Travis County Made the Texas Flood Disaster List, and the Clock Runs Out October 27
What the Comptroller posted, and where it was hiding
The item is titled “Texas Severe Storms and Flash Flooding, July 2026” and went up on the Comptroller’s disaster relief page on July 17, 2026. Sixty-seven counties are named. Central Texas is heavily represented: Travis, Williamson, Hays, Bastrop, Caldwell, Burnet, Blanco, Llano, Lampasas, Comal, Gillespie, and Kerr all appear, alongside Bexar, Harris, Galveston, and much of the Hill Country and South Texas.
Nobody found it there. The posting never reached the Comptroller’s news index, which is where anyone monitoring Texas tax developments would look. Disaster relief lives on its own page, so the notice reaches you only if you already knew to check. That is worth remembering the next time a storm hits a county where you own something.
The underlying declaration came three days earlier. Governor Abbott issued a disaster declaration for 59 Texas counties on July 14, 2026, Travis among them, and directed the Division of Emergency Management to hold the State Operations Center at escalated response. The Comptroller’s list has since grown to 67. Counties added after July 14 run their own clocks, which is the detail that trips people who read a headline date instead of their own county’s date.
The property tax exemption, and the deadline that matters
Texas allows a temporary exemption of a portion of a property’s appraised value when the property is at least 15 percent damaged by a disaster in a declared county. Owners have to apply. There is no automatic grant and no field inspector who finds you, and the Comptroller states the deadline without describing any mechanism for extending it.
The 15 percent threshold is a damage test assessed against the property, and owners routinely underestimate it. Water that ruined flooring, drywall and mechanical systems across a ground floor can clear 15 percent while the structure looks untouched from the street. Photograph everything now. Keep the contractor estimates and the insurance adjuster’s report, because the appraisal district decides on evidence, and evidence gathered in October describes a repaired house.
State tax relief is request-only
Texas does not postpone filing and payment deadlines automatically the way the IRS does after a federal declaration. The Comptroller’s language is that extensions are considered upon request and on a case-by-case basis. Write, or nothing happens.
Requests go to ExtensionRequests@cpa.texas.gov, and the office asks for six things: taxpayer name, taxpayer number, the tax types involved, the affected filing periods, the name and contact details of the person asking, and the reason. The Comptroller can also be reached at 800-252-5555. This process does not cover property tax, which runs through the appraisal district on a separate track.
For an Austin business that means sales tax and franchise tax filings are the realistic candidates. Send the request before the deadline rather than after you have missed it. A request filed in advance reads as planning. The same request filed in September reads as an excuse.
The federal side, where the law changed last year
Most write-ups will tell you a personal casualty loss requires a federally declared disaster. For 2026 that is no longer the whole rule. Section 165(h)(5) was amended by the July 2025 tax law to allow a personal casualty loss attributable to a federally declared disaster or a state declared disaster, and the amendment applies to tax years beginning after December 31, 2025. A state declared disaster is defined to include a flood that, in the determination of the governor and the Secretary of the Treasury, causes damage severe enough to warrant these rules.
Read that definition carefully before you count on it. It takes a determination by the governor and by Treasury, and Treasury guidance on how that second half operates is thin. So the honest answer for an Austin homeowner with an uninsured loss is that a deduction route now exists that did not exist for 2025, and that it is not yet a route anyone should treat as automatic.
The federal declaration still matters for other things. The election to claim a disaster loss on the prior year’s tax return under section 165(i) is tied to a federally declared disaster and was not extended to state disasters. IRS deadline postponement follows a federal declaration as well.
Where that stands right now: Governor Abbott asked the President for a major disaster declaration covering 28 counties on July 17, and that request has not been granted. On July 18 the President did sign a federal emergency declaration, EM-3649-TX, covering 33 Texas counties and limited to Public Assistance. Travis County is not on that list, and an emergency declaration is not the major disaster declaration the governor requested. Do not assume Travis is inside the 28-county federal request either, because that list has not been published.
What Austin owners should do this week
If your property took water
Document the damage before repairs start, get the estimate in writing, keep the insurance claim number, and open the temporary exemption application with the appraisal district instead of waiting to see how the insurance settles. Insurance recovery and the property tax exemption are separate questions, and the exemption has a deadline that no insurer’s timeline will respect.
If you own Austin property from out of state
This is where our clients get caught. An owner in New York with a duplex east of I-35 relies on a property manager who is handling tenants and contractors, not appraisal district calendars. Nobody in that chain is watching a 105-day window. Ask your manager, in writing, if the property took damage and if an exemption application has been filed. While you are at it, decide whether the entity that holds the property needs a Texas filing extension on record.
How The Reed Corporation works with clients on this
We handle Austin property for real estate investors and for high net worth clients who relocated to Texas or bought there for the income tax treatment. Disaster years expose the gap between owning a building and managing one. The work itself is unglamorous: confirming which parcels sit in declared counties, filing exemption applications against the right date, and reconstructing basis and repair costs so a casualty loss is ready to claim under whichever route ends up available.
Texas operating businesses have a different problem. We take the extension requests and the franchise tax calendar as part of tax return preparation, and we handle the assessment that surfaces two years later. If a client is already holding correspondence from a taxing authority, our notice assistance work starts there instead.
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Frequently Asked Questions
Is Travis County covered by the July 2026 Texas disaster relief?
Yes, at the state level. Travis appears in the governor’s July 14, 2026 disaster declaration covering 59 counties, and on the Texas Comptroller’s relief list for “Texas Severe Storms and Flash Flooding, July 2026,” posted July 17, which now runs to 67 counties. It is not covered by the federal emergency declaration signed July 18, and whether it sits inside the 28-county federal major disaster request has not been published.
When is the deadline to apply for the temporary property tax exemption?
105 days after the governor declares the disaster area. Travis County was in the July 14, 2026 declaration, so the deadline is October 27, 2026. Counties added to the declaration later run their own 105-day windows and will have later dates. Confirm the controlling date with your appraisal district and file well ahead of it, because the Comptroller describes no mechanism for extending this deadline.
Does Texas automatically extend my filing deadlines after a disaster?
No, and this is the most common misunderstanding. The Comptroller considers extensions upon request, case by case, and nothing is postponed on its own. Email ExtensionRequests@cpa.texas.gov with your taxpayer name and number, the tax types involved, the affected filing periods, your contact information, and the reason for the request. Property tax is handled separately through the appraisal district and is outside that process.
Can I deduct my flood damage on my federal tax return?
Possibly, and the answer changed for 2026. Section 165(h)(5) now permits a personal casualty loss attributable to a federally declared disaster or a state declared disaster, effective for tax years beginning after December 31, 2025. Texas has a state declaration covering Travis County. The catch is that the statute defines a state declared disaster by reference to a determination by the governor and the Secretary of the Treasury, and guidance on that second determination is limited. Document the loss now and treat the deduction as a live question rather than a settled one. The separate election to claim the loss on the prior year’s tax return remains tied to a federal declaration.
How much damage does the property tax exemption require?
At least 15 percent. The exemption covers a portion of the property’s appraised value, with the percentage depending on how badly the property was damaged as determined by the appraisal district. Owners often assume they fall short because the building is standing. Water damage to flooring, drywall and mechanical systems adds up quickly, so get a contractor estimate before deciding you do not qualify.
I own Austin property but live in New York. What should I be doing?
Start by finding out whether you have a claim at all, because out-of-state owners usually learn about a disaster declaration after the window has closed. Get a damage assessment from someone who has physically been to the property, not a phone estimate. If there is damage, the appraisal district application comes first because it has the fixed date. Then pull together the basis records and repair invoices you would need for a casualty loss, and decide separately whether the entity holding the property wants a Texas filing extension on record.