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 fund $0.21750 + countywide Farm-to-Market/Lateral Road $0.04750; no debt rate)
Special districts	up to ~$1.00 / $100	Many new subdivisions sit in a MUD (Wise County MUD, New Fairview MUD, Rolling V Ranch, Hillcrest) that adds its own rate; applies only to parcels inside the 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% City of Decatur; 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

Wise County Property Tax

Wise County property tax comes in two numbers that are easy to confuse. The county's own adopted 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, 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 is a low combined rate of $0.265000 - a general-fund rate of $0.21750 plus a countywide Farm-to-Market/Lateral Road rate of $0.04750 - with no interest-and-sinking (debt) rate at all. It is one of the lowest county-own rates in the counties we cover. What can make a Wise County bill larger than the three-unit example below is a Municipal Utility District (MUD): several newer subdivisions (the Wise County MUD, the New Fairview MUD, the Rolling V Ranch districts, and Hillcrest MUD) carry their own rate of about $1.00000 per $100 to pay for developer-financed roads, water, and sewer. There is no countywide hospital district and no community-college district in Wise County (verified by absence in the complete 2025 rate schedule).

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

School district City County

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	$0.265000	County
Nominal total	~$1.727513	~1.73%

Rates from the Wise County Appraisal District 2025 tax-rate schedule. This example is for a City of Decatur / Decatur ISD parcel; your total depends on your city, school district, and any special district. Other stacks in the county include Bridgeport, Boyd, Chico, Paradise, Alvord, Rhome, Runaway Bay, and Newark (Paradise ISD, $1.089200, is the county's highest school rate; Bridgeport ISD, $0.666900, the lowest). Many new subdivisions add a MUD of about $1.00000.

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 on the school line 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 (including online protest), at wise-cad.com (940-627-3081).
• The Wise County Tax Assessor-Collector collects the property tax and hosts the online payment and property-search portal, and also handles vehicle registration and titling, at tax.co.wise.tx.us (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 local units (the county, the city, and the school district) may also grant their own local-option homestead exemptions. We were unable to confirm the exact Wise County, City of Decatur, and Decatur ISD local-option amounts from an official per-entity table in this pass, so the calculator below models only the statutory school-district homestead and treats its output as the conservative (high) end. Confirm the exact local-option 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 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, online protest, 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 CAD 2025 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 plus a 2.00% local share: 0.50% for Wise County and 1.50% for the City of Decatur and its local special-purpose components. Texas law caps that total local portion at 2.0% as a shared ceiling, so once the county and city 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 Decatur (Wise County) sales tax components

Component	Rate
Texas state rate	6.25%
Wise County	0.50%
City of Decatur and local special-purpose components	1.50%
Combined rate	8.25%

The 2.00% local share is the maximum Texas allows. The exact breakdown of the local 2.00% between Wise County, the general City of Decatur rate, and any 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 $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 two 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 homesteaded example on the county median home value comes in a bit higher because the Decatur stack is above the county-wide average mix and many county parcels are lower-value or more heavily exempt. A non-homestead $304,900 parcel would pay closer to the full nominal ~1.73%, or about $5,267. A parcel inside a Municipal Utility District would pay more still, and any local-option homestead exemptions we could not confirm would push a real homesteaded bill lower.

Limitations:

• Your total varies by school district, city, and any special district covering your parcel; a Bridgeport, Boyd, Chico, or Paradise parcel uses a different city/school stack, and a MUD adds about $1.00000 per $100.
• 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.
• Wise 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.