Property tax deadlines are absolute. One day late means waiting a full year. With a TaxAppeal kit you sign and mail your appeal yourself, so here is how to get it there on time, with proof.
Property tax protest and appeal deadlines are not suggestions. In Texas, a protest not postmarked by May 15 (or 30 days from your notice, if later) is late. In Georgia you have 45 days from the date on your assessment notice. In Florida, a Value Adjustment Board petition not received within 25 days of your TRIM notice is dismissed as untimely. There is no appeal from missing an appeal deadline. You wait a year and pay the higher bill in the meantime.
Your kit comes with the form filled in, your evidence, a one-page checklist and a return envelope already addressed to the county. Read it, sign it in ink, add a stamp, and mail it that day. The checklist shows where to sign and the deadline for your county. Nothing gets better by waiting, and every day you hold it is a day of buffer you give away. We do not mail it to the county for you: you send it, in your own name, and the county writes back to you directly.
Take the envelope to a post office counter rather than a street mailbox. A counter clerk can postmark it in front of you and give you a receipt. Better still, ask for a Certificate of Mailing (USPS PS Form 3817): it costs about $2 and is the post office's own record that you mailed it on that date. Keep it with your copy of the kit. If the county ever says your appeal arrived late, that slip is your proof.
In Georgia and Texas, an appeal or protest is on time if it is postmarked by the deadline, even if it reaches the county a few days later. That is why the postmark matters, and why a counter postmark or a Certificate of Mailing is worth the trip. Don't rely on a mailbox collection time on the last day: if the mail is collected after midnight, your postmark may carry the next day's date.
Most states accept a postmark as proof of timely filing. Florida does not. Your petition must be physically RECEIVED by the Value Adjustment Board within 25 days of the date your TRIM notice was mailed. Dropping it in a mailbox on day 24 is not enough -- if it lands on the clerk's desk on day 26, it is late. Mail it the day your kit arrives, and if the deadline is close, hand-deliver it to the Clerk of the Value Adjustment Board instead. Remember to put your own cheque for the county's filing fee in the envelope: in Florida that fee is paid by you, to the county, and is not part of our $89.
Many appraisal districts in Texas, and some counties elsewhere, accept protests and appeals online. If yours does, you can use it: a PDF copy of the full kit is also emailed to you the same day, so you can upload the completed form and your evidence. Save or screenshot the confirmation page. Close to a deadline there isn't time to mail you a printed kit, so we email it as a PDF only: print it, sign it and mail it, or file it online.
We check whether an appeal will actually lower your tax bill, after caps and exemptions, before you pay. If it won't, we'll tell you, and we won't sell you one. If it will, we mail you a ready-to-sign kit: you sign it and mail it.
TaxAppeal USA is a self-service document-preparation service. We prepare a ready-to-sign appeal kit and mail it to you; you sign it and mail it to the county yourself. In every state we serve, including Florida, we are not property tax consultants, agents, or representatives, we do not provide tax or legal advice, and we do not file appeals or represent customers before any appraisal district, board of assessors, board of equalization, value adjustment board, or review board. Every appeal, protest and petition is prepared for the property owner, signed by the owner, and mailed by the owner in the owner’s name. In Florida your petition is signed by you as the property owner under section 194.011(3), Florida Statutes, and the county’s Value Adjustment Board filing fee is paid by you directly to the county. TaxAppeal USA does not sign as your representative, does not appear before the Board, and does not present evidence or argument at a hearing.