McLennan County Property Tax & Sales Tax

McLennan County Tax Rates - At a Glance

McLennan County Current Tax Rates Summary

Tax Type	Rate	Notes
Property Tax (combined)	~2.25% of value	No single county rate - the sum of county, city, school, and community college on a Waco / Waco ISD parcel. Representative nominal stack; typical effective rate runs about 1.42%.
Annual Vehicle (Car) Tax	None	Texas levies no annual value-based vehicle property tax
Sales Tax	8.25%	6.25% state + 1.5% City of Waco + 0.5% McLennan County; qualifying groceries exempt
Homestead Exemption	$140,000 school + 10% cap	Plus local-option: county 20%, college 20%, City of Waco 15% (each min $5,000)
Due Date	January 31	Delinquent February 1; protest deadline May 15

McLennan County Property Tax

McLennan County property tax comes in two numbers that are easy to confuse. The county's own adopted rate is $0.3348 per $100 of value for the 2025 tax year (M&O $0.305956 plus I&S $0.028849) - and it is only the McLennan 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 McLennan Community College. Combined, the typical total effective rate in McLennan County is about 1.42% of market value - an estimate from Census ACS 2024 5-year data (median real estate taxes paid $3,471 divided by median home value $243,600). Because the mix of taxing units differs from parcel to parcel, there is no single "McLennan County rate" for a full bill; the figure below is a worked example.

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

School district City County Community college

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

Taxing unit	Rate /$100	Type
Waco ISD	$1.026600	School
City of Waco	$0.755000	City
McLennan County	$0.334805	County
McLennan Community College	$0.131974	Community college
Nominal total	~$2.2484	~2.25%

Rates from the McLennan County 2025 Tax Rates for McLennan County Taxing Districts schedule (McLennan County $0.334805 = M&O $0.305956 + I&S $0.028849; McLennan Community College $0.131974 = M&O $0.114472 + I&S $0.017502; City of Waco $0.755000 = M&O $0.584500 + I&S $0.170500; Waco ISD $1.026600 = M&O $0.766400 + I&S $0.260200). This example is for a City of Waco / Waco ISD parcel; your total depends on your city, school district, and special districts. Other parts of the county sit in Midway ISD, China Spring ISD, Robinson ISD, Lorena ISD, La Vega ISD, Connally ISD, or West ISD, with a different city (Hewitt, Woodway, Robinson, Bellmead, Lacy-Lakeview, McGregor, Lorena) or in unincorporated areas with no city tax.

Two things stand out. First, the school district ($1.0266) is the single largest slice - on its own it is about three times the entire McLennan County levy ($0.3348). Second, the City of Waco's $0.755 rate is high relative to the county: the city alone is more than twice the county rate, so a Waco city parcel carries a materially heavier stack than an unincorporated McLennan County parcel in the same school district.

Where your property-tax dollar goes

School district ~46% City ~34% County ~15% Community college ~6%

On a typical City of Waco / Waco ISD parcel, Waco ISD is about 46% of the nominal bill ($1.0266 / $2.2484 nominal total), the City of Waco about 34%, McLennan County about 15%, and McLennan Community College about 6%. Percentages are rounded and use the nominal posted rates before any exemption - after the $140,000 school homestead exemption and the county, college, and city percentage exemptions, every slice shrinks and the school slice shrinks most.

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 Waco ISD parcel, that exemption removes $140,000 from the value the school district taxes for the 2025 tax year, rising to $200,000 if the owner is 65 or older, plus a school-tax ceiling (freeze) that caps the school portion of the bill going forward.

McLennan County goes further than most Texas counties. Its non-school units grant their own percentage local-option homestead exemptions for the 2025 tax year: McLennan County 20% (minimum $5,000), with an extra $35,000 for owners 65 and older; McLennan Community College 20% (minimum $5,000), with an extra $12,000 for owners 65 and older; and the City of Waco 15% (minimum $5,000), with an extra $50,000 for owners 65 and older. Because those are percentages of value rather than flat dollar amounts, they scale with your home and they apply to the units that the school exemption does not touch. This is the main reason McLennan County's effective rate (about 1.42%) sits so far below its nominal stacked rate (about 2.25%).

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.

How to protest your appraisal

You can pursue an informal review with a McLennan 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 mclennancad.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 McLennan County property tax

Sources: the McLennan County Tax Office (2025 Tax Rates for McLennan County Taxing Districts schedule, billing, payment, and due dates), the McLennan County Appraisal District (appraisal, exemptions, and protests), 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 McLennan 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 McLennan County you register and title through the McLennan County Tax Office.

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.

McLennan County Sales Tax

The combined sales tax rate in Waco is 8.25%. It is built from the state rate plus a local component - and, like a minority of Texas counties, McLennan County does levy a 0.5% county sales tax that is part of that local portion.

Waco (McLennan County) sales tax components

Component	Rate
Texas state rate	6.25%
City of Waco	1.50%
McLennan County	0.50%
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 McLennan County. In Waco the local 2% is the 1.5% city rate plus the 0.5% McLennan County rate; the mix differs by city. Qualifying groceries are exempt from sales tax.

Real Example: a $243,600 Waco Home

Here is how the numbers flow on a representative $243,600 City of Waco / Waco ISD home (the county median value) with a homestead exemption (owner under 65), using the school-district homestead only and deliberately not applying the county, college, and city percentage local-option exemptions:

• Market value: $243,600.
• Homestead exemption: the school-district homestead exemption removes $140,000 from the Waco ISD taxable value, so the school district taxes only $103,600. The county, city, and community college tax the full $243,600 in this simplified example.
• Stacked total: school $103,600 × 1.0266% = ~$1,064; city $243,600 × 0.755% = ~$1,839; county $243,600 × 0.334805% = ~$816; community college $243,600 × 0.131974% = ~$321.
• Estimated annual bill: about $4,040 per year.
• Monthly equivalent: about $337 per month.
• Effective rate: about 1.66% of market value in this simplified example. The county-wide ACS median effective rate is lower, at about 1.42%, largely because this example leaves out the county's 20%, the college's 20%, and the City of Waco's 15% local-option homestead exemptions, and because many county parcels sit outside the City of Waco with no city tax at all.

Limitations:

• Your total varies by school district, city, and any special district covering your parcel; parcels in Midway ISD, China Spring ISD, Woodway, Hewitt, or an unincorporated area are not modeled here and can be materially different.
• The county, community college, and City of Waco percentage local-option homestead exemptions are not modeled and would reduce a homesteaded bill meaningfully.
• Over-65, disability, and disabled-veteran exemptions vary by unit 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.
• This is an estimate, not a parcel-exact bill. The typical effective rate is a Census ACS estimate, not a guaranteed rate.