Harris County officials announced the launch of a new online platform designed to make it easier for business and property owners to process tax payments ahead of tax bills arriving in the mail throughout November.

Tax Assessor Annette Ramirez announced the new online system launch of “My Harris County Tax Account” on Nov. 19 in Downtown Houston.

“Anything that we can do to make it easier to help our homeowners stay current on their taxes and not go delinquent, that is my goal,” Ramirez said.

What to expect

Key features on the new platform will include:

• Prepayment plans for 2026 taxes starting in February or March
• Automatic monthly payment withdrawals to avoid penalties and interest

Users can now create a profile on the new tax site, Ramirez said, and starting in February, homeowners and business owners can start a prepaid tax payment plan and choose how many months in advance to spread payments automatically.

“Our ultimate goal with My Harris County Tax is to provide greater flexibility, improve peace of mind and make managing property tax payments simpler than ever before,” Ramirez said.

One more thing

The tax assessor said she wanted to make sure homeowners are saving as much as possible on their property taxes and clarified the constitutional amendment that Texas voters approved during the Nov. 4 election in relation to property tax exemptions for homeowners and businesses.

“I encourage everybody to make sure that they’re getting their homestead exemption that will decrease the value that you’re taxed on now by $140,000. That is significant,” Ramirez said. “I want to make sure homeowners understand that constitutional amendment that everyone just voted on to increase it to $140,000 is only for school districts. So it will only affect your school district tax. Your homestead exemption increase only applies to your school district portion of your property taxes.”

Final takeaways

Property and business owners can access the county’s new tax site here or visit one of the county’s 16 tax office branch locations for questions, officials said.