Dallas County Property Tax & Sales Tax

Dallas County Tax Rates - At a Glance

Dallas County Current Tax Rates Summary

Tax Type	Rate	Notes
Property Tax (combined)	~2.21% of value	No single county rate - the sum of county, city, school district, and special districts. Representative nominal stack; typical effective rate runs lower.
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 or disabled: additional $60,000 school exemption + school-tax ceiling
Due Date	January 31	Delinquent February 1; protest deadline May 15

Dallas County Property Tax

Dallas County property tax comes in two numbers that are easy to confuse. The county's own adopted rate is $0.215500 per $100 of value for the 2025 tax year - exact, from the Dallas Central Appraisal District rate report (Dallas County M&O $0.208765 + I&S/debt $0.006735). But that is only the county government's portion. Your actual bill is the sum of every overlapping taxing unit that covers your parcel: your school district, your city, the county, and the two countywide districts (Parkland Hospital and Dallas College). Combined, the typical total effective rate in Dallas County is about 1.68% of market value - an estimate from Census ACS 2019-2023 5-year data (median real estate taxes paid $4,668 divided by median home value $277,900). Because the mix of taxing units differs from parcel to parcel, there is no single "Dallas County rate" for a full bill; the figure below is a worked example.

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

School district City County Countywide districts

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

Taxing unit	Rate /$100	Type
Dallas ISD	$0.979735	School
City of Dallas	$0.698800	City
Dallas County	$0.215500	County
Parkland Hospital (Dallas County Hospital District)	$0.212000	Countywide
Dallas College (community college district)	$0.105595	Countywide
Nominal total	~$2.2116	~2.21%

Adopted rates from the Dallas Central Appraisal District 2025 rate report (Dallas County, Parkland, Dallas College) and the City of Dallas and Dallas ISD adopted 2025 rates. This example is for a City of Dallas / Dallas ISD parcel; your total depends on your city, school district, and special districts.

Two things stand out. First, the school district ($0.979735) is the single largest slice - on its own it is bigger than the entire Dallas County levy ($0.215500). Second, the nominal stacked rate of about $2.2116 per $100 (~2.21%) is higher than the ACS effective rate of about 1.68%. That gap is mostly the homestead exemption: the school district, the biggest unit, only taxes value above the $140,000 homestead exemption, so the rate people actually pay on market value is lower than simply adding the posted rates together.

Where your property-tax dollar goes

School district ~44% City ~32% County ~10% Parkland + Dallas College ~14%

On a typical City of Dallas / Dallas ISD parcel, the school district is about 44% of the bill (Dallas ISD $0.979735 / $2.2116 nominal total). The city is roughly 32%, Dallas County about 10%, and the two countywide districts (Parkland Hospital and Dallas College) about 14% combined. Percentages are rounded and use the nominal posted rates before any exemption.

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 Dallas 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. Important: the homestead exemption lowers the school-district taxable value only - Dallas County, the City of Dallas, Parkland Hospital, and Dallas College still tax the full value, though each offers its own separate local-option homestead exemption (Dallas County, the City of Dallas, Parkland, and Dallas College each grant a 20% local homestead exemption).

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 $350,000 Dallas ISD home with a homestead exemption, the school district taxes only $350,000 - $140,000 = $210,000, while the county, city, Parkland, and Dallas College tax value after their own 20% local homestead exemptions. That single school-district difference is why the exemption matters most against the largest unit.

Key dates: Dallas County property tax is due January 31 and becomes delinquent February 1, when a 6% penalty plus 1% interest begins and increases monthly. To challenge your value, file a protest with the Dallas Central Appraisal District (DCAD) by May 15, or 30 days after your appraisal notice is mailed, whichever is later.

How to protest your appraisal

You can pursue an informal review with a DCAD appraiser, a formal Appraisal Review Board (ARB) hearing, or DCAD's online uFile / eFile process. File and track everything at dallascad.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 Dallas County property tax

Sources: Dallas Central Appraisal District - 2025 Tax Rates (adopted unit rates, 2025), Dallas CAD (exemptions, protest, dates), and Census ACS 2019-2023 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 Dallas 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 Dallas County you register and title through the Dallas County Tax Office.

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.

Dallas County Sales Tax

The combined sales tax rate in the City of Dallas is 8.25%. It is built from a state rate plus two local components - and Dallas County itself levies no county sales tax.

Dallas (Dallas County) sales tax components

Component	Rate
Texas state rate	6.25%
City of Dallas	1.00%
DART (Dallas Area Rapid Transit)	1.00%
Dallas County	0.00%
Combined rate	8.25%

Texas law caps the total local portion at 2.0%. This is a shared ceiling, not additive past 2%: once city, transit, 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 Dallas County. Qualifying groceries are exempt from sales tax.

Real Example: a $350,000 Dallas Home

Here is how the numbers flow on a representative $350,000 City of Dallas / Dallas ISD home with a homestead exemption (owner under 65), using the school-district homestead only:

• Market value: $350,000.
• Homestead exemption: the Dallas ISD homestead exemption removes $140,000 from the school-district taxable value, so the school district taxes $210,000. The county, city, and countywide districts tax the full $350,000 in this simplified example (their own 20% local homestead exemptions would lower those lines further).
• Stacked total: school $210,000 × 0.979735% = ~$2,057; city $350,000 × 0.6988% = ~$2,446; county $350,000 × 0.2155% = ~$754; Parkland + Dallas College on $350,000 = ~$1,112.
• Estimated annual bill: about $6,369 per year.
• Monthly equivalent: about $531 per month.
• Effective rate: about 1.82% of market value in this simplified example - the county-wide ACS median effective rate is closer to 1.68% once every unit's local-option homestead exemptions are applied.

Limitations:

• Your total varies by school district, city, and any special district covering your parcel.
• Local-option exemptions (county, city, Parkland, Dallas College 20% homestead, plus over-65, disability, disabled-veteran) vary 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.