Wise County Property Tax & Sales Tax

Wise County Tax Rates - At a Glance

Wise County Current Tax Rates Summary

Tax Type	Rate	Notes
Property Tax (combined)	~1.73% of value	No single county rate - the sum of school district, city, and county on a City of Decatur / Decatur ISD parcel. Representative nominal stack; typical effective rate runs about 1.14% of market value.
County's own rate	$0.265000 / $100	Wise County government portion only: general $0.217500 + countywide FM/Lateral Road $0.047500 (both M&O)
Hospital / college district	None	Wise County has no countywide hospital district and no community-college taxing district
Annual Vehicle (Car) Tax	None	Texas levies no annual value-based vehicle property tax
Sales Tax	8.25%	6.25% state + 0.50% Wise County + 1.50% local (Decatur: Wise County ESD No. 1); 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

Wise County Property Tax

Wise County property tax comes in two numbers that are easy to confuse. The county's own combined rate is $0.265000 per $100 of value for the 2025 tax year - and it is only the Wise 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), and the county. Combined, the typical total effective rate in Wise County is about 1.14% of market value - an estimate from Census ACS 2024 5-year data (median real estate taxes paid $3,466 divided by median home value $304,900). Because the mix of taxing units differs from parcel to parcel, there is no single "Wise County rate" for a full bill; the figures below are worked examples.

Wise County's own rate of $0.265000 is split into two countywide funds: the Wise County general levy ($0.217500) and a dedicated FM/Lateral Road levy ($0.047500) that pays for farm-to-market and lateral county roads. Both are maintenance-and-operations rates; the county carries no debt (I&S) rate for 2025. Unlike many Texas counties, Wise County has no countywide hospital district and no community-college taxing district, so a typical bill is a clean three-unit stack. The extra districts in Wise County are local: a dense layer of municipal utility districts serving fast-growing subdivisions (Wise County MUD, New Fairview MUD, Rolling V Ranch #1/#2/#4, and Hillcrest MUD, each at the $1.00 cap), three emergency-services/fire districts, and a couple of water districts. Decatur, the county seat, sits at the US-287/US-81/US-380 crossroads under its landmark "Eagle" limestone courthouse; Bridgeport anchors Lake Bridgeport to the west, and Rhome, New Fairview, and Aurora are on the fast-growing TX-114 / Alliance edge of the metro.

How a typical Wise County (City of Decatur) bill is built (taxing-unit stack)

School district City County (incl. FM/Lateral Road)

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

Taxing unit	Rate /$100	Type
Decatur ISD	$0.896800	School
City of Decatur	$0.565713	City
Wise County (incl. FM/Lateral Road)	$0.265000	County
Nominal total	~$1.727513	~1.73%

Rates from the Wise County Appraisal District 2025 certified tax rates. This example is for a City of Decatur / Decatur ISD parcel; your total depends on your city and school district. Other school districts include Paradise ISD ($1.089200), Slidell ISD ($0.972600), Boyd ISD ($0.894200), Alvord ISD ($0.867000), Chico ISD ($0.843020), and Bridgeport ISD ($0.666900). Unincorporated Decatur ISD parcels pay no city rate (about $1.161800 combined). Fast-growing subdivisions may also carry a MUD or water/fire district.

Where your property-tax dollar goes

Decatur ISD ~51.9% City ~32.8% County ~15.3%

On a typical City of Decatur / Decatur ISD parcel, Decatur ISD is about 51.9% of the nominal bill ($0.896800 / $1.727513 nominal total), the City of Decatur about 32.8%, and Wise County about 15.3%. 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 1.14%) sits below the nominal stacked rate (about 1.73%).

Who appraises, bills, and collects in Wise County

• The Wise County Appraisal District sets appraised values, processes homestead exemptions, and runs protests, at wise-cad.com (940-627-3081).
• The Wise County Tax Assessor-Collector collects the property tax and also handles vehicle registration and titling, at tax.co.wise.tx.us (Decatur, 940-627-3523).

For value questions, start with the appraisal district; to pay, start with the Wise 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 Wise County Appraisal District. For a Decatur 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 Wise 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 Wise 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 Wise 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 Wise County Appraisal District, which publishes its protest procedures and deadlines and runs the property search and appeals process. File and track everything at wise-cad.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 Wise County property tax

Sources: Wise County Appraisal District 2025 certified tax rates (county rate and the Decatur-area unit rates), the Wise 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 Wise 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 Wise County you register and title through the Wise 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.

Wise County Sales Tax

The combined sales tax rate in the City of Decatur is 8.25% - the Texas maximum. It is made up of the 6.25% state rate, a 0.50% Wise County rate, and a 1.50% local rate (in Decatur this local portion is collected by the Wise County Emergency Services District No. 1). Wise 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 1.50% local share are combined, no further local rate can stack on top - which is why 8.25% is the maximum combined sales tax here.

City of Decatur (Wise County) sales tax components

Component	Rate
Texas state rate	6.25%
Wise County	0.50%
Local (city / special district)	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 a 1.50% local rate (in Decatur, a Wise County ESD No. 1 special district). Outside a city/special district the rate is 6.75% (state plus the countywide 0.50%). The exact city-versus-special-district split of the Decatur local rate varies. Groceries and most unprepared food are exempt from sales tax.

Real Example: a $304,900 Decatur Home

Here is how the numbers flow on a representative $304,900 City of Decatur / Decatur 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: $304,900.
• Homestead exemption: the $140,000 school-district exemption drops the Decatur ISD taxable value to $164,900. The other units tax the full $304,900 in this simplified example.
• Stacked total: school $164,900 × 0.896800% = ~$1,479; city $304,900 × 0.565713% = ~$1,725; county $304,900 × 0.265000% = ~$808.
• Estimated annual bill: about $4,012 per year.
• Monthly equivalent: about $334 per month.
• Effective rate: about 1.32% of market value in this simplified example.

How this compares to the county-wide median. The Census ACS county-wide median bill is about $3,466 (roughly 1.14% effective). This Decatur city example lands above it, because much of Wise County is unincorporated (no city rate) and Decatur ISD is only one of the county's school districts. A homesteaded parcel with no city rate (school + county only, roughly $2,287 on the same $304,900 value) would pay closer to 0.75%, 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 $304,900 Decatur parcel would pay closer to the full nominal ~1.73%, or about $5,270.

Limitations:

• Your total varies by school district and city; a Paradise, Slidell, Boyd, Alvord, Chico, Bridgeport, 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.
• Wise County's exact delinquent penalty-and-interest schedule was not available from an official source in this pass and is not stated here.
• Fast-growing subdivisions may add a MUD or water/fire district not modeled above.
• This is an estimate, not a parcel-exact bill. The typical effective rate is a Census ACS estimate, not a guaranteed rate.