Johnson County Property Tax & Sales Tax

Johnson County Tax Rates - At a Glance

Johnson County Current Tax Rates Summary

Tax Type	Rate	Notes
Property Tax (combined)	~2.21% of value	No single county rate - the sum of county, city, and school on a Cleburne / Cleburne ISD parcel. Representative nominal stack; typical effective rate runs about 1.24%.
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

Johnson County Property Tax

Johnson County property tax comes in two numbers that are easy to confuse. The county's own adopted rate is $0.3893 per $100 of value for the 2025 tax year - that total is the county general rate ($0.339276) plus a countywide Farm-to-Market/Lateral Road unit ($0.050000) - and it is only the Johnson 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 Johnson County is about 1.24% of market value - an estimate from Census ACS 2024 5-year data (median real estate taxes paid $3,557 divided by median home value $285,900). Because the mix of taxing units differs from parcel to parcel, there is no single "Johnson County rate" for a full bill; the figure below is a worked example.

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

School district City County (incl. Farm-to-Market/Lateral Road)

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

Taxing unit	Rate /$100	Type
Cleburne ISD	$1.211900	School
City of Cleburne	$0.612548	City
Johnson County (incl. Farm-to-Market/Lateral Road)	$0.389276	County
Nominal total	~$2.2137	~2.21%

Rates from the Johnson County Tax Assessor-Collector 2025 rates and exemptions schedule (Johnson County $0.339276 + Farm-to-Market/Lateral Road $0.050000 = $0.389276, City of Cleburne $0.612548, Cleburne ISD $1.211900). This example is for a City of Cleburne / Cleburne ISD parcel; your total depends on your city, school district, and special districts. Other parts of the county sit in Burleson ISD ($1.2552), Joshua ISD, Alvarado ISD, Godley ISD, or Keene ISD with a different city (Burleson, Joshua, Alvarado, Keene) or in unincorporated areas with no city tax.

Two things stand out. First, the school district ($1.2119) is the single largest slice - on its own it is more than three times the entire Johnson County levy ($0.3893). Second, the nominal stacked rate of about $2.2137 per $100 (~2.21%) is a full City of Cleburne example: the county-wide effective rate that people actually pay (about 1.24%) lands below it, because much of Johnson County is unincorporated with no city tax, several outlying school districts carry lower rates, and homestead exemptions reduce taxable value for a median home.

Where your property-tax dollar goes

School district ~55% City ~28% County ~18%

On a typical City of Cleburne / Cleburne ISD parcel, the school district is about 55% of the nominal bill (Cleburne ISD $1.2119 / $2.2137 nominal total), the City of Cleburne about 28%, and Johnson County (including the Farm-to-Market/Lateral Road unit) about 18%. Percentages are rounded and use the nominal posted rates before any exemption - after the $140,000 homestead exemption the school slice shrinks.

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 Cleburne 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. Johnson 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 Johnson 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. In a fast-appreciating market like the southwestern 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 $285,900 Cleburne ISD home with a homestead exemption, the school district taxes only $285,900 - $140,000 = $145,900, 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 a Johnson County 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 johnsoncad.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 Johnson County property tax

Sources: the Johnson County Tax Assessor-Collector 2025 rates and exemptions schedule (county, city, and school rates, 2025), the Johnson County Appraisal District (appraisal, exemptions, protest), 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 Johnson 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 Johnson County you register and title through the Johnson 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.

Johnson County Sales Tax

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

Cleburne (Johnson County) sales tax components

Component	Rate
Texas state rate	6.25%
City of Cleburne (1.0% city + 0.5% Type A EDC + 0.5% Type B EDC)	2.00%
Johnson 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 Johnson County. In Cleburne the local 2% is the 1.0% city rate plus two 0.5% economic-development components; the mix differs by city. Qualifying groceries are exempt from sales tax.

Real Example: a $285,900 Cleburne Home

Here is how the numbers flow on a representative $285,900 City of Cleburne / Cleburne 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 or special districts:

• Market value: $285,900.
• Homestead exemption: the school-district homestead exemption removes $140,000 from the Cleburne ISD taxable value, so the school district taxes only $145,900. The county and city tax the full $285,900 in this simplified example.
• Stacked total: school $145,900 × 1.2119% = ~$1,768; city $285,900 × 0.612548% = ~$1,751; county $285,900 × 0.389276% = ~$1,113.
• Estimated annual bill: about $4,632 per year.
• Monthly equivalent: about $386 per month.
• Effective rate: about 1.62% of market value in this simplified example. The county-wide ACS median effective rate is lower at about 1.24%, largely because much of Johnson County is unincorporated with no city tax and outlying areas carry lower school rates than the City of Cleburne example.

Limitations:

• Your total varies by school district, city, and any special district covering your parcel; parcels in Burleson, Joshua, Alvarado, or an unincorporated area are not modeled here and can be materially different.
• 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.