Brazos County Property Tax & Sales Tax

Brazos County Tax Rates - At a Glance

Brazos County Current Tax Rates Summary

Tax Type	Rate	Notes
Property Tax (combined)	~1.91% of value	No single county rate - the sum of school district, city, and county on a City of College Station / College Station ISD parcel. Representative nominal stack; a Bryan / Bryan ISD parcel is ~1.97%; typical effective rate runs about 1.54%.
Annual Vehicle (Car) Tax	None	Texas levies no annual value-based vehicle property tax
Sales Tax	8.25%	6.25% state + 1.5% city + 0.5% Brazos County in College Station and Bryan; 6.75% in unincorporated areas; groceries and most unprepared food exempt
Homestead Exemption	$140,000 school + 10% cap	Over-65 adds $60,000 school exemption; Brazos County grants no homestead but a $75,000 over-65 exemption
Due Date	January 31	Delinquent February 1; protest deadline May 15; exemption applications due April 30

Brazos County Property Tax

Brazos County property tax comes in two numbers that are easy to confuse. The county's own adopted rate is $0.419700 per $100 of value for the 2025 tax year (M&O $0.389454 plus I&S $0.030246) - and it is only the Brazos 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 Brazos County is about 1.54% of market value - an estimate from Census ACS 2024 5-year data (median real estate taxes paid $4,568 divided by median home value $296,000). Because the mix of taxing units differs from parcel to parcel, there is no single "Brazos County rate" for a full bill; the figures below are worked examples.

The county held its rate flat at $0.419700 in both 2024 and 2025, and in both years adopted below its voter-approval rate of $0.423059, against a no-new-revenue rate of $0.387683. Brazos County also levies one consolidated rate: unlike many Texas counties it adds no separate Road and Bridge, Farm-to-Market, or Lateral Road unit, so the county appears once on your bill rather than twice.

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

School district City County

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

Taxing unit	Rate /$100	Type
College Station ISD	$0.975300	School
City of College Station	$0.511872	City
Brazos County	$0.419700	County
Nominal total	~$1.906872	~1.91%

Rates from the Brazos County Truth in Taxation Summary published under Texas Property Tax Code Section 26.16 (Brazos County $0.419700 = M&O $0.389454 + I&S $0.030246; College Station ISD $0.975300 = M&O $0.696300 + I&S $0.279000; City of College Station $0.511872 = M&O $0.309204 + I&S $0.202668). This example is for a City of College Station / College Station ISD parcel; your total depends on your city, school district, and special districts.

The Bryan comparison

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

Taxing unit	Rate /$100	Type
Bryan ISD	$0.929300	School
City of Bryan	$0.624000	City
Brazos County	$0.419700	County
Nominal total	~$1.973000	~1.97%

Bryan ISD $0.929300 = M&O $0.659300 + I&S $0.270000; City of Bryan $0.624000 = M&O $0.452846 + I&S $0.171154. The two cities land close together but arrive there differently: Bryan ISD's rate is lower than College Station ISD's ($0.929300 against $0.975300), while the City of Bryan's rate is markedly higher than College Station's ($0.624000 against $0.511872). Net, a Bryan parcel carries about $0.066 per $100 more than a College Station one, roughly $200 a year on a $300,000 home.

Where your property-tax dollar goes

College Station ISD ~51.1% City ~26.8% County ~22.1%

On a typical City of College Station / College Station ISD parcel, College Station ISD is about 51.1% of the nominal bill ($0.975300 / $1.906872 nominal total), the City of College Station about 26.8%, and Brazos County about 22.1%. Percentages are rounded and use the nominal posted rates before any exemption - after the $140,000 school-district homestead exemption the school slice shrinks sharply, which is the main reason the county's typical effective rate (about 1.54%) sits below the nominal stacked rate (about 1.91%).

Who bills and collects in Brazos County

Brazos County follows the standard Texas split between two separate agencies:

• The Brazos County Tax Assessor-Collector bills and collects the tax. Search your account and pay through brazoscountytx.gov/140/Property-Taxes; county offices are at 300 E 26th St, Bryan, TX 77803.
• The Brazos Central Appraisal District sets appraised values, processes exemptions, and runs protests, at brazoscad.org (4051 Pendleton Dr., Bryan, TX 77802, 979-774-4100, exemptions@brazoscad.org).

If you want to dispute what your home is worth, that is the appraisal district. If you want to pay a bill or check what is owed, that is the tax office.

One live warning: the Brazos Central Appraisal District is currently running a homestead exemption audit through an outside firm. If you receive correspondence asking you to verify your homestead exemption, respond to it - failing to respond can cost you the exemption. Verify any such letter against the district directly at brazoscad.org before sending documents.

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 must apply by April 30. For a College Station 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, plus a further $5,000 local-option amount from College Station ISD.

The local-option exemptions here are worth knowing because they differ sharply by unit:

• Brazos County grants no regular homestead exemption, but does grant a $75,000 over-65 exemption - one of the more generous county over-65 amounts in Texas.
• City of College Station grants a $5,000 required homestead exemption plus a 5% local option (whichever is greater applies), and $30,000 for over-65 owners.
• City of Bryan grants $15,000 for over-65 owners.
• Bryan ISD grants the statewide $140,000 homestead and $60,000 over-65 amounts, with no additional local option.

Disabled veteran partial exemptions run $5,000 at a 10-29% rating, $7,500 at 30-49%, $10,000 at 50-69%, and $12,000 at 70-100%; veterans over 65 receive the $12,000 maximum regardless of rating. A 100% disabled or unemployable rating, and the surviving spouse of an emergency responder killed in the line of duty, carry a full exemption (Form 50-114); the surviving spouse of a veteran killed on active duty receives $5,000.

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, unpaid amounts become delinquent February 1, the protest deadline is May 15, exemption applications are due April 30, and business personal property renditions run January 2 to April 15 with an extension available. Over-65, disabled, and disabled-veteran owners may pay in installments with the first installment due January 31. Texas Tax Code Section 1.06 rolls any deadline that falls on a weekend or holiday to the next business day.

A note on student rentals and the Texas A&M effect

Brazos County's numbers read oddly if you do not account for Texas A&M University. The ACS median household income of $58,553 looks low against a median home value of $296,000 - a gap that reflects the very large share of households here that are student renters, not a distressed housing market.

Two practical consequences follow. First, Texas A&M is state-owned and fully exempt from property tax, which removes a substantial area of the county from the tax roll while the university drives much of the demand for the services that roll funds. Second, a rental property claims no homestead exemption. The 1.54% effective rate above is measured on owner-occupied homes; an investor-owned duplex or student rental in College Station pays much closer to the full nominal $1.91 per $100, with no $140,000 school exemption and no 10% appraisal cap. If you are buying here as an investor rather than an owner-occupier, budget from the nominal rate, not the effective one.

How to protest your appraisal

The protest deadline in Brazos County is May 15, or 30 days after your appraisal notice is delivered if that is later. You can pursue an informal review with a Brazos Central Appraisal District appraiser or a formal Appraisal Review Board (ARB) hearing. File and track everything at brazoscad.org, or reach the ARB at arb@brazoscad.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 Brazos County property tax

Sources: the Brazos County Truth in Taxation Summary under Texas Property Tax Code Section 26.16 (county, city, and school rates), the Brazos Central Appraisal District (appraisal, exemptions, protests, tax calendar), Brazos County (billing and collection), the Texas Comptroller, 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 Brazos 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 Brazos County you register and title through the Brazos County Tax Assessor-Collector, the same office that collects property tax.

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.

Brazos County Sales Tax

The combined sales tax rate in both College Station and Bryan is 8.25%. Unlike many Texas counties, Brazos County does levy a county sales and use tax - 0.5%, listed by the Texas Comptroller under local code 4021005 - so the local 2% ceiling here is split between the city and the county rather than taken entirely by the city.

College Station and Bryan (Brazos County) sales tax components

Component	Rate
Texas state rate	6.25%
City (College Station or Bryan)	1.50%
Brazos County	0.50%
Combined rate	8.25%

The rate drops outside the two main cities. Kurten is 7.75% (6.25% state + 1.0% city + 0.5% county), and unincorporated Brazos County communities - Millican, Wellborn, Steep Hollow, Reliance, Smetana, Edge, Tabor, Allenfarm, and Law among them - are 6.75%, which is just the state rate plus the county's 0.5%. Wixon Valley is 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 Brazos County. Groceries and most unprepared food are exempt from sales tax.

Real Example: a $296,000 College Station Home

Here is how the numbers flow on a representative $296,000 City of College Station / College Station ISD home (the county median value) with a homestead exemption (owner under 65), applying the school-district homestead to the school unit and no other local-option exemptions:

• Market value: $296,000.
• Homestead exemption: the $140,000 school-district exemption drops the College Station ISD taxable value to $156,000. The city and county tax the full $296,000 in this simplified example.
• Stacked total: school $156,000 × 0.975300% = ~$1,521; city $296,000 × 0.511872% = ~$1,515; county $296,000 × 0.419700% = ~$1,242.
• Estimated annual bill: about $4,279 per year.
• Monthly equivalent: about $357 per month.
• Effective rate: about 1.45% of market value in this simplified example, a little below the county-wide ACS median effective rate of about 1.54%.

The City of College Station exemption would lower this further. If you also claim the city's homestead exemption - the greater of $5,000 or 5% of value, so about $14,800 here - the city's taxable value drops to roughly $281,200 and the city line falls to about $1,439, cutting the estimate by around $76 a year. The calculator above does not model that.

The same home as a rental tells a different story. With no homestead exemption at all, the school district taxes the full $296,000 too, and the bill rises to roughly $5,644 a year - about $1,365 more. That is the practical cost of the homestead exemption here, and it is why investor-owned parcels in this market should be budgeted at the nominal rate.

Limitations:

• Your total varies by school district, city, and any special district covering your parcel; a Bryan / Bryan ISD parcel uses a different and slightly higher stack (~$1.973000 per $100), and Kurten or unincorporated parcels are different again.
• Local-option exemptions (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.
• Emergency Services District levies are not included, and Brazos County MUD #1, MUD #2, and Rock Prairie Management District No. 2 have not published a 2025 rate, so parcels inside them may carry a line not modeled 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.