Cut your property tax with the exemptions you never filed for

This step produces the anchor for every step that follows: the office that values your property — its name, address, phone, and portal — plus the exact page of its website that lists exemptions, forms, and deadlines. What trips people up is the name. The office is not always called the assessor: Texas counties run appraisal districts (in Houston, the Harris Central Appraisal District), New England towns have boards of assessors, and a few cities assess their own property. The office that mails your tax bill is usually the tax collector — a different desk that grants nothing.

1. Open the latest tax bill and find the line that says “assessed by”, “appraised by”, or “appraisal district” — that is the assessing office; the “pay to” line is the tax collector.
2. Search the web for that office's name plus “property tax exemptions” and open only official pages — a .gov or .us domain, or the county's own site.
3. If the bill names no assessing office, use the IAAO reference below, or your state department of revenue's property tax page, which lists every assessing office.
4. Open the office's “exemptions” or “property tax” page and confirm it covers the current tax year — a page dated last year shows stale forms and deadlines.
5. Record office name, street address, phone, portal URL, and the exemptions page URL in one note you will reuse through this phase.