Hill County Property Tax & Sales Tax

Hill County Tax Rates - At a Glance

Hill County Current Tax Rates Summary

Tax Type	Rate	Notes
Property Tax (combined)	~2.48% of value	No single county rate - the sum of school district, city, county funds, and Hill College on a City of Hillsboro / Hillsboro ISD parcel. Representative nominal stack; typical effective rate runs about 1.16% of market value.
County's own rate	$0.452647 / $100	Hill County government portion only: general $0.387769 (M&O $0.377308 + debt $0.010461) + County Lateral Road $0.064878
Hospital / college district	College yes, hospital no	Hill College $0.083223 (Grandview $0.050000, Rio Vista $0.032387 branch levies); no countywide hospital district
Annual Vehicle (Car) Tax	None	Texas levies no annual value-based vehicle property tax
Sales Tax	8.25%	6.25% state + 0.50% Hill County + 1.50% city/special (Hillsboro); 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

Hill County Property Tax

Hill County property tax comes in two numbers that are easy to confuse. The county's own adopted rate is $0.452647 per $100 of value for the 2025 tax year - and it is only the Hill 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 funds, and the Hill College community-college district. Combined, the typical total effective rate in Hill County is about 1.16% of market value - an estimate from Census ACS 2024 5-year data (median real estate taxes paid $2,078 divided by median home value $179,200). Because the mix of taxing units differs from parcel to parcel, there is no single "Hill County rate" for a full bill; the figures below are worked examples.

Hill County's own rate of $0.452647 is posted as two separate funds: a general county rate ($0.387769, itself M&O $0.377308 + debt $0.010461) and a dedicated County Lateral Road rate ($0.064878). On top of the county, most parcels also carry the Hill College community-college district ($0.083223); the Grandview ($0.050000) and Rio Vista ($0.032387) corners use those branch levies instead. There is no countywide hospital district. Hillsboro is the county seat and largest city, an I-35 hub about midway between Dallas-Fort Worth and Waco, known for the Hillsboro outlet shopping and, to the west, Lake Whitney recreation.

How a typical Hill County (City of Hillsboro) bill is built (taxing-unit stack)

School district City County (2 funds) Community college

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

Taxing unit	Rate /$100	Type
Hillsboro ISD	$1.142500	School
City of Hillsboro	$0.802400	City
Hill County (general + lateral road)	$0.452647	County
Hill College	$0.083223	College
Nominal total	~$2.480770	~2.48%

Rates from the Hill County Appraisal District 2025 Tax Rates and Exemption List. This example is for a City of Hillsboro / Hillsboro ISD parcel; your total depends on your city and school district. Other school districts include Hubbard ISD ($1.245090), Frost ISD ($1.219700), Rio Vista ISD ($1.180990), Covington ISD ($1.147860), Whitney ISD ($0.951100), Blum ISD ($0.988500), and Itasca ISD ($0.845390). Unincorporated Hillsboro ISD parcels pay no city rate (about $1.678370 combined). Grandview and Rio Vista corners use those Hill College branch levies instead.

Where your property-tax dollar goes

Hillsboro ISD ~46.1% City ~32.3% County (2 funds) ~18.3% Hill College ~3.4%

On a typical City of Hillsboro / Hillsboro ISD parcel, Hillsboro ISD is about 46.1% of the nominal bill ($1.142500 / $2.480770 nominal total), the City of Hillsboro about 32.3%, the two Hill County funds about 18.3% combined, and Hill College about 3.4%. 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 1.16%) sits well below the nominal City-of-Hillsboro stacked rate (about 2.48%): most Hill County parcels are rural or in smaller cities with lower city rates, and many carry over-65 school-tax ceilings.

Who appraises, bills, and collects in Hill County

• The Hill County Appraisal District sets appraised values, processes homestead exemptions, and runs protests, at hillcad.org (254-582-2508).
• The Hill County Tax Assessor-Collector collects the property tax and also handles vehicle registration and titling, at hilltax.org (pay online at hilltax.org/pay-your-property-taxes-online).

For value questions, start with the appraisal district; to pay, start with the Hill 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 Hill County Appraisal District. For a Hillsboro 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 Hill 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 Hill 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 Hill County-specific delinquent 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 Hill County Appraisal District, which publishes its protest procedures and deadlines and runs the property search and appeals process. File and track everything at hillcad.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 Hill County property tax

Sources: Hill County Appraisal District 2025 Tax Rates and Exemption List (county rate and the Hillsboro-area unit rates), the Hill 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 Hill 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 Hill County you register and title through the Hill 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.

Hill County Sales Tax

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

Component	Rate
Texas state rate	6.25%
Hill County	0.50%
City of Hillsboro (local/special)	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 and special-purpose local rate. Outside city limits the rate is 6.75% (state plus the countywide 0.50%). The exact city-versus-special-purpose split of the Hillsboro local rate varies. Groceries and most unprepared food are exempt from sales tax.

Real Example: a $179,200 Hillsboro Home

Here is how the numbers flow on a representative $179,200 City of Hillsboro / Hillsboro 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: $179,200.
• Homestead exemption: the $140,000 school-district exemption drops the Hillsboro ISD taxable value to $39,200. The other units tax the full $179,200 in this simplified example.
• Stacked total: school $39,200 × 1.142500% = ~$448; city $179,200 × 0.802400% = ~$1,438; county funds $179,200 × 0.452647% = ~$811; Hill College $179,200 × 0.083223% = ~$149.
• Estimated annual bill: about $2,846 per year.
• Monthly equivalent: about $237 per month.
• Effective rate: about 1.59% of market value in this simplified City-of-Hillsboro example.

How this compares to the county-wide median. The Census ACS county-wide median bill is about $2,078 (roughly 1.16% effective). This City of Hillsboro homestead example (~1.59%) lands above the county median because Hillsboro has a relatively high city rate, while most Hill County parcels are rural or in smaller cities (or unincorporated with no city rate at all) and many carry over-65 school-tax ceilings. A homesteaded parcel with no city rate (school + county funds + college, roughly $1,408 on the same $179,200 value) would pay closer to 0.79%, 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 $179,200 Hillsboro parcel would pay closer to the full nominal ~2.48%, or about $4,446.

Limitations:

• Your total varies by school district and city; a Whitney, Hubbard, Itasca, Blum, Covington, or unincorporated 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.
• Hill County's exact delinquent 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.