Henderson County Property Tax & Sales Tax

Henderson County Tax Rates - At a Glance

Henderson County Current Tax Rates Summary

Tax Type	Rate	Notes
Property Tax (combined)	~2.03% of value	No single county rate - the sum of school district, city, county, and the Trinity Valley Community College district on a City of Athens / Athens ISD parcel. Representative nominal stack; typical effective rate runs about 0.94% of market value.
County's own rate	$0.331493 / $100	Henderson County government portion only (General $0.274289 + FM/Flood-Control $0.039976 + Road & Bridge $0.017228; no county debt rate)
Community college	$0.113660 / $100	Trinity Valley Community College district; levies on Athens and most of the county
Annual Vehicle (Car) Tax	None	Texas levies no annual value-based vehicle property tax
Sales Tax	8.25%	6.25% state + 2.00% City of Athens; Henderson County levies no county sales tax; 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. Local-option unit exemptions may apply (amounts pending confirmation).
Due Date	January 31	Delinquent February 1; statewide protest deadline May 15

Henderson County Property Tax

Henderson County property tax comes in two numbers that are easy to confuse. The county's own adopted rate is $0.331493 per $100 of value for the 2025 tax year - and it is only the Henderson 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 community-college district. Combined, the typical total effective rate in Henderson County is about 0.94% of market value - an estimate from Census ACS 2024 5-year data (median real estate taxes paid $1,991 divided by median home value $211,300), among the lowest of the Texas counties we cover. Because the mix of taxing units differs from parcel to parcel, there is no single "Henderson County rate" for a full bill; the figures below are worked examples.

Henderson County's own rate is built from three separate county lines - a general-fund rate of $0.274289, a Farm-to-Market/Flood-Control rate of $0.039976, and a Road-and-Bridge rate of $0.017228 - which the appraisal district's schedule totals to $0.331493, all maintenance-and-operations with no county debt rate. What makes a Henderson County bill distinctive is the fourth unit: the Trinity Valley Community College district (founded in 1946 as Henderson County Junior College by a countywide election) levies $0.113660 on most parcels in the county, so an Athens parcel stacks four taxing units where many Texas counties stack three. There is no countywide hospital district (verified by absence in the complete 2025 rate schedule), though twelve emergency-service districts cover rural fire protection and a levee district covers the Trinity River bottoms.

How a typical Henderson County (Athens) bill is built (taxing-unit stack)

School district City County Community college

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

Taxing unit	Rate /$100	Type
Athens ISD	$1.056900	School
City of Athens	$0.532751	City
Henderson County	$0.331493	County
Trinity Valley Community College	$0.113660	College
Nominal total	~$2.034804	~2.03%

Rates from the Henderson County Appraisal District 2025 Entity Tax Rates schedule. This example is for a City of Athens / Athens ISD parcel; your total depends on your city, school district, and any special district, but the Trinity Valley Community College district applies across most of the county. Other stacks in the county include Gun Barrel City, Malakoff, Mabank, Eustace, Chandler, Brownsboro, Seven Points, and Tool (Kemp ISD, $1.173500, is the highest school rate; Murchison ISD, $0.666900, the lowest). Some lakeside areas add an emergency-service district.

Where your property-tax dollar goes

Athens ISD ~51.9% City ~26.2% County ~16.3% College ~5.6%

On a typical City of Athens / Athens ISD parcel, Athens ISD is about 51.9% of the nominal bill ($1.056900 / $2.034804 nominal total), the City of Athens about 26.2%, Henderson County about 16.3%, and Trinity Valley Community College about 5.6%. Percentages are rounded and use the nominal posted rates before any exemption - after the $140,000 school-district homestead exemption, the taxable amount on the school line drops sharply, which is part of why the county's typical effective rate (about 0.94%) sits far below the nominal stacked rate (about 2.03%).

Who appraises, bills, and collects in Henderson County

• The Henderson County Appraisal District sets appraised values, processes homestead exemptions, and runs protests (including online protest), at henderson-cad.org.
• The Henderson County Tax Assessor-Collector collects the property tax and hosts the online payment and property-search portal, and also handles vehicle registration and titling, at henderson.propertytaxpayments.net (903-675-6134).

For value questions, start with the appraisal district; to pay, start with the Henderson 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 Henderson County Appraisal District. For an Athens 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 local units (the county, the city, the college district, and the school district) may also grant their own local-option homestead exemptions. We were unable to confirm the exact Henderson County, City of Athens, Trinity Valley Community College, and Athens ISD local-option amounts from an official per-entity table in this pass, so the calculator below models only the statutory school-district homestead and treats its output as the conservative (high) end. Confirm the exact local-option exemptions on your account with the Henderson 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 Henderson 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 Henderson County Appraisal District, which publishes its protest procedures and deadlines and runs the property search, online protest, and appeals process. File and track everything at henderson-cad.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 Henderson County property tax

Sources: Henderson CAD 2025 Entity Tax Rates (county rate and the Athens-area unit rates), the Henderson County 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 Henderson 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 Henderson County you register and title through the Henderson 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.

Henderson County Sales Tax

The combined sales tax rate in the City of Athens is 8.25% - the Texas maximum. It is made up of the 6.25% state rate plus a 2.00% local share, all of which goes to the City of Athens and its local special-purpose components; Henderson County levies no county sales tax. Texas law caps that total local portion at 2.0% as a shared ceiling, so once the local rate reaches 2%, no further local rate can stack on top - which is why 8.25% is the maximum combined sales tax here as everywhere else in Texas.

City of Athens (Henderson County) sales tax components

Component	Rate
Texas state rate	6.25%
Henderson County	0.00%
City of Athens and local special-purpose components	2.00%
Combined rate	8.25%

The 2.00% local share is the maximum Texas allows, and in Athens the full 2.00% is city and local special-purpose rather than county. The exact breakdown of the City of Athens's 2.00% between the general city rate and its economic-development / special-purpose portions is confirmed as totalling 2.00% but its precise split is pending confirmation from the Texas Comptroller's official allocation. Groceries and most unprepared food are exempt from sales tax.

Real Example: a $211,300 Athens Home

Here is how the numbers flow on a representative $211,300 City of Athens / Athens 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: $211,300.
• Homestead exemption: the $140,000 school-district exemption drops the Athens ISD taxable value to $71,300. The other three units tax the full $211,300 in this simplified example.
• Stacked total: school $71,300 × 1.056900% = ~$754; city $211,300 × 0.532751% = ~$1,126; county $211,300 × 0.331493% = ~$700; college $211,300 × 0.113660% = ~$240.
• Estimated annual bill: about $2,820 per year.
• Monthly equivalent: about $235 per month.
• Effective rate: about 1.33% of market value in this simplified example.

How this compares to the county-wide median. The Census ACS county-wide median bill is about $1,991 (roughly 0.94% effective). This homesteaded example on the county median home value comes in higher because the four-unit Athens stack (a full-service city plus the college district) is above the county-wide average mix, and many Henderson County parcels are lower-value lake or rural homes, or more heavily exempt. A non-homestead $211,300 parcel would pay closer to the full nominal ~2.03%, or about $4,300. Any local-option homestead exemptions we could not confirm would push a real homesteaded bill lower still.

Limitations:

• Your total varies by school district, city, and any special district covering your parcel; a Gun Barrel City, Malakoff, Mabank, or Eustace parcel uses a different city/school stack, though the Trinity Valley Community College district applies across most of the county.
• Local-option homestead exemptions (and over-65, disability, and disabled-veteran exemptions) vary by unit and were not confirmed from an official per-entity table this pass; this simplified example applies only the school-district homestead.
• Henderson 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.