2025 · Regular session · House bill
HB3370
Effective January 1, 2026, HB3370 gives certain survivors and estate representatives extra time to apply for timberland productivity appraisal after an owner's death, without the usual late-application penalty.
Official caption: Relating to late applications for the appraisal of land for ad valorem tax purposes as qualified timber land following the death of the owner of the land.
Official report lists House author(s): Ashby. This does not identify sponsors or amendment drafters.
Bill explanation published · Version and amendment review scope is stated below · Individual amendment records may not be separately annotated.
Bill highlights
Selected points from the published explanation. Follow each point to its source-linked context; conditions and limits may matter.
- Effective January 1, 2026, HB3370 gives certain survivors and estate representatives extra time to apply for timberland productivity appraisal after an owner's death, without the usual late-application penalty.
- When those conditions are met, the chief appraiser must accept the late application and approve or deny it.
- Ordinarily, a timberland application is due before May 1, with a possible good-cause extension of up to 60 days.
What does it do?
Effective January 1, 2026, HB3370 gives certain survivors and estate representatives extra time to apply for timberland productivity appraisal after an owner’s death, without the usual late-application penalty. It applies to applications filed on or after that date. Final law.
All three conditions must be met:
- The land received timberland appraisal under Tax Code Chapter 23, Subchapter E in the preceding tax year.
- Ownership changed because an owner died during that preceding tax year.
- The application is filed no later than the delinquency date for the tax year covered by the application, by the surviving spouse or child, the estate’s executor or administrator, or a fiduciary acting for the surviving spouse or child.
When those conditions are met, the chief appraiser must accept the late application and approve or deny it. Acceptance is not automatic approval: the land still must satisfy the underlying timberland-appraisal requirements. Nor does the bill excuse payment of property taxes or create a general extension for all inherited land.
Ordinarily, a timberland application is due before May 1, with a possible good-cause extension of up to 60 days. Existing law also allows a late application before the appraisal review board approves appraisal records, ordinarily with a penalty equal to 10% of the tax difference between timberland appraisal and market-value taxation. HB3370 adds a later filing route for the specified death-related circumstances and removes that particular penalty for applications using it. The waiver is not a blanket cancellation of other tax penalties. Application and qualification provisions.
What changed along the way?
The introduced bill, House committee report and engrossed bill have the same operative text. The Senate report and enrolled law retain it; differences are presentation and certification, not policy changes. The amendment index lists no amendments, and the history records committee approval without amendments in both chambers. Text versions; amendment index; history.
The governor signed it June 20, 2025, but the law’s January 1, 2026 effective date controls. The final text expressly includes a fiduciary acting for a surviving child, even though the fiscal note’s short description mentions only a fiduciary for a spouse.
For the full amendment record, open the official amendment index.
Official bill versions
Compare the published text versions in the official text index. A change is not attributed to a specific amendment here without a verified record.
Who could benefit—and who could bear the costs?
Qualifying families and estates gain time to handle an application while dealing with an owner’s death. If the land remains eligible, they can avoid losing productivity-based appraisal merely because they missed the earlier filing window, and avoid the specified late-filing penalty. Savings depend on the property’s appraisals and tax rates; the law does not set a fixed refund or reduction.
Appraisal districts must process qualifying late applications. Local taxing units may forgo the associated penalty or market-value taxation that otherwise would have applied. The Legislative Budget Board anticipated no state fiscal impact and no significant local-government fiscal impact, without estimating an individual owner’s savings. Fiscal note.
Review boundary: This is a filing and penalty exception for already-qualified timberland after a specified ownership change, not an exemption for all wooded land. The applicable delinquency date and continuing eligibility must be checked for the particular property.
Official sources
- Bill history and latest recorded action
- Bill versions, analyses and fiscal notes
- Action history and votes
- Amendment index
Catalog report retrieved 2026-10-25. Check the official record for corrections or later changes.
