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How Texas Property Tax Delinquency Works

Tax lenders & tax industry · Updated 2026-10-16

How Texas Property Tax Delinquency Works

Information, not legal advice. Laws change; check the current statute or rule and talk to a Texas attorney before you act.

In Texas, a property tax bill does not become "delinquent" the day it arrives. It becomes delinquent on a fixed date, and from that date the amount owed grows on a schedule set by the Tax Code. Knowing that schedule tells you who is likely to feel pressure, when, and how much the bill has grown. That matters to property tax lenders, tax-sale investors, and investors who buy from owners who are behind.

The lien comes first: January 1

Every January 1, a tax lien attaches to each property for that year's taxes, penalties and interest. It is perfected automatically; the taxing unit does not have to record anything (Tax Code §32.01). That lien is senior to almost everything else on the property, including a mortgage and a homestead claim, even if the mortgage is older (§32.05). That priority is why a delinquent tax bill can, in the end, lead to the property being sold.

Bills go out in the fall; delinquency starts February 1

Taxes are due when the bill is received and become delinquent if not paid before February 1 of the next year (§31.02(a)). So the 2026 tax bill, mailed in fall 2026, goes delinquent on February 1, 2027.

A few exceptions are worth knowing:

Penalty and interest after February 1

Once taxes are delinquent, two charges start:

ChargeRuleSource
Penalty6% for the first calendar month, plus 1% for each added month, until July 1Tax Code §33.01(a)
Penalty on July 1If still unpaid on July 1, the penalty becomes a flat 12%§33.01(a)
Interest1% for each month or part of a month unpaid, with no cap in the statute§33.01(c)

There is also a special 50% penalty when taxes become delinquent because the chief appraiser cancels a homestead, over-65 or surviving-spouse exemption the owner was not entitled to (§33.01(d)).

The July 1 jump: the attorney collection penalty

Nearly every Texas taxing unit hires a private law firm to collect delinquent taxes. The law allows that firm's pay to be up to 20% of the delinquent tax, penalty and interest collected (§6.30(c)).

A taxing unit that has such a contract may add an additional penalty to cover collection costs to taxes that went delinquent between February 1 and May 1 and are still unpaid on July 1. The penalty may not exceed the attorney's contract compensation, which is capped at 20% (§33.07(a)). The collector must send the owner notice of the delinquency and the penalty at least 30 and not more than 60 days before July 1 (§33.07(d)). If a unit charges this penalty, it cannot also recover attorney's fees in a tax suit on the same taxes (§33.07(c)). A similar penalty can apply to taxes that become delinquent on or after June 1 under certain sections, such as installment and late-bill situations (§33.08).

In practice, July 1 is the date the bill jumps the most. The Texas Tribune reviewed 88 collection contracts in 2025 and found 70% let the firms collect the maximum 20% fee, and that 252 of the 254 counties use private collection firms.

Example (made-up numbers). A $4,000 tax bill unpaid on July 1 would carry a 12% penalty ($480) and about 6% interest ($240), for $4,720. If the unit adds a 20% collection penalty, that is another $944, for about $5,664, or roughly 42% over the original bill, before any court costs. Interest keeps adding 1% a month after that.

The notice of delinquency

The collector must send each delinquent owner a notice at least once a year, unless no bill was mailed or no address can be found with reasonable diligence (§33.04). For a homestead, the notice must say in capital letters that the owner may have the right to an installment agreement. Certain notices must also carry a bold warning that the taxes are delinquent, the property is subject to a lien, and it may be foreclosed.

Ways an owner can stop the clock

Delinquent owners have several options before or during a lawsuit:

How long can it go on?

A taxing unit may sue to collect at any time after the tax becomes delinquent (§33.41). For real property, a suit generally may not be filed for taxes delinquent more than 20 years, and taxes past that point are presumed paid unless a suit is pending (§33.05). So delinquent accounts can sit on a roll for many years. Most, though, get paid, set on a plan, or sent to suit long before that. In fiscal year 2024, Texas district courts received about 45,700 new tax cases, according to the Office of Court Administration.

Who watches the delinquent roll

How this shows up in Agentix Data

Agentix Data checks the delinquent tax rolls for Dallas, Tarrant, Collin, Denton, Travis and Hood counties every morning and loads each new file as the county posts it (some counties post daily, others weekly or less often), with the years and amounts owed, and penalty-and-interest totals where the county publishes them. Each account keeps the date we first and last saw it, so newly delinquent accounts and paid-off accounts stand out. Where we carry the county's appraisal file, accounts are linked to the appraisal-district owner record, including exemption codes, so a lender can exclude over-65 homesteads.

Sources

General information, not legal or financial advice.