Potter County Property Tax & Sales Tax

Potter County Tax Rates - At a Glance

Potter County Current Tax Rates Summary

Tax Type	Rate	Notes
Property Tax (combined)	~2.11% of value	No single county rate - the sum of school district, city, county, and Amarillo College on a City of Amarillo / Amarillo ISD parcel. Representative nominal stack; typical effective rate runs about 1.46% of market value.
Annual Vehicle (Car) Tax	None	Texas levies no annual value-based vehicle property tax
Sales Tax	8.25%	6.25% state + 2.00% local (City of Amarillo and local special-purpose components); 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

Potter County Property Tax

Potter County property tax comes in two numbers that are easy to confuse. The county's own adopted rate is $0.590240 per $100 of value for the 2025 tax year - and it is only the Potter 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 (in Amarillo) the community college district. Combined, the typical total effective rate in Potter County is about 1.46% of market value - an estimate from Census ACS 2024 5-year data (median real estate taxes paid $2,145 divided by median home value $147,300). Because the mix of taxing units differs from parcel to parcel, there is no single "Potter County rate" for a full bill; the figures below are worked examples.

Potter County adopted its rate in two components: maintenance and operations $0.549460 plus debt service $0.040780. The Commissioners Court signed the Order Setting the Potter County Property Tax Rate on September 22, 2025; the order notes the rate raises maintenance-and-operations revenue by about 5.75% over the prior year. It is one consolidated countywide rate - the county's portion of an Amarillo bill is that single number.

How a typical Potter County (Amarillo) bill is built (taxing-unit stack)

School district County City College district

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

Taxing unit	Rate /$100	Type
Amarillo ISD	$0.871200	School
Potter County	$0.590240	County
City of Amarillo	$0.430700	City
Amarillo College (Amarillo Junior College District)	$0.219940	College
Nominal total	~$2.112080	~2.11%

Rates from the Potter County adopted budget (county rate) and each unit's official 2025 adopted-rate source. This example is for a City of Amarillo / Amarillo ISD parcel on the Potter (north) side; your total depends on your city, school district, and any special district. A Randall-side Amarillo parcel swaps in Randall County's lower rate.

Where your property-tax dollar goes

Amarillo ISD ~41.2% County ~27.9% City ~20.4% College ~10.5%

On a typical City of Amarillo / Amarillo ISD parcel, Amarillo ISD is about 41.2% of the nominal bill ($0.871200 / $2.112080 nominal total), Potter County about 27.9%, the City of Amarillo about 20.4%, and Amarillo College about 10.5%. Unlike the Randall side, on the Potter side the county is the second-largest line and outweighs the city - its $0.590240 rate is the reason a Potter-side Amarillo bill runs higher than the same home on the Randall side. Percentages are rounded and use the nominal posted rates before any exemption. After the $140,000 school-district homestead exemption - which on Potter's typical home value nearly zeroes the school line - the county's share of the actual bill is even larger.

Who appraises, bills, and collects in Potter County

Potter County shares its appraisal district with Randall County, so the same office values property on both sides of Amarillo:

• The Potter-Randall Appraisal District sets appraised values, processes homestead exemptions, and runs protests for both counties, at prad.org (806-358-1601).
• The Potter County Tax Office collects the property tax and hosts the online search and payment portal, and also handles vehicle registration and titling, at pottercountytax.com (900 South Polk, Suite 106, Amarillo, TX 79101; 806-342-2600).

For value questions, start with the appraisal district; to pay, start with the Potter County Tax Office.

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 Potter-Randall Appraisal District. For an Amarillo 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.

The exemption bites unusually hard in Potter County. Because the county's median home value (about $147,300) is only a little above the $140,000 school exemption, a median homesteaded Potter home is taxed by the school district on just a few thousand dollars - so the school-district line, normally the biggest on a Texas bill, nearly vanishes, and the county line becomes the single largest item. That is a very different picture from higher-value counties where the school district still dominates after the exemption.

Several local units may also grant their own local-option homestead exemptions. We were unable to confirm the exact Potter County, City of Amarillo, and Amarillo ISD local-option amounts from an official per-entity table in this pass, so the calculator below models only the statutory school-district homestead. Confirm the exact local-option exemptions on your account with the Potter-Randall 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 Potter 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 Potter-Randall Appraisal District, which publishes its protest procedures and deadlines and runs the property search and appeals process. File and track everything at prad.org or call 806-358-1601. 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 Potter County property tax

Sources: the Potter County FY2025-26 adopted budget (the Order Setting Tax Rate: county rate $0.590240, maintenance and operations $0.549460 plus debt service $0.040780), the City of Amarillo FY2025/26 adopted tax rate, the Texas Comptroller (sales tax), and Census ACS 2024 5-year estimates (typical effective rate). Homestead applications and appraised values: the Potter-Randall Appraisal District (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 Potter 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 Potter County you register and title through the Potter 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.

Potter County Sales Tax

The combined sales tax rate in the City of Amarillo is 8.25% - the Texas maximum. It is made up of the 6.25% state rate plus a 2.00% local share collected by the city and local special-purpose components. Texas law caps that total local portion at 2.0% as a shared ceiling, so once the city and special-district rates reach 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 Amarillo (Potter County) sales tax components

Component	Rate
Texas state rate	6.25%
City and local special-purpose components	2.00%
Combined rate	8.25%

The 2.00% local share is the maximum Texas allows. The exact breakdown of the local components 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 $147,300 Amarillo (Potter) Home

Here is how the numbers flow on a representative $147,300 City of Amarillo / Amarillo ISD home on the Potter (north) side (the county median value) with a homestead exemption (owner under 65), applying only the school-district homestead to the school unit:

• Market value: $147,300.
• Homestead exemption: the $140,000 school-district exemption drops the Amarillo ISD taxable value to just $7,300. The other three units tax the full $147,300 in this simplified example.
• Stacked total: school $7,300 × 0.871200% = ~$64; county $147,300 × 0.590240% = ~$869; city $147,300 × 0.430700% = ~$634; Amarillo College ~$324.
• Estimated annual bill: about $1,891 per year.
• Monthly equivalent: about $158 per month.
• Effective rate: about 1.28% of market value in this simplified example.

Notice what the homestead exemption does here. On a median Potter home the $140,000 school exemption knocks the school-district tax down to about $64, so the county line ($869) is the biggest single item on the bill - larger than the school district and the city. That is unusual: in most Texas counties the school district still dominates after the exemption. It happens in Potter because the median home value is so close to the exemption amount.

How this compares to the county-wide median. The Census ACS county-wide median bill is about $2,145 (roughly 1.46% effective), above this homesteaded example because it blends non-homestead and investor parcels, which pay the full school-district line and can more than double the school tax.

The Randall-side comparison. Move the same $147,300 home to the south (Randall) side of Amarillo and only the county line changes - Randall County's $0.400990 rate replaces Potter's $0.590240, cutting about $0.19 per $100, or roughly $279 a year on this value. Same city, same schools, different county.

Limitations:

• Your total varies by school district, city, and any special district covering your parcel; a Randall-side Amarillo parcel uses the lower Randall County rate.
• 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.
• Potter 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.