Property Taxes, MUDs & PIDs

How Texas property taxes work

Texas has no state property tax and no state personal income tax. Local governments levy property taxes, and each one sets its own rate. The formula for each taxing unit is simple:

• Who sets the value: the county appraisal district, as of January 1 each year. In Central Texas that is the Williamson Central Appraisal District (WCAD), Travis Central Appraisal District (TCAD), Hays Central Appraisal District or Bell County's appraisal district. Cities and school districts do not set your value.
• Who sets the rates: each taxing unit, in late summer. Rates are stated in dollars per $100 of taxable value, so a rate of $0.372 means $372 for every $100,000 of taxable value.
• Who sends the bill: the county tax assessor-collector, usually in October or soon after. Payment is due by January 31, and penalties and interest begin February 1. If your mortgage has an escrow account, the lender pays it.

The taxing units on a Central Texas bill

Every address sits inside a stack of overlapping taxing units. Your appraisal district's property record lists them all. The common ones:

• County, sometimes with a separate road or farm-to-market levy.
• City, only if the home is inside city limits. Homes outside city limits pay no city tax but may pay district taxes instead.
• Independent school district (ISD), usually the largest line on the bill.
• Community college district, such as Austin Community College, in some areas.
• Emergency services district (ESD), funding fire and EMS service, common outside city limits.
• Municipal utility district (MUD) or another water district, such as a water control and improvement district (WCID).
• Public improvement district (PID) assessments, which are charged differently from the taxes above (more below).

Real 2025 rates: Williamson County

Williamson County publishes every unit's adopted rate each year. These are the 2025 rates (per $100 of taxable value) for the county and the cities and school districts most of our clients ask about:

Source: Williamson County, 2025 Tax Rates and Exemptions by Jurisdictions. Rates are set every year; check the current year for any address. Travis, Hays and Bell counties publish their own rates through their tax offices and the Texas.gov property tax directory.

Two worked examples

To show how much the stack of units matters, here are two illustrations for a $450,000 home that is the owner's homestead, using Williamson County's 2025 rates and each unit's homestead exemption from the same rate sheet. They ignore the 10% homestead cap, over-65 exemptions and any other exemptions, so they are illustrations, not tax bills.

Example A: inside Round Rock city limits, Round Rock ISD, no MUD

Example B: outside city limits, Georgetown ISD, ESD 8 and a MUD

Same price, roughly $900 a year apart, and neither home pays the highest rates in the county. That is why we pull the taxing units for every address before our buyers write an offer.

Example B uses the unit combination WCAD records show for the Georgetown side of the Teravista community; some homes there also pay a small water control district rate. Round Rock ISD homes are in the Austin Community College district. Confirm any address on your appraisal district's site.

Homestead exemptions

A residence homestead exemption removes part of your home's value from taxation. You qualify if you own the home and live in it as your principal residence on the terms the Tax Code sets; you can have only one homestead, in or outside Texas.

The school district exemption: $140,000

Tax Code Section 11.13(b) requires school districts to exempt $140,000 of a homestead's value from school taxes. Voters approved the increase from $100,000 in November 2025, and it applies starting with the 2025 tax year. Homeowners who are 65 or older or disabled receive an additional $60,000 school exemption, so $200,000 in total.

These amounts apply to school district taxes only. They do not lower county, city or MUD taxes.

Local option exemptions

Any taxing unit may also adopt a local option homestead exemption of up to 20% of appraised value (never less than $5,000), plus its own over-65 or disabled exemption. On Williamson County's 2025 sheet, for example, the county offers 5% and $125,000 for over-65 homeowners, the City of Austin 20%, the cities of Cedar Park, Leander and Liberty Hill 1%, and the City of Round Rock a $22,000 over-65 exemption. Counties that levy a farm-to-market road tax must give a $3,000 homestead exemption on it.

Over-65 and disabled: the tax ceiling

When you qualify for the over-65 or disabled exemption, your school taxes on that home are capped at the amount you paid in the year you qualified (the "freeze" or ceiling), though improvements such as an addition can raise it. Counties, cities and junior college districts may adopt their own ceilings; Williamson County's sheet marks the county, Austin Community College and several cities as having one. If you move within Texas, you can transfer the percentage of school taxes you were paying to your new home.

Disabled veterans and surviving spouses

Veterans with a service-connected disability rating qualify for a partial exemption: $5,000 for a 10–29% rating, $7,500 for 30–49%, $10,000 for 50–69% and $12,000 for 70% or higher. Veterans rated 100% disabled or with individual unemployability receive a total exemption on their homestead. Certain surviving spouses of disabled veterans, service members killed in action and first responders killed in the line of duty may also qualify for total exemptions.

How to apply

• File with your county appraisal district, online or with the Comptroller's Form 50-114. Filing is free. Homeowners sometimes get official-looking mail offering to file for a fee; you do not need it.
• Include a copy of your Texas driver's license or ID showing the home's address.
• The general deadline is April 30. Late homestead applications are allowed up to two years after the taxes become delinquent.
• You generally do not reapply each year, but you must file again when you move, and to add the over-65 or disabled exemption.
• If you buy mid-year and the seller did not have a homestead exemption that year, you may receive yours for the part of the year you own the home. If the seller did, yours typically starts January 1 of the next year.

The 10% homestead cap (and the 20% circuit breaker)

Once your home qualifies as a homestead, its taxable appraised value cannot rise more than 10% a year, plus the value of any new improvements, even if its market value rises faster. The cap begins January 1 of the tax year after you first qualify and ends the year after you no longer qualify. It does not transfer to a buyer, which is why a new owner's first full bill is often higher than the seller's last one.

A separate, temporary "circuit breaker" limits the appraised value of qualifying non-homestead real property, such as a rental house, to 20% growth a year plus improvements. It applied to property appraised at $5 million or less for 2024, with the threshold adjusted for inflation each year, and under current law it expires December 31, 2026 unless the Legislature extends it.

How to protest your appraisal

If you think the appraisal district's value is too high, or your home is appraised unequally compared with similar homes, you can protest. It costs nothing to file.

1. Watch for your notice. Districts mail appraisal notices by April 1, or as soon as practicable, for homesteads, and many post values online.
2. File by the deadline: May 15 or 30 days after your notice was delivered, whichever is later. Use the district's online portal or the Comptroller's Form 50-132.
3. Gather evidence: recent sales of similar nearby homes, especially any that sold below your appraised value; photos and contractor estimates for defects; and comparisons with similar homes appraised lower. You can request the district's evidence before your hearing.
4. Try the informal route. Most districts offer an informal review with an appraiser and may make a settlement offer.
5. Appraisal Review Board hearing if you do not settle, in person, by phone or video, or by sworn affidavit.
6. Appeal options if you disagree with the board: binding arbitration for a homestead (filed within 60 days, with a deposit), the State Office of Administrative Hearings for property over $1 million, or district court.

MUDs: municipal utility districts

A MUD is a local government district that provides water, wastewater and drainage, often in developments at the edge of or outside city limits. MUDs usually finance that infrastructure by selling bonds, and homeowners repay the bonds through a MUD property tax that appears as its own line on the bill. MUDs have elected boards, are overseen by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, and set their rates every year.

MUD rates vary widely. The 73 MUDs on Williamson County's 2025 rate sheet ranged from $0.18 to $1.00 per $100, with a median near $0.69, and 20 of them were at $0.90 or higher. On a $450,000 home, the difference between those ends is roughly $3,700 a year. Most MUDs on the sheet offer no homestead exemption, though a few do.

The MUD notice

If a home is in a MUD or similar district, Chapter 49 of the Texas Water Code requires the seller to give, and the buyer to sign, a statutory notice stating the district's tax rate and bonded debt before the buyer signs the contract. A buyer who does not receive a required notice may have remedies, which can include terminating the contract; the rules turn on timing, so talk with a real estate attorney promptly if it happens to you.

How to check a MUD

• The appraisal district's property record lists every taxing unit on the address.
• The TCEQ Water Districts Map Viewer shows district boundaries.
• Your county's property tax database (linked from Texas.gov) shows the current rate.
• Many MUDs post budgets, rates and meeting dates on their own websites.

PIDs: public improvement districts

A PID is created by a city or county to pay for improvements that benefit a specific area, such as roads, drainage, parks or landscaping. Instead of a tax rate on your value, owners pay an assessment: each lot's share of the project cost, usually collected in annual installments under the district's assessment plan, often on the property tax bill. Installments can change from year to year, and many PIDs let you pay off the remaining balance early.

Williamson County's 2025 rate sheet lists 16 PIDs whose charges are set as assessments by each district rather than as a tax rate, plus one PID that uses a per-$100 rate.

The PID notice

Texas Property Code Section 5.014 requires a seller to give written notice of the PID assessment obligation before a binding contract is signed. TREC publishes an addendum for this notice. If a contract is signed without it, the buyer may terminate. Before you buy, ask for the current annual installment, the remaining schedule and the payoff amount.

Other districts and land rules to know

• Emergency services districts. ESDs fund fire and EMS protection, mostly outside city limits. Williamson County's ESDs ranged from about $0.074 to $0.100 per $100 in 2025.
• Water control and improvement districts and road districts appear on some bills; the appraisal district record will show them.
• Agricultural appraisal. Qualifying farm or ranch land can be appraised on its productive capacity instead of market value. If the land's use changes, such as building homes, a rollback tax for each of the previous three years can apply. Buyers of acreage should ask about ag status early.
• HOA dues are not taxes, but they are another required annual cost in many neighborhoods, and a mandatory HOA's lien can be enforced.

Estimating taxes before you buy: a checklist

1. Look up the address on the appraisal district's site and list every taxing unit.
2. Get each unit's current adopted rate from the county tax database.
3. Use your expected purchase price as a starting value, not the seller's capped taxable value.
4. Subtract the exemptions you will qualify for, unit by unit: $140,000 for school taxes, plus any local options.
5. Add PID installments and HOA dues.
6. For a new build, remember that January 1 value may reflect only land or a partly built house, so the next year's bill can jump.
7. Ask your lender to escrow based on the full estimate, not the seller's last bill.

Our agents run these numbers with you for any home you are considering. See also our buyer's guide and new construction guide.