Bell County Property Tax & Sales Tax

Bell County Tax Rates - At a Glance

Bell County Current Tax Rates Summary

Tax Type	Rate	Notes
Property Tax (combined)	~1.98% of value	No single county rate - the sum of county, city, school, and community college on a Killeen / Killeen ISD parcel. Representative nominal stack; typical effective rate runs about 1.44%.
Annual Vehicle (Car) Tax	None	Texas levies no annual value-based vehicle property tax
Sales Tax	8.25%	6.25% state + local portion capped at 2.0%; qualifying groceries exempt
Homestead Exemption	$140,000 school + 10% cap	Over-65 adds $60,000 school exemption plus a school-tax ceiling
Due Date	January 31	Delinquent February 1; protest deadline May 15

Bell County Property Tax

Bell County property tax comes in two numbers that are easy to confuse. The county's own adopted rate is $0.3128 per $100 of value for the 2025 tax year (maintenance-and-operations $0.267300 + debt service $0.045500) - that is only the Bell County government's portion, and a county Road District adds about $0.019900 on many parcels. Your actual bill is the sum of every overlapping taxing unit that covers your parcel: your school district, your city, the county, a community college (Central Texas College $0.0900 in the Killeen area, or Temple College $0.2017 in the Temple area), and on some parcels a road district or a municipal utility district (MUD). Combined, the typical total effective rate in Bell County is about 1.44% of market value - an estimate from Census ACS 2024 5-year data (median real estate taxes paid $3,476 divided by median home value $241,000). Because the mix of taxing units differs from parcel to parcel, there is no single "Bell County rate" for a full bill; the figure below is a worked example.

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

School district City County Community college

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

Taxing unit	Rate /$100	Type
Killeen ISD	$0.877800	School
City of Killeen	$0.701400	City
Bell County	$0.312800	County
Central Texas College	$0.090000	College
Nominal total	~$1.9820	~1.98%

Rates from the Tax Appraisal District of Bell County 2025 Tax Rate Table (Bell County $0.312800, City of Killeen $0.701400, Killeen ISD $0.877800, Central Texas College $0.090000). This example is for a City of Killeen / Killeen ISD parcel; your total depends on your city, school district, and special districts. Some parcels also add a county Road District (~$0.0199) and, in newer subdivisions, a MUD (often $0.30 to $1.00+).

Two things stand out. First, the school district ($0.8778) is the single largest slice - on its own it is nearly three times the entire Bell County levy ($0.3128). Second, the nominal stacked rate of about $1.9820 per $100 (~1.98%) is above the ACS effective rate of about 1.44%. That gap is mostly the homestead exemption: the $140,000 school-district exemption removes a large share of the school tax on a median home, so the rate people actually pay on market value is lower than adding the posted rates together.

Where your property-tax dollar goes

School district ~44% City ~35% County ~16% College ~5%

On a typical City of Killeen / Killeen ISD parcel, the school district is about 44% of the nominal bill (Killeen ISD $0.8778 / $1.9820 nominal total), the City of Killeen about 35%, Bell County about 16%, and Central Texas College about 5%. Percentages are rounded and use the nominal posted rates before any exemption - after the $140,000 homestead exemption the school slice shrinks and the city becomes a larger share of what you actually pay.

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. For a Killeen ISD parcel, that 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, plus a school-tax ceiling (freeze) that caps the school portion of the bill going forward. The school-district exemption lowers the school-district taxable value only - the county, city, and community college still tax your value. Bell County grants a local-option homestead exemption (about $16,670), and most cities grant their own. Check your parcel's full exemption list with the Tax Appraisal District of Bell County.

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.

Worked example: on a $241,000 Killeen ISD home with a homestead exemption, the school district taxes only $241,000 - $140,000 = $101,000, while the county, city, and community college tax the full value (before their own local-option exemptions). That single school-district difference is why the exemption matters most against the largest unit on the bill.

How to protest your appraisal

You can pursue an informal review with a Tax Appraisal District of Bell County appraiser, a formal Appraisal Review Board (ARB) hearing, or the district's online protest process. File and track everything at bellcad.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 Bell County property tax

Sources: the Tax Appraisal District of Bell County 2025 Tax Rate Table (county, city, school, and college rates, 2025), the Bell County Tax Assessor-Collector (payment, dates), and Census ACS 2024 5-year estimates (typical effective rate).

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 Bell 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 Bell County you register and title through the Bell 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.

Bell County Sales Tax

The combined sales tax rate in Killeen is 8.25%. It is built from the state rate plus a local component - and Bell County levies a 0.5% county sales tax.

Killeen (Bell County) sales tax components

Component	Rate
Texas state rate	6.25%
City of Killeen	1.50%
Bell County	0.50%
Combined rate	8.25%

Texas law caps the total local portion at 2.0%. This is a shared ceiling, not additive past 2%: once the city, county, and any special-purpose district rates add up to 2%, no further local rate can stack on top. That is why 8.25% is the maximum combined sales tax anywhere in Texas, including Bell County. In Killeen the local 2% is split between the City of Killeen (1.5%) and Bell County (0.5%); the mix differs by city. Temple, Belton, and Harker Heights also reach 8.25%. Qualifying groceries are exempt from sales tax.

Real Example: a $241,000 Killeen Home

Here is how the numbers flow on a representative $241,000 City of Killeen / Killeen ISD home (the county median value) with a homestead exemption (owner under 65), using the school-district homestead only and applying no other local-option exemptions:

• Market value: $241,000.
• Homestead exemption: the school-district homestead exemption removes $140,000 from the Killeen ISD taxable value, so the school district taxes only $101,000. The county, city, and community college tax the full $241,000 in this simplified example.
• Stacked total: school $101,000 × 0.8778% = ~$887; city $241,000 × 0.7014% = ~$1,690; county $241,000 × 0.3128% = ~$754; college $241,000 × 0.0900% = ~$217.
• Estimated annual bill: about $3,548 per year.
• Monthly equivalent: about $296 per month.
• Effective rate: about 1.47% of market value in this simplified example. The county-wide ACS median effective rate is about 1.44%, and Bell County's and the cities' local-option exemptions (not modeled here) pull the typical bill down a little further.

Limitations:

• Your total varies by school district, city, and any special district covering your parcel; some Bell County parcels also carry a road district or a MUD not modeled here.
• Local-option exemptions from the city and county (plus over-65, disability, and disabled-veteran exemptions) vary by unit and can lower the bill further; this simplified example applies only the school-district homestead.
• New-construction homes are often taxed on land only in the first year, then jump once the structure is on the roll.
• A newly purchased home can reset toward your purchase price in year two, before your own homestead cap takes hold.
• This is an estimate, not a parcel-exact bill. The typical effective rate is a Census ACS estimate, not a guaranteed rate.