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Property tax deadline in Texas won’t move for bad weather

A Texas license plate framed by icicles.
David J. Phillip/AP
/
AP
Icicles hang off the front of a vehicle during winter weather in 2018. Icy conditions in 2023 are hitting the state just as the Tuesday night deadline for paying property taxes approaches.

Property taxes are due Tuesday at 11:59 p.m., come hell or frozen water.

The bad weather Texans around the state are experiencing won't let people avoid penalties or interest if their payments are late.

“The Tax Code does not allow a waiver of penalty & interest due to weather conditions,” says an online notice from the Tarrant County Tax Assessor-Collector.

The good news is several North Texas counties accept online payments, including Tarrant, Collin, Denton, and Dallas counties.

“It's quick, it's easy, secure. Do that at 3 o'clock in the morning instead of getting up the next morning and trying to run out to the tax office,” Dallas County Tax Assessor-Collector John Ames said.

Ames told county officials last week that paying by e-check incurs no extra cost.

Property tax payments sent by U.S. mail are considered on time if they are postmarked by 11:59 p.m. on Tuesday.

If you must pay in person at the tax office, Tarrant, Dallas and Denton Counties post wait times for branches on their websites.

Residents can also pay by phone.

Got a tip? Email Bret Jaspers at bjaspers@kera.org. You can follow Bret on Twitter @bretjaspers.

KERA News is made possible through the generosity of our members. If you find this reporting valuable, consider making a tax-deductible gifttoday. Thank you.

Bret Jaspers is a reporter for KERA. His stories have aired nationally on the BBC, NPR’s newsmagazines, and APM’s Marketplace. He collaborated on the series Cash Flows, which won a 2020 Sigma Delta Chi award for Radio Investigative Reporting. He's a member of Actors' Equity, the professional stage actors union.