Texas Bills Explained

2025 Texas sessionsRegular and both called sessions have ended. This index covers House and Senate bills, not resolutions. Statuses come from official reports.

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2025 · Regular session · Senate bill

SB402

SB402 standardizes how someone asks for a property-tax refund to be mailed to a different address.

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Official caption: Relating to the payment of certain ad valorem tax refunds.

Signed by governorSource-checked explanation published

Official report lists Senate author(s): Paxton. This does not identify sponsors or amendment drafters.

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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.

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What does it do?

SB402 standardizes how someone asks for a property-tax refund to be mailed to a different address. The default remains the person’s mailing address on the appraisal roll. To direct a refund elsewhere under the new rule, the person owed the refund must file a written request with the collector or taxing unit, on the form prescribed by the comptroller, before the date the refund is issued. The collector or taxing unit must then use the address on that form. Final law.

A person may revoke the request by filing a written revocation with the collector or taxing unit. The comptroller must prescribe the request form and include a warning about Penal Code 37.10 penalties for making or filing an application containing a false statement. The bill requires that warning; it does not create a new criminal offense or make every innocent mistake automatically criminal. The referenced law has its own elements and defenses. Referenced governmental-record law.

The bill was signed May 30, 2025 and took effect September 1, 2025. The new requirements apply only to requests filed on or after that date. Earlier requests remain governed by the law in effect when filed. This is an address-delivery procedure, not a new entitlement to a refund, a tax-rate cut or a rule increasing the refund amount. Official history; Transition rule.

What changed along the way?

Existing law already permitted a written request to send an owed refund to a particular address. SB402 adds the prescribed-form requirement, expressly requires filing before the issue date, requires the false-statement warning and provides an express written-revocation procedure. It does not newly create the option to use a different address. Prior delivery rule.

The introduced, Senate committee, engrossed, House committee and enrolled versions have identical operative provisions. The amendment index lists no amendments, and both committees reported without amendments. The Senate passed the bill March 24 and the House May 20, 2025. All text versions; Amendment index.

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?

The March 8, 2025 fiscal note anticipates no significant state or local fiscal impact. It is the only listed fiscal note and analyzes the provisions that were enacted unchanged. It does not estimate individual refund amounts or quantify fraud savings. Fiscal note.

People owed refunds gain a uniform request process and an express way to revoke an address instruction, but must use the prescribed form and act before the issue date. Collectors and taxing units must process those instructions, and the comptroller must supply the form. The law does not promise that a request filed after a check has already been issued will redirect that payment.

Official sources

Catalog report retrieved 2026-10-25. Check the official record for corrections or later changes.