Bastrop County Property Tax & Sales Tax

Bastrop County Tax Rates - At a Glance

Bastrop County Current Tax Rates Summary

Tax Type	Rate	Notes
Property Tax (combined)	~2.00% of value	No single county rate - the sum of school district, city, and county on a City of Bastrop / Bastrop ISD parcel. Representative nominal stack; typical effective rate runs about 1.51% of market value.
County's own rate	$0.428710 / $100	Bastrop County government portion only (general fund $0.350500 + Bastrop County Road $0.078210)
Annual Vehicle (Car) Tax	None	Texas levies no annual value-based vehicle property tax
Sales Tax	8.25%	6.25% state + 0.50% Bastrop County + 1.50% City of Bastrop; groceries and most unprepared food exempt
Homestead Exemption	$140,000 school + 10% cap	Statutory school-district homestead; over-65 owners get an additional $60,000 school exemption. Local-option unit exemptions may apply (amounts pending confirmation).
Due Date	January 31	Delinquent February 1; statewide protest deadline May 15

Bastrop County Property Tax

Bastrop County property tax comes in two numbers that are easy to confuse. The county's own adopted rate is $0.428710 per $100 of value for the 2025 tax year - and it is only the Bastrop County government's portion. Your actual bill is the sum of every overlapping taxing unit that covers your parcel: your school district, your city, and the county. Combined, the typical total effective rate in Bastrop County is about 1.51% of market value - an estimate from Census ACS 2023 5-year data (median real estate taxes paid $4,077 divided by median home value $269,500). Because the mix of taxing units differs from parcel to parcel, there is no single "Bastrop County rate" for a full bill; the figures below are worked examples.

Bastrop County adopted its rate in two components: a general fund rate of $0.350500 plus a dedicated Bastrop County Road rate of $0.078210. That distinct road line makes Bastrop one of the few Texas counties we cover that does not roll everything into a single consolidated county rate. Notably, the county raised its own rate for 2025, from $0.402750 in 2024 to $0.428710 (about a 6.4% increase), and adopted at its 2025 voter-approval rate of $0.42870 (no-new-revenue rate $0.40151) - the highest rate it could set without holding an election, and the opposite of the cuts several fast-growing Texas counties made this year.

How a typical Bastrop County (Bastrop) bill is built (taxing-unit stack)

School district City County

City of Bastrop / Bastrop ISD parcel - adopted rates per $100 (2025 tax year)

Taxing unit	Rate /$100	Type
Bastrop ISD	$1.067900	School
City of Bastrop	$0.504000	City
Bastrop County	$0.428710	County
Nominal total	~$2.000610	~2.00%

Rates from the Bastrop Central Appraisal District 2025 tax-rate schedule (Property Tax Code 26.16). This example is for a City of Bastrop / Bastrop ISD parcel; your total depends on your city, school district, and any special district. Other stacks in the county include Elgin ISD ($1.223400, the county's highest school rate), Smithville ISD ($0.942500), McDade ISD ($0.955500), and Lexington ISD ($0.861000); Elgin-area parcels add the Austin Community College district ($0.103400), and unincorporated parcels may carry one of the county emergency-services districts.

Where your property-tax dollar goes

Bastrop ISD ~53.4% City ~25.2% County ~21.4%

On a typical City of Bastrop / Bastrop ISD parcel, Bastrop ISD is about 53.4% of the nominal bill ($1.067900 / $2.000610 nominal total), the City of Bastrop about 25.2%, and Bastrop County about 21.4%. Percentages are rounded and use the nominal posted rates before any exemption - after the $140,000 school-district homestead exemption, the taxable amount on the school line drops sharply, which is part of why the county's typical effective rate (about 1.51%) sits below the nominal stacked rate (about 2.00%).

Who appraises, bills, and collects in Bastrop County

• The Bastrop Central Appraisal District sets appraised values, processes homestead exemptions, and runs protests (including online protest), at bastropcad.org.
• The Bastrop County Tax Assessor-Collector (Ellen Owens) collects the property tax and hosts the online payment portal, and also handles vehicle registration and titling, at bastropcounty.gov (512-581-7100).

For value questions, start with the appraisal district; to pay, start with the Bastrop County Tax Assessor-Collector.

Homestead exemption, the 10% cap, and key dates

If you own and occupy your home as your principal residence on January 1, you can claim a residence homestead exemption, and you generally apply through the Bastrop Central Appraisal District. For a Bastrop ISD parcel, the statewide school-district exemption removes $140,000 from the value the school district taxes for the 2025 tax year. If the owner is 65 or older, an additional $60,000 ISD exemption applies.

Some local units (the county, the city, and the school district) may also grant their own local-option homestead exemptions. We were unable to confirm the exact Bastrop County, City of Bastrop, and Bastrop ISD local-option amounts from an official per-entity table in this pass, so the calculator below models only the statutory school-district homestead and treats its output as the conservative (high) end. Confirm the exact local-option exemptions on your account with the Bastrop Central Appraisal District.

Separately, the 10% homestead appraisal cap limits how much your homestead's appraised (taxed) value can rise to 10% per year, not counting new improvements. The cap applies to the appraised value used for your bill, not the market value the appraisal district sets, and it starts the year after you first qualify for the homestead exemption.

Key dates: payment is due January 31 and unpaid amounts become delinquent February 1. The statewide protest deadline is May 15 or 30 days after your appraisal notice is delivered, whichever is later. Texas Tax Code Section 1.06 rolls any deadline that falls on a weekend or holiday to the next business day. We were not able to extract a Bastrop County-specific penalty-and-interest schedule from an official source in this pass, so no penalty percentages are stated on this page.

How to protest your appraisal

Protests go to the Bastrop Central Appraisal District, which publishes its protest procedures and deadlines and runs the property search, online protest, and appeals process. File and track everything at bastropcad.org. Some private firms offer to handle protests for a percentage of any tax savings; such firms exist and charge a contingency fee, but we do not cite any savings figure or success rate as fact - results vary by parcel and year.

Estimate your Bastrop County property tax

Sources: Bastrop CAD 2019-2025 tax-rate schedule (county rate and the Bastrop-area unit rates), the Bastrop Central Appraisal District (appraised values and exemptions), the Texas Comptroller (sales tax), and Census ACS 2023 5-year estimates (typical effective rate). See the tax guides for how Texas homestead, protest, and appraisal-cap rules work.

Vehicle Taxes in Texas

Unlike many states, Texas does not levy an annual value-based property tax on cars or other vehicles. There is no yearly "car tax" bill in Bastrop County. Instead, vehicle taxes in Texas work two ways:

• One-time motor-vehicle sales/use tax of 6.25% at purchase. For a private-party sale, the tax is charged on the greater of the actual sales price or 80% of the vehicle's Standard Presumptive Value (SPV). A vehicle received as a gift is taxed at a flat $10 instead.
• A flat annual registration fee (plus any local add-ons), which is a fixed fee, not a tax on the vehicle's value. In Bastrop County you register and title through the Bastrop County Tax Assessor-Collector.

So if you searched for a Texas car or vehicle sales tax, the answer is the one-time 6.25% charged when the vehicle is titled - there is no recurring vehicle property tax to budget for each year.

Bastrop County Sales Tax

The combined sales tax rate in the City of Bastrop is 8.25% - the Texas maximum. It is made up of the 6.25% state rate plus a 2.00% local share: 0.50% for Bastrop County and 1.50% for the City of Bastrop and its local special-purpose components. Texas law caps that total local portion at 2.0% as a shared ceiling, so once the county and city rates reach 2%, no further local rate can stack on top - which is why 8.25% is the maximum combined sales tax here as everywhere else in Texas.

City of Bastrop (Bastrop County) sales tax components

Component	Rate
Texas state rate	6.25%
Bastrop County	0.50%
City of Bastrop and local special-purpose components	1.50%
Combined rate	8.25%

The 2.00% local share is the maximum Texas allows. The exact breakdown of the City of Bastrop's 1.50% between the general city rate and its economic-development / special-purpose portions is confirmed as totalling 1.50% but its precise split is pending confirmation from the Texas Comptroller's official allocation. Groceries and most unprepared food are exempt from sales tax.

Real Example: a $269,500 Bastrop Home

Here is how the numbers flow on a representative $269,500 City of Bastrop / Bastrop ISD home (the county median value) with a homestead exemption (owner under 65), applying only the school-district homestead to the school unit:

• Market value: $269,500.
• Homestead exemption: the $140,000 school-district exemption drops the Bastrop ISD taxable value to $129,500. The other two units tax the full $269,500 in this simplified example.
• Stacked total: school $129,500 × 1.067900% = ~$1,383; city $269,500 × 0.504000% = ~$1,358; county $269,500 × 0.428710% = ~$1,155.
• Estimated annual bill: about $3,896 per year.
• Monthly equivalent: about $325 per month.
• Effective rate: about 1.45% of market value in this simplified example.

How this compares to the county-wide median. The Census ACS county-wide median bill is about $4,077 (roughly 1.51% effective), a little above this homesteaded example on the median home value. A non-homestead $269,500 parcel would pay closer to the full nominal ~2.00%, or about $5,392. Any local-option homestead exemptions we could not confirm would push a real homesteaded bill lower still.

Limitations:

• Your total varies by school district, city, and any special district covering your parcel; an Elgin, Smithville, McDade, or Lexington parcel uses a different stack, and an Elgin-area parcel adds the Austin Community College district.
• Local-option homestead exemptions (and over-65, disability, and disabled-veteran exemptions) vary by unit and were not confirmed from an official per-entity table this pass; this simplified example applies only the school-district homestead.
• Bastrop County's exact penalty-and-interest schedule was not available from an official source in this pass and is not stated here.
• New-construction homes are often taxed on land only in the first year, then jump once the structure is on the roll.
• This is an estimate, not a parcel-exact bill. The typical effective rate is a Census ACS estimate, not a guaranteed rate.