Property Tax Due Dates 2026-27: California, Texas and Florida Deadlines and Penalties

Property tax bills for 2026 start arriving this month and next, and each state handles the deadline differently. California splits the bill in two, with the first half late after Thursday 10 December 2026. Texas wants the whole bill by the end of January, which in 2027 means Monday 1 February. Florida gives you until 31 March 2027 but pays you up to 4% for settling in November.

Here are the dates for the 2026 bills in these three states, what a missed date costs, and a simple reminder plan. One thing to know before you start: if your mortgage lender pays your property tax from an escrow account, you usually won't pay these bills yourself. It's still worth checking that the payment went through.

Property tax due dates at a glance

State	Due	Last day to pay without a penalty
California, 1st half	1 November 2026	Thursday 10 December 2026
California, 2nd half	1 February 2027	Monday 12 April 2027 (10 April is a Saturday)
Texas	When you receive the bill (bills go out from October)	Monday 1 February 2027 (31 January is a Sunday)
Florida	1 November 2026 (bills usually go out in November)	Wednesday 31 March 2027, with discounts for paying from November to February

These are the statewide rules. Your own bill is the final word, so check the dates printed on it, especially if you have a supplemental or corrected bill.

California: two halves, and 10 December is the one that matters now

California's annual secured property tax bill has two payment stubs:

• First installment: due 1 November, late after the close of business on 10 December.
• Second installment: due 1 February, late after the close of business on 10 April.

If a late date falls on a Saturday or Sunday, it moves to the next business day. That's why the second installment for this bill is late after Monday 12 April 2027.

What a missed date costs: a 10% penalty on the unpaid installment, plus a $10 cost on the second installment. On a $6,000 yearly bill, missing the first date adds $300.

A few details from the Los Angeles County Tax Collector's 2026-27 bill insert that catch people out:

• Online payments in Los Angeles County are accepted until 11:59 p.m. Pacific time on the late date. Other counties may set different cut-off times, so check yours.
• Mailed payments count if the US Postal Service postmarks them by the late date.
• Your bank's bill-pay service usually mails a check without a USPS postmark, so the county goes by the date it receives the payment. Send bill-pay payments well before the deadline.
• Can't pay it all? Los Angeles County accepts partial payments, which reduce the penalty.

Help for older homeowners: the State Controller's Property Tax Postponement program lets eligible homeowners who are seniors, blind or disabled postpone the current year's tax on their home. Applications are accepted from 1 October to 10 February each year.

Texas: one payment, by the end of January

Texas tax offices start sending bills in October, and payment is due when you receive the bill. In most cases the last day to pay without penalty is 31 January. If that falls on a weekend, it moves to Monday, so for the 2026 bill the last day is Monday 1 February 2027.

What a missed date costs, according to the Texas Comptroller:

When	What gets added
1 February (first day late)	6% penalty + 1% interest
Each month after that	Penalty rises 1% a month, and interest grows by 1% a month
1 July	Penalty becomes 12%. Interest keeps growing by 1% a month, with no maximum
Delinquent accounts sent to a collection attorney	Up to 20% more to cover the attorney's fees

So a bill still unpaid in July costs about 18% more than the original amount (12% penalty plus six months of interest), before any attorney fee.

Splitting the bill: if you have an over-65, disabled or disabled-veteran exemption on your home, you may be able to pay your home's tax in four quarterly installments instead of one. Travis County, for example, offers this. Ask your county tax office how it works there, and do it before the January deadline.

Florida: a discount for paying early

Florida bills usually go out in November. Unlike the other two states, Florida rewards you for paying early:

Pay in	Discount	On a $4,000 bill you save
November (or within 30 days of the bill being mailed)	4%	$160
December	3%	$120
January	2%	$80
February	1%	$40
By 31 March	None	-

Unpaid taxes become late on 1 April and carry interest at 18% until a tax certificate is sold. Tax collectors sell those certificates on unpaid property from around 1 June, and that makes things harder to sort out.

The 4% window is the deadline most people miss. Nothing bad happens if you miss it, you just lose the discount. A reminder for late November is often worth more than the reminder for March.

Paying in installments: Florida also has a quarterly installment plan with its own discounts: 6% on a payment by 30 June, 4.5% by 30 September and 3% by 31 December, and the last quarter is due by 31 March. You have to apply by 30 April for the following tax year, so it isn't an option for the bill arriving this November.

A reminder plan for this tax season

You only face these deadlines once or twice a year, which makes them easy to forget. Here's a simple plan:

When	Reminder
Early November	Has the bill arrived? If not, look it up on your county tax collector's website. If you have escrow, check that your lender has the bill.
Late November (Florida)	Pay now for the 4% discount.
About 1 December (California)	Pay the first installment. If you use bank bill-pay, send it now, not on 10 December.
9 December (California)	Last check: is the first installment showing as paid?
Mid-January (Texas)	Pay before the end of January.
Late March (Florida, if not paid yet)	Last day without interest is 31 March.
Early April (California)	Second installment, late after Monday 12 April 2027.

Our guide to when a payment actually counts as late explains postmarks, cut-off times and weekends in more detail.

How ReminderIt can help

A calendar notification is easy to swipe away. ReminderIt calls your phone at the time you choose and reads out your reminder in a natural voice, for example: "Your property tax first installment is late after 10 December. Pay it today." If you miss the call, the reminder arrives on WhatsApp too.

You can set it up just by sending a WhatsApp message, such as "Call me on 1 December at 9am to pay the property tax" or "Call me on 20 November to pay the Florida tax bill for the 4% discount". There's no app to install. You can also send a voice note instead of typing.

If a parent pays their own property tax, you can set the reminder to ring their phone instead. They confirm their number once with a short verification call, so nobody gets calls they didn't agree to. See our guide on setting a reminder for someone else.

There's a 7-day free trial with 7 reminder calls (3 if your number is in a country where calls cost more; the US isn't one of them). After that it's one plan, $7 a month.

The short answer

In California, the first half of the 2026-27 property tax bill is late after Thursday 10 December 2026 and the second half after Monday 12 April 2027, with a 10% penalty on each. In Texas, the 2026 bill must be paid by Monday 1 February 2027; after that a 6% penalty and 1% interest are added, and the penalty rises to 12% by 1 July. In Florida, the full bill is due by 31 March 2027, but paying in November saves 4%, in December 3%, in January 2% and in February 1%. If your lender pays through escrow, check that it did.

Sources: Los Angeles County Treasurer and Tax Collector, Annual Secured Property Tax Bill Insert 2026-2027 (PDF); Texas Comptroller, Paying Your Taxes; Travis County Tax Office, Property tax important dates; Florida Department of Revenue, Tax Collector Property Tax Calendar (PDF).