Gillespie County Property Tax & Sales Tax

Gillespie County Tax Rates - At a Glance

Gillespie County Current Tax Rates Summary

Tax Type	Rate	Notes
Property Tax (combined)	~1.27% of value	No single county rate - the sum of school district, city, county, and water districts on a City of Fredericksburg / Fredericksburg ISD parcel. Representative nominal stack; typical effective rate runs about 0.98% of market value.
County's own rate	$0.268500 / $100	Gillespie County government portion only (M&O $0.259000 + debt $0.009500)
Hospital / college district	None	Gillespie County has no countywide hospital district and no community college taxing district
Annual Vehicle (Car) Tax	None	Texas levies no annual value-based vehicle property tax
Sales Tax	8.25%	6.25% state + 0.50% Gillespie County + 1.50% city (Fredericksburg); 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.
Due Date	January 31	Delinquent February 1; statewide protest deadline May 15

Gillespie County Property Tax

Gillespie County property tax comes in two numbers that are easy to confuse. The county's own adopted rate is $0.268500 per $100 of value for the 2025 tax year - and it is only the Gillespie County government's portion. Your actual bill is the sum of every overlapping taxing unit that covers your parcel: your school district, your city (if any), the county, and two small countywide water districts. Combined, the typical total effective rate in Gillespie County is about 0.98% of market value - an estimate from Census ACS 2024 5-year data (median real estate taxes paid $4,496 divided by median home value $460,700). Because the mix of taxing units differs from parcel to parcel, there is no single "Gillespie County rate" for a full bill; the figures below are worked examples.

Gillespie County's own rate of $0.268500 is posted as two parts: a general maintenance-and-operations rate ($0.259000) and a small debt (I&S) rate ($0.009500). It is one of the lowest county rates in Texas, and the county keeps bills low because it has no countywide hospital district and no community college taxing district - two lines that inflate bills in many Texas counties. The only countywide add-ons are the tiny Hill Country Underground Water Conservation District ($0.004900) and the Gillespie County WCID ($0.000178). Fredericksburg is the wine-country tourism anchor of the Texas Hill Country, and high home values plus the low rate produce an unusually low effective rate.

How a typical Gillespie County (City of Fredericksburg) bill is built (taxing-unit stack)

School district City County Water districts

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

Taxing unit	Rate /$100	Type
Fredericksburg ISD	$0.773100	School
Gillespie County	$0.268500	County
City of Fredericksburg	$0.227427	City
Hill Country UWCD + Gillespie County WCID	$0.005078	Special
Nominal total	~$1.274105	~1.27%

Rates from the Gillespie Central Appraisal District 2025 tax rates (dated October 6, 2025). This example is for a City of Fredericksburg / Fredericksburg ISD parcel; your total depends on your city and school district. Other school districts include Harper ISD ($0.666900) and Doss CCSD ($0.666900). Unincorporated Fredericksburg ISD parcels pay no city rate (about $1.046678 combined). Some areas add the Stonewall WCID ($0.270000), and one subdivision (Friendship Oaks) adds Gillespie County MUD #1 ($1.000000).

Where your property-tax dollar goes

Fredericksburg ISD ~60.7% County ~21.1% City ~17.9% Water districts ~0.4%

On a typical City of Fredericksburg / Fredericksburg ISD parcel, Fredericksburg ISD is about 60.7% of the nominal bill ($0.773100 / $1.2741 nominal total), Gillespie County about 21.1%, the City of Fredericksburg about 17.9%, and the two water districts about 0.4% combined. Percentages are rounded and use the nominal posted rates before any exemption - 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 0.98%) sits below the nominal stacked rate (about 1.27%).

Who appraises, bills, and collects in Gillespie County

• The Gillespie Central Appraisal District sets appraised values, processes homestead exemptions, and runs protests, at gillespiecad.org (830-997-9807).
• The Gillespie County Tax Assessor-Collector collects the property tax and also handles vehicle registration and titling, at gillespiecounty.gov (830-997-6519).

For value questions, start with the appraisal district; to pay, start with the Gillespie County Tax Assessor-Collector.

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 Gillespie Central Appraisal District. For a Fredericksburg 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.

Some Gillespie County cities also grant local-option homestead exemptions, but the exact per-unit amounts vary and were not fully extracted in this pass. Because those 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 homestead bill is lower. Confirm the exact exemptions on your account with the Gillespie Central 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 Gillespie 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 Gillespie Central Appraisal District, which publishes its protest procedures and deadlines and runs the property search and appeals process. File and track everything at gillespiecad.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 Gillespie County property tax

Sources: Gillespie Central Appraisal District 2025 tax rates (county rate and the Fredericksburg-area unit rates), the Gillespie Central Appraisal District (appraised values and exemptions), the Texas Comptroller (sales tax), and Census ACS 2024 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 Gillespie 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 Gillespie County you register and title through the Gillespie 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.

Gillespie County Sales Tax

The combined sales tax rate in the City of Fredericksburg is 8.25% - the Texas maximum. It is made up of the 6.25% state rate, a 0.50% Gillespie County rate, and a 1.50% city rate. Gillespie 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 Fredericksburg (Gillespie County) sales tax components

Component	Rate
Texas state rate	6.25%
Gillespie County	0.50%
City of Fredericksburg (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%). The exact city-versus-economic-development split of the Fredericksburg local rate varies. Groceries and most unprepared food are exempt from sales tax.

Real Example: a $460,700 Fredericksburg Home

Here is how the numbers flow on a representative $460,700 City of Fredericksburg / Fredericksburg ISD home (the county median value) with a homestead exemption (owner under 65), applying only the school-district homestead to the school unit:

• Market value: $460,700.
• Homestead exemption: the $140,000 school-district exemption drops the Fredericksburg ISD taxable value to $320,700. The other units tax the full $460,700 in this simplified example.
• Stacked total: school $320,700 × 0.773100% = ~$2,479; county $460,700 × 0.268500% = ~$1,237; city $460,700 × 0.227427% = ~$1,048; water districts $460,700 × 0.005078% = ~$23.
• Estimated annual bill: about $4,787 per year.
• Monthly equivalent: about $399 per month.
• Effective rate: about 1.04% of market value in this simplified example.

How this compares to the county-wide median. The Census ACS county-wide median bill is about $4,496 (roughly 0.98% effective). This Fredericksburg city example lands close to that. A homesteaded parcel with no city rate (school + county + water, roughly $3,740 on the same $460,700 value) would pay closer to 0.81%, and a real over-65 homestead - with the extra $60,000 school exemption and the school-tax ceiling - would be lower still. A non-homestead $460,700 Fredericksburg parcel would pay closer to the full nominal ~1.27%, or about $5,870.

Limitations:

• Your total varies by school district and city; a Harper ISD, Doss CCSD, unincorporated, or Stonewall WCID parcel uses a different stack.
• Local-option city homestead exemptions (and over-65, disability, and disabled-veteran exemptions) are not modeled in the simplified example above; this example applies only the school-district homestead, so a real homesteaded city bill is lower.
• Gillespie 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.