Texas Comptroller Don Huffines announced a sweeping overhaul of how the state collects taxes and fees on Aug. 18, unveiling a package of changes his office calls the Taxpayer First Project.
According to an Aug. 18 news release from the Comptroller’s office, the initiative amounts to the most significant reform of tax administration under the agency in decades. The office collects, processes and oversees more than 100 separate taxes and fees, including local sales taxes gathered on behalf of more than 1,800 Texas cities, counties and other local governments.
“Texans deserve fairness and transparency from their government,” Huffines said in the release. He said Texas businesses have had to navigate unfair, retroactive policy changes, confusing rules that were inconsistently applied and painfully slow refunds when they overpaid their taxes, calling that record unacceptable from the government of the world’s eighth-largest economy.
The agency said the project will streamline and modernize tax administration, communicate policy through public rulemaking rather than internal directives, and end retroactive policy changes. Other planned changes include fixing what the release described as a broken and slow administrative hearings process, expediting refunds owed to taxpayers, improving audit operations with modern technology, ensuring a transparent and fair settlement process, and decentralizing case resolutions.
Huffines has already installed new leadership over tax administration within the office, according to the release. The agency is expected to collect nearly $355 billion this biennium to fund state programs including education, public safety, health care, transportation and parks.
Huffines, a businessman and former state senator, was appointed by Gov. Greg Abbott and sworn in Aug. 1, 2026. The office said he previously ordered a comprehensive performance review of agency operations, evaluating business processes, vendor contracts and administrative structure against private-sector practices, to identify inefficiencies and savings for taxpayers.