Ellis County Property Tax & Sales Tax

Ellis County Tax Rates - At a Glance

Ellis County Current Tax Rates Summary

Tax Type	Rate	Notes
Property Tax (combined)	~2.07% of value	No single county rate - the sum of county, city, and school on a Waxahachie / Waxahachie ISD parcel. Representative nominal stack; typical effective rate runs about 1.35%.
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

Ellis County Property Tax

Ellis County property tax comes in two numbers that are easy to confuse. The county's own adopted rate is $0.2937 per $100 of value for the 2025 tax year - that total is the county general rate ($0.273992) plus a countywide Lateral Roads unit ($0.019670) - and it is only the Ellis 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 Ellis County is about 1.35% of market value - an estimate from Census ACS 2024 5-year data (median real estate taxes paid $4,697 divided by median home value $348,600). Because the mix of taxing units differs from parcel to parcel, there is no single "Ellis County rate" for a full bill; the figure below is a worked example.

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

School district City County (incl. Lateral Roads)

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

Taxing unit	Rate /$100	Type
Waxahachie ISD	$1.168100	School
City of Waxahachie	$0.610000	City
Ellis County (incl. Lateral Roads)	$0.293662	County
Nominal total	~$2.0718	~2.07%

Rates from the Ellis County Tax Office 2025 tax rates (Ellis County $0.273992 general + Lateral Roads $0.019670 = $0.293662, City of Waxahachie $0.610000, Waxahachie ISD $1.168100). This example is for a City of Waxahachie / Waxahachie ISD parcel; your total depends on your city, school district, and special districts. The fast-growing north end of the county sits in Midlothian ISD ($1.0708) or Red Oak ISD with the City of Midlothian or City of Red Oak instead, and the east side sits in Ennis ISD with the City of Ennis.

Two things stand out. First, the school district ($1.1681) is the single largest slice - on its own it is nearly four times the entire Ellis County levy ($0.2937). Second, the nominal stacked rate of about $2.0718 per $100 (~2.07%) is well above the ACS effective rate of about 1.35%. That gap is mostly the homestead exemption plus the county's lower-rate school districts and appraisal caps: the $140,000 school-district exemption removes a large share of the school tax on a median home, so the rate people actually pay county-wide on market value is lower than adding the posted rates together.

Where your property-tax dollar goes

School district ~56% City ~29% County ~14%

On a typical City of Waxahachie / Waxahachie ISD parcel, the school district is about 56% of the nominal bill (Waxahachie ISD $1.1681 / $2.0718 nominal total), the City of Waxahachie about 29%, and Ellis County (including the Lateral Roads unit) about 14%. 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 Waxahachie 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 any special districts still tax your value. Ellis County and some cities may also grant local-option homestead exemptions; confirm the current amounts with the appraisal district. Check your parcel's full exemption list with the Ellis 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. In a fast-appreciating market like the southern Dallas-Fort Worth metro, this cap is often what keeps a long-time owner's bill well below a recent buyer's.

Worked example: on a $348,600 Waxahachie ISD home with a homestead exemption, the school district taxes only $348,600 - $140,000 = $208,600, while the county and city 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 an Ellis Appraisal District appraiser, a formal Appraisal Review Board (ARB) hearing, or the district's online protest process. The protest deadline is May 15. File and track everything at elliscad.com. 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 Ellis County property tax

Sources: the Ellis Appraisal District and the Ellis County Tax Office 2025 tax rates (county, city, and school rates, 2025), the Ellis County Tax Office (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 Ellis 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 Ellis County you register and title through the Ellis 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.

Ellis County Sales Tax

The combined sales tax rate in Waxahachie is 8.25%. It is built from the state rate plus a local component - and Ellis County itself levies no county sales tax; the local 2.0% is the city and its dedicated components.

Waxahachie (Ellis County) sales tax components

Component	Rate
Texas state rate	6.25%
City of Waxahachie (incl. economic-development and street components)	2.00%
Ellis 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 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 Ellis County. In Waxahachie the local 2% is the city and its economic-development and street-maintenance components; the mix differs by city. Qualifying groceries are exempt from sales tax.

Real Example: a $348,600 Waxahachie Home

Here is how the numbers flow on a representative $348,600 City of Waxahachie / Waxahachie 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: $348,600.
• Homestead exemption: the school-district homestead exemption removes $140,000 from the Waxahachie ISD taxable value, so the school district taxes only $208,600. The county and city tax the full $348,600 in this simplified example.
• Stacked total: school $208,600 × 1.1681% = ~$2,437; city $348,600 × 0.6100% = ~$2,127; county $348,600 × 0.293662% = ~$1,024.
• Estimated annual bill: about $5,588 per year.
• Monthly equivalent: about $466 per month.
• Effective rate: about 1.60% of market value in this simplified example. That is above the county-wide ACS median effective rate of about 1.35%, because ACS reflects additional local-option, over-65, and appraisal-cap reductions and lower-rate school districts (such as Midlothian ISD) across all Ellis County homeowners.

Limitations:

• Your total varies by school district, city, and any special district covering your parcel; parcels in Midlothian, Red Oak, or Ennis sit in a different school district and city 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.