Smith County Property Tax & Sales Tax

Smith County Tax Rates - At a Glance

Smith County Current Tax Rates Summary

Tax Type	Rate	Notes
Property Tax (combined)	~1.63% of value	No single county rate - the sum of school district, county, city, and junior college district on a City of Tyler / Tyler ISD parcel. Representative nominal stack; typical effective rate runs about 1.16%.
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 Tyler + 0.5% Smith County; groceries and most unprepared food exempt
Homestead Exemption	$140,000 school + 10% cap	Over-65 adds $60,000 school exemption; Smith County itself grants none, City of Tyler grants 10% (min $5,000)
Due Date	January 31	Delinquent February 1; protest deadline 30 days from your notice, May 20 fallback

Smith County Property Tax

Smith County property tax comes in two numbers that are easy to confuse. The county's own adopted rate is $0.364231 per $100 of value for the 2025 tax year (M&O $0.294308 plus I&S $0.069923) - and it is only the Smith County government's portion. Your actual bill is the sum of every overlapping taxing unit that covers your parcel: your school district, the county, your city, and the Tyler Junior College District. Combined, the typical total effective rate in Smith County is about 1.16% of market value - an estimate from Census ACS 2024 5-year data (median real estate taxes paid $2,804 divided by median home value $240,700). Because the mix of taxing units differs from parcel to parcel, there is no single "Smith County rate" for a full bill; the figure below is a worked example.

One structural detail worth knowing: Smith County levies one consolidated county rate. A great many Texas counties split their share into a general fund rate plus a separate countywide Farm-to-Market, Lateral Road, or Road and Bridge unit, so the county appears twice on the bill. Smith County does not - the complete Section 26.16 summary published by the Smith County Tax Office lists no such second unit. If you are comparing Smith County's $0.364231 against a neighbouring county's headline rate, check whether that other county also has a road levy stacked underneath it.

The county also held its rate flat, adopting $0.364231 in both 2024 and 2025. For 2025 that sat above the no-new-revenue rate of $0.344980 and below the voter-approval rate of $0.375306.

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

School district County City Junior college district

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

Taxing unit	Rate /$100	Type
Tyler ISD	$0.845000	School
Smith County	$0.364231	County
City of Tyler	$0.236452	City
Tyler Junior College District	$0.185068	Junior college district
Nominal total	~$1.630751	~1.63%

Rates from the Smith County Tax Office Truth in Taxation Summary published under Texas Property Tax Code Section 26.16 (Smith County $0.364231 = M&O $0.294308 + I&S $0.069923; Tyler ISD $0.845000 = M&O $0.650000 + I&S $0.195000; City of Tyler $0.236452 = M&O $0.236452 + I&S $0.000000; Tyler Junior College District $0.185068 = M&O $0.150041 + I&S $0.035027). This example is for a City of Tyler / Tyler ISD parcel; your total depends on your city, school district, and special districts. Other parts of the county sit in Whitehouse ISD ($0.964900), Winona ISD ($0.957895), Van ISD ($0.949001), Lindale ISD ($0.937900), Bullard ISD ($1.246900), Arp ISD ($1.085300), Chapel Hill ISD ($1.072900), Gladewater ISD ($1.008536), or Troup ISD ($0.832419), often with a different city rate and sometimes in the Kilgore College District ($0.177116) rather than Tyler Junior College.

Two things stand out. First, the school district ($0.845000) is the single largest slice - on its own it is more than the county and city levies combined. Second, the City of Tyler carries a zero debt rate: all $0.236452 of the city's levy is maintenance and operations, with I&S at $0.000000. A city funding its budget without a debt service line is uncommon, and it is one reason the stacked Tyler rate of about $1.630751 per $100 (~1.63%) is modest by Texas standards even before exemptions.

It is also worth noting that every unit in this stack reduced its rate for 2025. Tyler ISD came down from $0.910000 to $0.845000, the City of Tyler from $0.240085 to $0.236452, and Tyler Junior College from $0.186917 to $0.185068, while the county held flat. Tyler ISD's rate has fallen a long way over five years, from $1.289100 in 2021 to $0.845000 in 2025. A falling rate does not automatically mean a falling bill - if your appraised value rose faster than the rate fell, you can still owe more.

Where your property-tax dollar goes

Tyler ISD ~51.8% County ~22.3% City ~14.5% Tyler Junior College ~11.4%

On a typical City of Tyler / Tyler ISD parcel, Tyler ISD is about 51.8% of the nominal bill ($0.845000 / $1.630751 nominal total), Smith County about 22.3%, the City of Tyler about 14.5%, and the Tyler Junior College District about 11.4%. Percentages are rounded and use the nominal posted rates before any exemption - after the $140,000 school-district homestead exemption the school slice shrinks sharply, which is the main reason the county's typical effective rate (about 1.16%) sits well below the nominal stacked rate (about 1.63%).

Who bills and collects in Smith County

Smith County follows the standard Texas split between two separate agencies:

• The Smith County Tax Office, under the Tax Assessor-Collector, bills and collects the tax. Search your account and pay at publictax.smith-county.com, or call 903-590-2920. Substations operate at Noonday, Lindale, and Troup.
• The Smith County Appraisal District sets appraised values, processes exemptions, and runs protests, at smithcad.org (245 SSE Loop 323, Tyler, 903-510-8600). It also publishes a tax estimator.

If you want to dispute what your home is worth, that is the appraisal district. If you want to pay a bill or check what is owed, that is the 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. For a Tyler 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.

Smith County itself grants no regular homestead exemption and no local-option percentage exemption - only a $25,000 over-65 amount. The City of Tyler does grant a 10% local-option homestead exemption with a floor of $5,000, plus $6,000 for over-65 owners. The Tyler Junior College District grants $20,000 for over-65 owners and $10,000 for disability. So on a Tyler parcel the school exemption is the large one, the city exemption is a genuine but smaller reduction, and the county line is taxed on your full value unless you are 65 or older.

Over-65 tax ceilings are in place for Smith County, Tyler Junior College, every school district in the county, and the cities of Tyler, Lindale, Bullard, Whitehouse, and Winona. Over-65 and disabled owners may also defer taxes, though deferred amounts accrue 8% annual interest.

Disabled veteran partial exemptions run $5,000 at a 10-29% rating, $7,500 at 30-49%, $10,000 at 50-69%, and $12,000 at 70% or more; a 100% disabled or unemployable rating carries a total exemption of the homestead's appraised value.

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.

How to protest your appraisal

Smith County does not use the generic May 15 deadline. The Smith County Appraisal District publishes the protest deadline as 30 days from the date your Notice of Appraised Value was delivered, and where no notice was generated for a property it publishes May 20 as the fallback. Go by the date printed on your own notice rather than a statewide rule of thumb, and if you did not receive a notice, do not assume you have until mid-May by default - check with the district.

You can pursue an informal review with a Smith County Appraisal District appraiser or a formal Appraisal Review Board (ARB) hearing; ARB hearings generally begin around mid-May. File and track everything at smithcad.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 Smith County property tax

Sources: the Smith County Tax Office Truth in Taxation Summary under Texas Property Tax Code Section 26.16 (county, city, school, and junior-college rates; billing and collection), the Smith County Appraisal District (appraisal, exemptions, protests), the Texas Comptroller, 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 Smith 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 Smith County you register and title through the Smith County Tax Office, the same office that collects property tax.

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.

Smith County Sales Tax

The combined sales tax rate in the City of Tyler is 8.25%. Unlike many Texas counties, Smith County does levy a county sales and use tax - 0.5%, listed by the Texas Comptroller under local code 4212004 and in effect since January 1, 1988 - so the local 2% ceiling here is split between the city and the county rather than taken entirely by the city.

Tyler (Smith County) sales tax components

Component	Rate
Texas state rate	6.25%
City of Tyler	1.50%
Smith 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 Smith County. In Tyler the 2% local share is 1.5% city plus 0.5% county; the mix differs by city. Groceries and most unprepared food are exempt from sales tax.

One correction worth making: several third-party sales tax sites attribute Tyler's 1.5% to a "special district." The Texas Comptroller lists it as the City of Tyler rate under local code 2212011, and Smith County has no countywide special-purpose district footnote. Use the Comptroller's figures.

Real Example: a $240,700 Tyler Home

Here is how the numbers flow on a representative $240,700 City of Tyler / Tyler ISD home (the county median value) with a homestead exemption (owner under 65), applying the school-district homestead to the school unit and no other local-option exemptions:

• Market value: $240,700.
• Homestead exemption: the $140,000 school-district exemption drops the Tyler ISD taxable value to $100,700. The county, city, and junior college district tax the full $240,700 in this simplified example.
• Stacked total: school $100,700 × 0.845000% = ~$851; county $240,700 × 0.364231% = ~$877; city $240,700 × 0.236452% = ~$569; Tyler Junior College $240,700 × 0.185068% = ~$445.
• Estimated annual bill: about $2,742 per year.
• Monthly equivalent: about $229 per month.
• Effective rate: about 1.14% of market value in this simplified example - close to the county-wide ACS median effective rate of about 1.16%.

The City of Tyler exemption would lower this further. If you also claim the city's 10% local-option homestead exemption, the city's taxable value drops to about $216,630 and the city line falls to roughly $512, cutting the estimate by about $57 a year. The calculator above does not model that, so a Tyler homestead parcel typically lands slightly below the figure shown.

Limitations:

• Your total varies by school district, city, and any special district covering your parcel; parcels in Whitehouse, Bullard, Lindale, Arp, Troup, Overton, or Winona, or in the Kilgore College District, are not modeled here and can be materially different.
• Local-option exemptions (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.
• Emergency Services District and municipal utility district levies are not included; their published rates are shown above but their boundaries are not mapped 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.