AppealHarbor Jurisdiction Fairfax County, VA Tax year 2026 Reviewed 2026-08-02

Every appeal deadline, and the rules behind them

Last reviewed 2026-08-02, against the county's 2026 appeal forms and the current Virginia Code. The 2027 forms and dates have not been published yet.

Season status · 2026-08-02

The 2026 county deadlines have passed - April 1 for the administrative appeal, June 1 for the BOE - and the online application is closed. The Circuit Court periods run much longer and may still be open for 2026, depending on your facts.

You came here for a date. The awkward part: the date alone does not tell you whether you made it. How you file changes the answer, and a deadline that lands on a Saturday is not the deadline.

So this page gives you both: the dates for the current year, and the four rules that decide whether a filing counts as on time.

In 30 seconds:

  • Three appeal routes, plus a narrow error-correction process. No appeal route requires you to have tried another one first.
  • April 1 closes the administrative appeal to the Department of Tax Administration. June 1 closes the Board of Equalization. Both are county deadlines.
  • The Circuit Court window is statutory and far longer. Under §58.1-3984(A) it is never shorter than three years from the last day of the tax year, and can be longer.
  • For the two county routes, the channel decides how you are judged. Mail goes by postmark. Everything else goes by when the county receives it, at 4:30 p.m.
  • A county deadline on a weekend or holiday moves to the next business day. Court filing periods do not follow the county’s tax calendar.
  • Keep paying your bill on time while an appeal is pending.
  • Missed both county deadlines? A narrow provision covers factual errors in the county’s record, but not a disagreement about value. What that provision does and does not cover.

The rules come first below, then the current year’s dates. That order is deliberate: the rules stay the same, and the dates change every year.

Fairfax County only. The City of Fairfax and the City of Falls Church assess separately, run their own appeal processes, and set their own deadlines — including deadlines that differ from the county's. If your tax bill comes from one of those cities, this page does not apply to you.

The 2026 dates

These are the dates for tax year 2026. Each one is an instance of a rule explained below.

What 2026 date How it is judged
Assessment notices mailed February 17 —
Administrative appeal to DTA closes April 1 Postmark, or online / email received by 4:30 p.m. EDT
Board of Equalization appeal closes June 1 Postmark by midnight, or hand delivery / upload / email received by 4:30 p.m. EDT
BOE acknowledges residential filings Around the start of July —
First tax installment due July 28 —
Second tax installment due December 7 —
Circuit Court application for TY2026 The later of the periods in §58.1-3984(A) Filed in the clerk’s office

The December date is not a typo. The county’s calendar shows December 5, then notes right beneath it that December 5 is a Saturday in 2026, so the due date moves to Monday, December 7.

Several other county pages still say December 5 flat. The due-dates page states the current year explicitly, so that is the one to trust.

Rule 1 — how you file decides whether you made it

Two people can send their appeals on April 1 and only one of them is on time. That is not a technicality; it is how the deadline works.

For the administrative appeal, applications must be postmarked by April 1, filed online, or emailed by 4:30 p.m. EDT on April 1.

So: a letter you post on April 1 is on time, even though the county opens it a week later. An email that arrives at 4:35 p.m. on April 1 is late.

For the BOE, the wording is slightly different. Applications and all supporting evidence must be delivered to the BOE office by 4:30 p.m. on June 1, or postmarked no later than midnight on June 1. Mail gets the whole day. Every other channel stops at 4:30 p.m.

The pattern is the same on both routes. Mail is judged by the postmark. Everything else is judged by the moment the county receives it.

Both carry a risk, and they are different risks. File electronically and the clock that counts is the county’s, not the one on your outbox. Mail it and you are relying on the postmark — so you also need to be able to show what you sent and when you sent it.

Rule 2 — a weekend or holiday pushes the deadline forward

The county’s calendar states the rule for everything it lists, including both appeal deadlines: for all due dates, if the date falls on a Saturday, Sunday, or County holiday, the due date is extended to the following business day.

The BOE states it again for its own deadline — if the filing deadline falls on a Saturday, Sunday, or County holiday, the deadline is the following business day. The same rule produces the December 7 payment date above.

Check this for yourself each year rather than assuming. April 1 and June 1 fall on a different weekday every year, and the county’s own pages do not always carry the note.

Rule 3 — you do not have to climb the ladder in order

There is no ladder. You are not required to try the cheapest route first and work upwards.

The county states this directly, on two separate pages. One says an administrative appeal to DTA is not a prerequisite to a BOE appeal. The other says owners may appeal directly to the BOE or to the Circuit Court.

That cuts both ways once a date passes. Miss April 1 and the DTA route closes for that tax year — but the June 1 BOE deadline and the statutory court periods may still be open to you.

If you do intend to use the administrative route, the county recommends filing early. Doing so increases the likelihood of getting your results before the BOE filing deadline — which leaves you the option of going to the BOE if the answer disappoints you.

How the administrative appeal and the BOE differ compares the two routes on more than their deadlines.

Detailed rules

Everything above answers two questions: what is my deadline, and did I make it. What follows is for readers who need more — the court window, the narrow error-correction provision, filing on someone else’s behalf, and the other dates that carry consequences.

The Circuit Court window is measured in years, not weeks

The first two deadlines belong to the county. The third belongs to the Commonwealth, and it works on a completely different timescale.

For a residential assessment the window is never shorter than three years from the last day of the tax year. Va. Code §58.1-3984(A) sets out several alternative periods and applies whichever expires later — so three years is the floor, not the deadline.

Watch where that period starts. It runs from the last day of the tax year. Not from the date on your notice, and not from the appeal deadline you just missed.

Two cautions before you rely on any of that. Which period governs a particular assessment is a legal question, and this page cannot tell you which one applies to your property or whether it is still open. And a long window is not the same as an easy route. If you are considering it, get legal advice.

The statutory periods

§58.1-3984(A) governs applications to correct erroneous assessments of local taxes generally, not real estate alone. It sets out four periods and applies whichever expires later:

  • three years from the last day of the tax year for which the assessment was made;
  • one year from the date of the assessment;
  • one year from a Tax Commissioner’s final determination under subdivision A 6 of §58.1-3703.1 or subsection D of §58.1-3983.1;
  • one year from a final determination under §58.1-3981.

Not all four reach a residential assessment. The third period depends on determination procedures for other kinds of local tax. §58.1-3703.1 concerns local license taxes.

§58.1-3983.1 applies to local business taxes and local mobile property taxes as it defines them — machinery and tools, business tangible personal property, merchant’s capital, certain consumer utility taxes, and tangible personal property on airplanes, boats, campers, recreational vehicles and trailers. That section also provides that the Tax Commissioner is not to determine the valuation or method of valuation of property subject to any local tax other than a local business tax.

For an ordinary home, then, the periods realistically in play are the first two — and possibly the fourth, if there has been a determination under §58.1-3981.

The filing mechanics are the court’s, not the county’s

The postmark and 4:30 p.m. rules above belong to the DTA and BOE routes. Here the application is before the court when it is filed in the clerk’s office.

The county’s weekend-and-holiday rollover is a rule of the county’s tax calendar, and it does not govern a court filing period. Computation of time for that purpose falls under Virginia’s general rules on computing time.

As above, a long window is not the same as an accessible route. What this route actually involves — the burden of proof, the records the assessing officer can be required to produce, filing costs, and how the proceeding runs — is on how the three routes compare.

What if you missed April 1 and June 1?

If your complaint is that the value is too high, the honest answer is that your county routes for that year are closed. What remains is the question above: whether a Circuit Court period still applies to your facts.

There is one more provision worth knowing about. It is much narrower, and the way it is narrow is the whole point of it.

Va. Code §58.1-3980 lets a person aggrieved by a local tax assessment apply to the official who made it for a correction. The window is three years from the last day of the tax year, or one year from the date of the assessment, whichever is later.

But the section limits itself where real estate is concerned. It applies to erroneous real-estate assessments only where the error was made by the official to whom the application is made, or is due to a factual error made by others in connection with conducting a general reassessment.

Read that again, because it is the difference between this route being useful to you and being irrelevant. The statute is built around errors, not disagreement. It does not itself draw every line between an official’s valuation error and a difference of opinion about value, and where a particular discrepancy falls is not something this page can tell you.

Va. Code §58.1-3983 adds that this remedy is in addition to the right to apply to court, not a replacement for it. It also provides that an application may be made to the proper court whether or not the applicant has previously applied to the commissioner of the revenue.

Two honest caveats. The first: neither DTA’s appeal page nor the BOE’s describes this route at all. We therefore cannot tell you from published sources how Fairfax handles such an application, or what it wants you to file.

The second: whether your particular discrepancy counts as a factual error rather than a disagreement about value is exactly the kind of question that turns on the specifics.

So if you think the county’s record of your property is factually wrong and you are outside the appeal windows, start with a phone call. DTA is on 703-222-8234. Describe the discrepancy and ask what they need. How to check your Fairfax property record for errors walks through the fields where errors actually appear.

Dates that are not filing deadlines

Your tax bill. Paying on time remains required while an appeal is pending. The county warns in bold that you must pay all taxes on time or be charged penalties and interest, even if you file an appeal.

First installment bills are mailed by June 30, second installment bills by November 5. For BOE appeals, the county describes applying a credit to the second-installment bill — or issuing a refund roughly six weeks after the hearing, where taxes are already paid in full.

Tax relief programs. A different system with different dates: May 1 for renewals, and December 31 for first-time or hardship applicants for the current and one prior year, per the county’s calendar. If your problem is the size of the bill rather than the accuracy of the assessment, relief you may already qualify for is the more useful page.

The comparable-sales cutoff. Not a filing deadline, but a dated rule that decides which evidence counts. Three sources state it, and they are worded differently, so read each on its own terms:

  • The BOE application says sales must have been finalized on or before the first day of January of the assessment year.
  • The DTA application puts it in calendar years: 2025 sales can be considered for the January 1, 2026 assessment, while 2026 sales are not applicable until the 2027 assessment.
  • The Code states its own version. §58.1-3379(C) permits boards of equalization to consider market sales through December 31 of the calendar year before the assessment date.

For almost every sale the three agree. They differ at one edge: a sale closing exactly on January 1 falls inside the BOE form’s wording and outside the other two. If your best comparable closed on that date, ask the county how it treats it rather than assuming. How comparable sales work covers which sales qualify.

One right with no deadline at all. Your right to examine the county’s appraisal cards, working papers and methodology comes from §58.1-3331, and is printed on the DTA appeal form. That includes its list of comparable properties or sales figures considered.

There is no statutory turnaround requirement before you file an appeal. Your right to see the county’s records explains the difference between that access and the 15-day duty that operates inside a filed appeal.

If someone else is filing for you

Both tiers require written authorization from the owner, and the requirements are not the same.

DTA requires a signed and notarized letter of authorization from the property owner. It must state the agent’s relationship to the owner and grant authority to represent. The original must be on file before DTA releases any official information to the agent.

The BOE requires authorization signed by the owner before the date of the application, and either written on the owner’s letterhead or notarized.

Note that timing requirement. The signature has to predate the application, so this is not something to leave to the filing deadline. If a tenant is appealing, both the owner and the tenant must submit a signed application and authorization.

The consequences differ too. DTA will not release official information to an agent until the original notarized authorization is on file. The BOE states that failure to include the owner’s authorization may result in the application being denied a hearing.

Two more deadlines, after you file

Everything above is about getting a filing in on time. Two more dates come after that, and both of them are yours to meet.

The evidence deadline is the filing deadline. At the BOE, no later written or documentary evidence is accepted except maps and photographs. Everything else must be included in the timely submission. There is no adding to your case afterwards, so whatever you want the board to consider has to be part of what you file.

You have about two weeks to schedule your hearing. BOE residential filers receive a confirmation letter, usually during the first week of July, then case material with a request to call the office within two weeks to schedule.

If you do not call, a date is set for you and you are notified roughly a week beforehand. If the county cannot reach you at all, the case is heard in absentia — decided on the documents you filed, without you there. That is the consequence of an out-of-date phone number or address, so check what DTA and the BOE hold for you.

What happens in between is on how the three routes compare and can my assessment go up if I appeal? — the DTA appraiser’s contact and possible inspection, how the hearing runs, when a refund arrives, and the fact that both tiers can move your number in either direction.

Sources

This page is general information about Fairfax County’s published procedures and Virginia law. It is not legal advice, and it does not tell you which route or deadline applies to your property — that depends on facts we do not know. Dates and procedures are the county’s and the Commonwealth’s; confirm them against the linked sources before filing.