Harris County Property Tax & Sales Tax

Harris County Tax Rates - At a Glance

Harris County Current Tax Rates Summary

Tax Type	Rate	Notes
Property Tax (combined)	~2.03% 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

Harris County Property Tax

Harris County property tax comes in two numbers that are easy to confuse. The county's own adopted rate is $0.6241 per $100 of value for the 2025 tax year - exact, from the Texas Comptroller Tax Rates and Levies report. But that is only the county'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 several special districts. Combined, the typical total effective rate in Harris County is about 1.62% of market value - an estimate from Census ACS 2024 5-year data (median real estate taxes paid $4,489 divided by median home value $276,600). Because the mix of taxing units differs from parcel to parcel, there is no single "Harris County rate" for a full bill; the figure below is a worked example.

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

School district City County Special districts

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

Taxing unit	Rate /$100	Type
Houston ISD	$0.8783	School
City of Houston	$0.5192	City
Harris County	$0.3809	County
Harris Health (Hospital District)	$0.1876	Special
Harris County Flood Control District	$0.0496	Special
Port of Houston Authority	$0.0059	Special
Harris County Dept. of Education (HCDE)	$0.0048	Special
Nominal total	~$2.0263	~2.03%

Adopted rates from the Texas Comptroller Tax Rates and Levies report, 2025 tax year. This example is for a City of Houston / Houston ISD parcel; your total depends on your city, school district, and special districts.

Two things stand out. First, the school district ($0.8783) is the single largest slice - on its own it is bigger than the entire county levy ($0.6241). Second, the nominal stacked rate of about $2.0263 per $100 (~2.03%) is higher than the ACS effective rate of about 1.62%. 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 ~43% City ~26% County ~19% Special districts ~12%

On a typical City of Houston / Houston ISD parcel, the school district is about 43% of the bill (Houston ISD $0.8783 / $2.0263 nominal total). The city is roughly 26%, Harris County about 19%, and the combined special districts (Harris Health, Flood Control, Port of Houston, and HCDE) about 12%. 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 Houston 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 - the county, city, and special districts still tax the full value, though some offer their own separate local-option exemptions.

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 $300,000 Houston ISD home with a homestead exemption, the school district taxes only $300,000 - $140,000 = $160,000, while the county, city, and special districts tax the full $300,000. That single difference is why the exemption matters most against the largest unit.

Key dates: Harris 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 Harris Central Appraisal District (HCAD) 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 an HCAD appraiser, a formal Appraisal Review Board (ARB) hearing, or HCAD's iSettle online process, which can return a one-time settlement offer you may accept or decline. File and track everything at hcad.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 Harris County property tax

Sources: Texas Comptroller - Tax Rates and Levies (adopted unit rates, 2025), Harris Central Appraisal District (exemptions, protest, 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 Harris 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.

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.

Harris County Sales Tax

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

Houston (Harris County) sales tax components

Component	Rate
Texas state rate	6.25%
City of Houston	1.00%
METRO transit authority	1.00%
Harris 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 Harris County. Qualifying groceries are exempt from sales tax.

Real Example: a $300,000 Houston Home

Here is how the numbers flow on a representative $300,000 City of Houston / Houston ISD home with a homestead exemption (owner under 65):

• Market value: $300,000.
• Homestead exemption: the Houston ISD homestead exemption removes $140,000 from the school-district taxable value, so the school district taxes $160,000. The county, city, and special districts tax the full $300,000.
• Stacked total: school $160,000 × 0.8783% = ~$1,405; city $300,000 × 0.51919% = ~$1,558; county $300,000 × 0.3809% = ~$1,143; special districts (Harris Health, Flood, Port, HCDE) on $300,000 = ~$744.
• Estimated annual bill: about $4,849 per year.
• Monthly equivalent: about $404 per month.
• Effective rate: about 1.62% of market value - in line with the ACS estimate for Harris County.

Limitations:

• Your total varies by school district, city, and any Municipal Utility District (MUD) or special district covering your parcel.
• Local-option exemptions (county, city, over-65, disability, disabled-veteran) vary and can lower the bill further.
• 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.