free protest guide |
| Over-65 / disability tax deferral | Our free over-65 tax freeze guide |
Because they genuinely handle different things. HCAD only controls your value, exemptions, and protests. The Tax Office only controls your bill, payments, penalties, and payment plans. If you called about the wrong topic, you'll get redirected — it isn't a runaround, they really are separate agencies with separate systems.
Yes — check your own escrow statement or ask your servicer to confirm the payment was made and received on time. Servicer errors happen, and under Tax Code §33.01 the penalty and interest clock does not care whose fault a late payment was.
A successful protest lowers your appraised value for that tax year, which lowers the value the bill is calculated from — but the bill itself is calculated and mailed by the Tax Office based on the corrected value and that year's rates. If you win a protest after a bill was already sent using the old value, the Tax Office corrects and reissues the bill or refunds the difference.
No. It only applies if your account is actually referred to the Tax Office's contracted delinquent-tax attorney, which the Tax Office's own site says will not happen if you enter into a §33.02 installment payment agreement first. Being briefly late does not automatically trigger it.
Yes — protesting your value and paying (or falling behind on) a past bill are separate processes. But if you are pursuing certain protest remedies past the ordinary deadline, some require you to keep paying the undisputed portion of your taxes to preserve your right to a final ARB determination — ask HCAD about your specific situation.
Last updated: July 26, 2026. Sources: Texas Tax Code Chapter 31, Collections (§31.01–§31.04, §31.031, §31.032) and Chapter 33, Delinquency (§33.01, §33.02, §33.06, §33.07, §33.08); Harris County Tax Office, hctax.net and Property Tax Installment Plan, fetched July 26, 2026; Harris Central Appraisal District, Protests and Corrections; Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts, Property Tax Assistance. This page is general information for Harris County homeowners, not legal or tax advice. Deadlines, penalty percentages, and attorney-contract fees can change — verify with the Harris County Tax Office before you act.