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Your 2026 property tax bill: what to check before January 31

Quick answer. Harris County is delivering 2026 tax-year statements in October and November 2026. Montgomery County mails the current year’s statement every October. Both offices say the usual last day to pay without penalty and interest is January 31, and that those charges start February 1. January 31, 2027 is a Sunday. The Texas Comptroller says that when January 31 falls on a Sunday, a payment on Monday, February 1 is still on time, and the tax is delinquent on Tuesday, February 2. The date printed on your bill controls, including when a bill was mailed late.

By Michael O'Neal, Broker and REALTOR®, Keller Williams Realty Northeast
Published November 8, 2026

When the 2026 bill goes out

The Harris County Tax Office calendar says the office begins delivering 2026 tax-year statements for real property and business personal property in October and November 2026. The same office’s FAQ says most statements go out in November. If yours has not arrived by the middle of December, call and ask them to mail another one. You can also look the amount up on the tax office website. You do not need the paper statement in hand to pay, as long as you have the account number and the correct amount. Source Source

That county statement is not the only one some of my neighbors will get. HCAD’s jurisdiction list shows Humble ISD’s tax assessor-collector as Melody Jones at the Humble ISD Tax Office, not the Harris County Tax Office. The Humble ISD tax site says its 2026 statements go out at the beginning of November, that the 2026 amount online can still change, and that you should check again in January before you treat the online figure as final. Payments there are posted by the postmark. A payment entered after midnight on the last day of the month is posted as the next month. Source Source

If the house is in Montgomery County, the Montgomery County Tax Office says statements for the current year’s tax are sent every October. The one-time payment is due January 31. Source

Statewide, the Comptroller says the assessor has to mail a bill by October 1, or as soon after that as practicable. Not receiving the bill does not cancel the tax, the penalty, the interest, or the due date. If you still do not have a bill by the middle of January, contact the local tax office. Source Source

The deadline, and when penalties start

Harris County says a payment is timely if it is made by January 31. If that day is a weekend or a Harris County holiday, the next business day counts. The same extension covers a USPS postmark, a UPS or FedEx receipt mark, and the transaction date on the county’s online payment portal or telephone payment. Taxes are due when you get the statement, and the FAQ says they should be paid no later than January 31 of the year after the tax year. For a 2026 tax, that is January 31, 2027. Source

Montgomery County says the lump-sum due date is January 31, and penalty and interest begin February 1 unless you are on a payment plan. Its penalty chart starts in February at 6 percent penalty plus 1 percent interest, 7 percent combined, and the add-on rises on the first of each month. Real property that is not paid in full by June 30 of the year it becomes delinquent can be referred to the delinquent tax attorney, with an additional penalty of 15 to 20 percent of the taxes, penalties, and interest due. Source Source

The Comptroller describes the ordinary case the same way: pay by January 31, and a tax still unpaid on February 1 is delinquent. On February 1 the collector adds a 6 percent penalty and 1 percent interest. The penalty rises 1 percent a month until July 1, when it becomes 12 percent. Interest keeps accruing at 1 percent a month. An attorney hired to collect a delinquent account can add a penalty of up to 20 percent. If the original bill is mailed after January 10, the delinquency date is postponed until the first day of the next month that leaves at least 21 days to pay. That date is printed on the bill. Source

January 31, 2027 is a Sunday. The Comptroller’s bill page walks through that exact case under Tax Code Section 1.06: if January 31 falls on a Sunday, a payment on Monday, February 1 is timely, and the tax is delinquent on Tuesday, February 2. Harris County’s FAQ says the same kind of thing in local words. If January 31 is a weekend or a county holiday, the next business day is honored. I am using those two pages for the Sunday. I am not looking at a separate 2027 penalty notice from either county. Source Source

One date on the Harris County calendar is easy to mix up with the penalty date. December 31, 2026 is the last day the tax office lists for a payment to count toward a federal income-tax deduction: a December postmark, a December receipt from a private carrier, or an online or phone payment before midnight Central time. Whether you can deduct the payment is a question for your tax preparer. I am a broker, not that person. Source

How you can pay

In Harris County you can pay by cash, check, or card at a branch office. A check or money order can be mailed to Annette Ramirez, Tax Assessor-Collector, P.O. Box 4622, Houston, Texas 77210-4622. Put the account number on the check if you are not sending the coupon. The office also takes online and telephone payments. The FAQ lists a non-refundable card surcharge of 2.40 percent, with a $1 minimum, and an e-check fee of $0.50. The phone line in that answer is 713-274-2273. Online payments can be a partial payment. Payments by mail, card, or phone are applied to the current taxes first. Source

Harris County also says you can make monthly payments on current real-property taxes through June. Penalty and interest still start February 1 on that plan. If a balance is left at the end of June, you can sign an installment agreement for the rest, plus penalty and interest, over the following six months. That agreement does not erase the penalty and interest. Signing it in June and paying on time is how the office says you avoid the extra 15 to 20 percent collection fee. Delinquent taxes, once they are with the law firm, are arranged through that firm. Source

Montgomery County lists an e-check fee of $0, a debit-card fee of 1 percent with a $1 minimum, and a credit-card fee of 2.05 percent with a $1 minimum. Those convenience fees are charged by the card vendor, Certified Payments, and the tax office says they are not refundable. You can pay every year that is due, or a partial amount. A partial payment is split pro-rata across tax, penalty, interest, and any collection penalty. Whatever is left still draws penalty and interest. Source

The same Montgomery County page describes a pre-payment plan for taxpayers whose taxes are already current, including homeowners who do not have a mortgage escrow account. You pay monthly through September 15 with no penalty or interest, and the October statement shows any balance still due. If your lender escrows the taxes, that plan is not the path the page is describing. Source

Installments and a deferral

These are two different tools. An installment plan splits the current bill into payments. A deferral postpones collection. It does not wipe the tax out.

Harris County’s quarter plan is for an account with an over-65 exemption, a disabled exemption, or the surviving spouse of a disabled veteran. The office checks the account. You do not bring proof. You send at least one-fourth of the current taxes, plus a written request. The request can be a letter, an email, a signature on the check, or a note and a signature on the statement. Mail it to Special Tax Services, P.O. Box 3746, Houston, TX 77253-3746. The request and the first payment are due by the date on the bill, which the office says is January 31 in most cases. The later payments, if you want them without penalty or interest, are due March 31, May 31, and July 31. A request after January 31 is still accepted before March 1, but February’s 6 percent penalty and 1 percent interest are charged. Source

Montgomery County’s quarter plan is for a residential owner who has a homestead exemption and also a 65-or-over, disabled-person, or disabled-veteran exemption. At least one-fourth of the bill has to be paid by January 31. The later equal payments are due March 31, May 31, and July 31. The tax office says the plan is available each new tax year on October 1. Source

The Comptroller describes the state rule in Tax Code Section 31.031. A person who is disabled or age 65 or older, and certain disabled veterans and surviving spouses, can pay homestead taxes in four equal installments without penalty and interest. Written notice goes with the first payment, before the delinquency date. When that date is February 1, the later installments are due before April 1, before June 1, and before August 1. A missed installment draws a 6 percent penalty and interest of 1 percent a month. The county pages above are the local instructions I would follow for a house in Harris or Montgomery County. Source

A deferral is the other tool, and it is filed with the appraisal district, not by checking a box on the bill.

Harris County says a homeowner who is 65 or older, or disabled, can postpone the taxes on a residence homestead for as long as they own it and live there. A surviving spouse who is 55 or older can continue a deferral that was already in place. The deferral covers all of the taxes on the property, not only the county’s share. You file the Over-65 or Disabled Tax Deferral Affidavit with HCAD. There is no penalty while the deferral is in force. Interest is 5 percent a year. It ends if you ask to remove it, if you no longer qualify for the homestead, or at death if there is no qualifying surviving spouse. After it ends, the balance has to be paid within 180 days or further penalty, interest, and legal action can start. Harris also says most mortgage companies require the taxes to be paid in full each year, so ask the lender before you file. Source

Montgomery County says the same kind of postponement is available to someone 65 or older, or to a disabled person or disabled veteran, who owns and occupies the homestead. The affidavit goes to MCAD. Taxes accumulate at 5 percent interest a year, which that page also states as 0.4167 percent a month. A deferral does not cancel penalty, interest, or attorney fees that were already due. The tax becomes payable when the owner or surviving spouse no longer owns and lives in the home. If it is still unpaid 180 days after that change, full penalties and interest are imposed. A surviving spouse who is at least 55 can continue it. The page says to call the mortgage company first. The lender can choose to pay the taxes while it has a lien, and a reverse mortgage will require the taxes paid in full each year, including taxes already past due. Source

The Comptroller’s payment-options page is the statewide version: Tax Code Section 33.06 lets a person age 65 or older or disabled, and a person who qualifies for a disabled-veterans exemption under Section 11.22, defer the residence homestead. Interest is 5 percent a year. Penalty and interest do not accrue while the deferral agreement is in place. Source

How homestead and over-65 exemptions show on the bill

The Comptroller says the bill has to show the appraised value, the taxable value, the tax rate, the amount due, the due date, the delinquency date, and the type and amount of any partial exemption. That exemption line is the place to look. If it is blank, the exemption was not on the roll when that bill was printed. Source

On the amounts themselves, the Comptroller says a school district must give a $140,000 general residence homestead exemption, and an additional $60,000 exemption for a person who is 65 or older or disabled. A taxing unit may adopt a local-option homestead exemption of up to 20 percent of appraised value, and that local option cannot be less than $5,000. A county that collects a farm-to-market or flood-control tax must give a $3,000 residence homestead exemption. HCAD says Harris County currently gives homeowners the 20 percent optional exemption. I am not quoting a rate for your street. The bill is the rate list. Source Source

The exemption is granted by the appraisal district, not by the tax office. Harris County says HCAD sets the taxable value and approves the homestead. The tax office only collects. If the statement does not show an exemption you already filed, the FAQ says to allow HCAD several months to process it. Once it is approved, the tax office picks it up on a later billing. If a refund is due, the tax office mails it after the correction roll is certified. You do not send a separate refund request. Source

For a Harris County house, HCAD says to file the regular homestead between January 1 and April 30. It does not accept an early application. A filing postmarked by April 30 is what gives the district time to process it before the fall statement. If you miss April 30, HCAD’s homeowner page says a general exemption can still be filed up to two years after the date the taxes became delinquent, which it describes as usually February 1 of the year after the tax year. For the year you turn 65, become disabled, or occupy a different home, that page gives you until the first anniversary of the day you qualify. HCAD also says there is no charge to file the application yourself, and it warns people off mailers that charge a fee to file the same form. The steps for a new owner are in Texas homestead exemption: what new homeowners should do. Source Source

For a Montgomery County house, the tax office does not approve the exemption. You file with MCAD. The tax office says a change can take four to six weeks to show on its website. Its homestead note says you may qualify if you own and occupy the home as of January 1, and that in limited cases an owner can claim the exemption earlier when the previous owner did not have one. The residence homestead application MCAD publishes, Form 50-114, says to file generally between January 1 and April 30. A late application for the residence homestead, including age 65 or older or disabled, may be filed up to two years after that deadline. The tax office says the over-65, disabled-person, and disabled-veteran applications on MCAD’s site are free. Montgomery County also describes the school-tax ceiling: once you qualify for the over-65 or disabled exemption, school taxes on that home do not go above the ceiling while the exemption is in place, unless you improve the home. Source Source

HCAD and the Comptroller do not use the same sentence for a buyer who closed after January 1, so I am leaving both of them here. The Comptroller says that if you acquire the property after January 1, you may receive the general homestead for the part of the year you qualify, if the previous owner did not receive the same exemption. HCAD says that if the home you buy has only a general homestead, that exemption normally stays in place for the whole tax year, and you still file in your own name for the following year. On an over-65 or disability exemption, HCAD says the result depends on whether the seller puts that exemption on a different homestead in the same year. If they do not, it stays on the sold home for the year. If they do, the taxes are prorated for the part of the year they owned it. A buyer who is also 65 or disabled can apply in their own name. Source Source

A MUD, a PID, or the school district may be a separate bill

The Comptroller says you may also owe a city and a special district, including a water district, and that many local governments use the county tax assessor-collector. Not all of them do. Source

Harris County’s FAQ says the tax office collects school taxes for Houston ISD, Katy ISD, Deer Park ISD, and the former North Forest ISD, now part of Houston ISD. If you live in another school district, it says to contact that district’s assessor-collector. The same page says a bill can be higher than last year because the tax office started collecting for a jurisdiction that used to be billed on its own. The statement shows each jurisdiction that is on it. Source

HCAD’s jurisdiction list is the practical check. It names the assessor-collector for each taxing unit. Humble ISD is on that list with its own collector. So are many municipal utility districts, and so are some public improvement districts. If the collector on that row is not the Harris County Tax Office, do not assume the county envelope includes that charge. What a MUD is, and what a PID is, is already written up in What are MUD and PID taxes in Houston? I am not repeating it here. Source

In The Woodlands, the Township says its own property tax is a line on the fall bill from the Montgomery County Tax Office or the Harris County Tax Office, depending on where the property is located. That is the Township’s tax. It is not a promise that every utility district uses the same envelope. Use the appraisal account for the address. Source

If you closed on the house this year

Three things surprise people who bought in 2026. The bill is for the whole year. The name on it may still be the seller. And if you have a mortgage, the bill may have gone to the lender instead of to you.

The Comptroller says who owns the property on January 1 is who is responsible for that year’s tax. A person who owned it on January 1 can be sued for the delinquent tax even after the property is sold. A tax lien attaches on January 1. Harris County is just as plain about the math on the statement: the tax office does not prorate, and the bill has to show the full amount owed. Source Source Source

The split you saw at closing is a different step. HCAD says that when a home is bought or sold, the year’s taxes are generally prorated at closing from an estimate, and that the proration does not change the tax the assessor calculates later. The bill can come in higher or lower than the credit on the closing statement. What else is collected at a Texas closing is in What closing costs should a Texas home buyer expect? Source

On the name: Harris County mails the statement to the current certified owner of record at HCAD, unless a mortgage company has requested it. HCAD is the office that sets the owner’s name and address. If the statement still shows the seller, that is an ownership record that has not been corrected. The tax office will send you the correction form to forward to HCAD, or you can get it from HCAD. Correcting the name does not, by itself, move the January 1 liability off the person who owned it that morning. Source

On escrow: the Comptroller says that when the taxes are paid from an escrow account the mortgage company controls, sending the bill to the mortgage company satisfies the notice requirement. You can ask the collector for a receipt. The receipt is how you confirm the lender actually paid. Harris County says that if you have paid the loan off and the mortgage company will not be paying this year, the statement is mailed to you, as long as a mortgage company is not requesting it. If it has not arrived by the middle of December, tell the tax office. Source Source Source

A short list I use with buyers who closed this year:

• Find every bill. Start with the county named on the account. Then read HCAD’s or MCAD’s jurisdiction list for any school district, MUD, or PID with a different collector. Humble ISD is one of those.
• Read the exemption lines. If the homestead or the over-65 exemption is missing, file with the appraisal district. April 30 is the regular deadline. A late application is still allowed. The filing steps are in the homestead exemption article.
• Set the bill next to the closing statement. The county bill is the full year. The credit at closing was an estimate. HCAD says the two are not the same number.
• If the seller’s name is on the statement, correct it with the appraisal district. The person who owned the house on January 1 is still the person the Comptroller says is liable for that year’s tax.
• If the lender escrows, confirm the mortgage company got the bill. Then ask the tax office for a receipt after it is paid. If you paid the house off, make sure the statement is coming to you.
• Pay by the date on the bill. Do not wait on an envelope that never shows up. Harris County says to ask for another statement by the middle of December. The Comptroller says to call the local office if you still do not have one by the middle of January.

Kingwood, Humble, Atascocita, Lake Houston, and The Woodlands

I do not price a tax bill from the neighborhood name. I look up the account.

For a house in Kingwood, Humble, Atascocita, or along Lake Houston, I start on HCAD. If the account is there, the Harris County Tax Office is the county collector, and I check the jurisdiction list for Humble ISD and for any MUD or PID with its own collector. The account is the list that matters.

For a house in The Woodlands, I start with where the property sits. The Township says its tax is a line on the Montgomery County bill or the Harris County bill, depending on the location. A Montgomery County account is handled by MCAD and the Montgomery County Tax Office. A Harris County account is handled by HCAD and the Harris County Tax Office. Source

If the statement in your hand does not match what was collected at closing, or a district you expected is missing, call or text me. I will read the closing statement with you and point you to the office that bills that address. I do not set the value, grant the exemption, or tell you what the bill should be. The appraisal district and the tax office do that.

I checked the Harris County Tax Office, the Humble ISD Tax Office, the Montgomery County Tax Office, the Texas Comptroller, HCAD, MCAD’s Form 50-114, and The Woodlands Township taxes page on November 8, 2026. I am a real estate broker. This is not tax advice.

Related

• Texas homestead exemption: what new homeowners should do
• What are MUD and PID taxes in Houston?
• What closing costs should a Texas home buyer expect?
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• The Woodlands
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