Caldwell County Property Tax & Sales Tax

Caldwell County Tax Rates - At a Glance

Caldwell County Current Tax Rates Summary

Tax Type	Rate	Notes
Property Tax (combined)	~1.93% of value	No single county rate - the sum of school district, city, and county on a City of Lockhart / Lockhart ISD parcel. Representative nominal stack; typical effective rate runs about 1.35% of market value.
County's own rate	$0.4391 / $100	Caldwell County government portion only (Caldwell County $0.4390 + Farm-to-Market $0.0001)
Austin Community College	$0.1034 / $100	New for 2025; applies to Lockhart-ISD-area parcels in the ACC service area only, not the whole county
Hospital / college district	None (own)	Caldwell County has no countywide hospital district and no community college taxing district of its own
Annual Vehicle (Car) Tax	None	Texas levies no annual value-based vehicle property tax
Sales Tax	8.25%	6.25% state + 0.50% Caldwell County + 1.50% city (Lockhart); 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. No general county homestead.
Due Date	January 31	Delinquent February 1; statewide protest deadline May 15

Caldwell County Property Tax

Caldwell County property tax comes in two numbers that are easy to confuse. The county's own adopted rate is $0.4391 per $100 of value for the 2025 tax year - and it is only the Caldwell 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 (plus Austin Community College on Lockhart-ISD parcels in the ACC district). Combined, the typical total effective rate in Caldwell County is about 1.35% of market value - an estimate from Census ACS 2023 5-year data (median real estate taxes paid $3,235 divided by median home value $240,500). Because the mix of taxing units differs from parcel to parcel, there is no single "Caldwell County rate" for a full bill; the figures below are worked examples.

Caldwell County's own rate of $0.4391 is posted as two units: Caldwell County ($0.4390) and a token Farm-to-Market / Lateral Road unit ($0.0001). The county keeps its share modest because it has no countywide hospital district and no community college taxing district of its own - two lines that inflate bills in many Texas counties. What is new for 2025 is the Austin Community College District ($0.1034): after the Lockhart ISD area was annexed into ACC, the college district now appears on those parcels for the first time (it was not levied in 2023 or 2024). Caldwell is otherwise defined by fast growth: Lockhart, the county seat and the "Barbecue Capital of Texas," sits on the SH-130 tollway corridor southeast of Austin and is one of the region's fastest-growing small cities, which is bringing a wave of municipal utility districts (Caldwell MUD 2, 7, 9, Bollinger, Ladera) onto new subdivisions at rates of $0.80-$0.95.

How a typical Caldwell County (City of Lockhart) bill is built (taxing-unit stack)

School district City County

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

Taxing unit	Rate /$100	Type
Lockhart ISD	$0.939600	School
City of Lockhart	$0.554100	City
Caldwell County (incl. Farm-to-Market)	$0.439100	County
Core nominal total	~$1.932800	~1.93%
Austin Community College (ACC district only)	+$0.103400	College
Total with ACC	~$2.036200	~2.04%

Rates from the Caldwell County Appraisal District 2025 Adopted Tax Rates & Exemptions schedule. This example is for a City of Lockhart / Lockhart ISD parcel; your total depends on your city and school district. The Austin Community College line ($0.1034) is new for 2025 and applies to Lockhart-ISD-area parcels in the ACC district only. Other school districts include Luling ISD ($0.8469) and Prairie Lea ISD ($0.9455); other cities include Luling ($0.4092), Martindale ($0.3101), Mustang Ridge ($0.270775), Uhland ($0.1801), and Niederwald ($0.0790). Some newer subdivisions also carry a Caldwell County municipal utility district (Caldwell MUD 2/7/9, Bollinger MUD, Ladera MUD) or an emergency-service district.

Where your property-tax dollar goes

Lockhart ISD ~48.6% City ~28.7% County ~22.7%

On a typical City of Lockhart / Lockhart ISD parcel, Lockhart ISD is about 48.6% of the core nominal bill ($0.939600 / $1.9328 nominal total), the City of Lockhart about 28.7%, and Caldwell County about 22.7%. Percentages are rounded and use the nominal posted rates before any exemption and before the Austin Community College add-on - after the $140,000 school-district homestead exemption the taxable amount drops sharply, which is part of why the county's typical effective rate (about 1.35%) sits below the nominal stacked rate (about 1.93%).

Who appraises, bills, and collects in Caldwell County

• The Caldwell County Appraisal District sets appraised values, processes homestead exemptions, and runs protests, at caldwellcad.org (512-398-5550).
• The Caldwell County Appraisal District also collects the property tax for the county's taxing entities through its online pay portal at caldwellcad.org/pay-taxes; the Caldwell County Tax Assessor-Collector (co.caldwell.tx.us) also handles vehicle registration and titling.

For value questions, start with the appraisal district; to pay, use the Caldwell CAD pay-taxes portal.

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 Caldwell County Appraisal District. For a Lockhart 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.

One Caldwell-specific wrinkle: Caldwell County grants no general homestead exemption on its own county rate (its schedule shows a $0 homestead but a $10,000 over-65 exemption with a tax freeze). The City of Lockhart likewise shows a $10,000 over-65 exemption. Because these local amounts and any city percentage exemptions interact with each unit's own value, the calculator below models only the statutory $140,000 school-district homestead and treats its output as the conservative (high) end - a real over-65 Lockhart bill is lower. Confirm the exact exemptions on your account with the Caldwell County 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 Caldwell 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 Caldwell County Appraisal District, which publishes its protest procedures and deadlines and runs the property search and appeals process. File and track everything at caldwellcad.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 Caldwell County property tax

Sources: Caldwell CAD 2025 Adopted Tax Rates & Exemptions (county rate and the Lockhart-area unit rates), the Caldwell County 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 Caldwell 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 Caldwell County you register and title through the Caldwell 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.

Caldwell County Sales Tax

The combined sales tax rate in the City of Lockhart is 8.25% - the Texas maximum. It is made up of the 6.25% state rate, a 0.50% Caldwell County rate, and a 1.50% city rate. Unlike many rural Texas counties, Caldwell County does levy its own 0.50% county sales tax, which applies countywide - so even outside a city the rate is 6.75%. Texas law caps the total local portion at 2.0%, so once the county's 0.50% and the city's 1.50% are combined, no further local rate can stack on top - which is why 8.25% is the maximum combined sales tax here.

City of Lockhart (Caldwell County) sales tax components

Component	Rate
Texas state rate	6.25%
Caldwell County	0.50%
City of Lockhart (local)	1.50%
Combined rate	8.25%

The 2.00% local share is the maximum Texas allows and here is split between the 0.50% county rate and the 1.50% city rate. Outside city limits the rate is 6.75% (state plus the countywide 0.50%). Groceries and most unprepared food are exempt from sales tax.

Real Example: a $240,500 Lockhart Home

Here is how the numbers flow on a representative $240,500 City of Lockhart / Lockhart ISD home (the county median value) with a homestead exemption (owner under 65), applying only the school-district homestead to the school unit and excluding the ACC district:

• Market value: $240,500.
• Homestead exemption: the $140,000 school-district exemption drops the Lockhart ISD taxable value to $100,500. The other two units tax the full $240,500 in this simplified example.
• Stacked total: school $100,500 × 0.939600% = ~$944; city $240,500 × 0.554100% = ~$1,333; county $240,500 × 0.439100% = ~$1,056.
• Estimated annual bill: about $3,333 per year.
• Monthly equivalent: about $278 per month.
• Effective rate: about 1.39% of market value in this simplified example.

How this compares to the county-wide median. The Census ACS county-wide median bill is about $3,235 (roughly 1.35% effective). This Lockhart city example lands close to that. A Lockhart-ISD parcel inside the Austin Community College district would add roughly $249 a year (about $0.1034 per $100 on the value, ACC applies its own exemption), pushing the bill toward $3,582. A non-homestead $240,500 Lockhart parcel would pay closer to the full nominal ~1.93%, or about $4,649, while a homesteaded rural parcel (school + county only, no city) on the same value would pay closer to $2,000 (about 0.83%).

Limitations:

• Your total varies by school district, city, and whether the parcel is in the Austin Community College district; a Luling, Prairie Lea, Martindale, or rural parcel uses a different stack.
• The Austin Community College line and local-option over-65 exemptions (Caldwell County and City of Lockhart each grant a $10,000 over-65) are not modeled in the simplified example above; this example applies only the school-district homestead, so a real over-65 city bill is lower.
• Caldwell 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.