Bastrop County Property Taxes: Homestead Exemptions, Protests and What Buyers Should Know
To apply for a Bastrop County homestead exemption, start with Bastrop CAD’s exemption instructions and application. To estimate property taxes, check the exact parcel’s taxing units and taxable value; there is no single countywide rate. This guide explains the homestead exemption, filing and protest deadlines, and why a buyer’s future bill can differ from the seller’s.
By Bre Meador, REALTOR®, All City Real Estate. Targeted guide update October 17, 2026.
I am a REALTOR®, not a tax professional or an attorney. This page is general information to help you ask better questions. Verify anything that affects your money with the Bastrop Central Appraisal District or your own tax advisor.
Two different offices, one block apart
This trips people up constantly, so it is worth getting straight before anything else.
- Bastrop Central Appraisal District (CAD) — 212 Jackson Street, Bastrop, (512) 303-1930. The CAD decides what your property is worth and grants or denies exemptions. It does not collect any money.
- Bastrop County Tax Assessor-Collector — 211 Jackson Street, Bastrop, (512) 581-7161. This office bills and collects the taxes. There are also substations in Cedar Creek, Elgin and Smithville.
So: value and exemption questions go to the appraisal district. Payment questions go to the tax office. They are literally across the street from each other.
The homestead exemption — and the number that changed
If you own a home in Texas and live in it as your principal residence, you can claim a residence homestead exemption. It lowers the value your taxes are calculated on.
The school district portion is now $140,000. It used to be $100,000. Texas voters approved the increase on November 4, 2025, and it applies to tax years beginning January 1, 2025. Older articles that still show $100,000 are out of date. Confirm current statewide exemption amounts with the Texas Comptroller.
Homeowners who are 65 or older, or who qualify as disabled, may receive an additional $60,000 school-district exemption, for $200,000 total when combined with the general school homestead exemption. The amount increased from $10,000 for tax years beginning January 1, 2025.
Other taxing units set their own. As published by Bastrop CAD, Bastrop County itself offers a $25,000 over-65 exemption, the County Road unit offers $3,000 general and $25,000 over-65, and some cities and districts offer their own or none at all. Because these vary by unit and change, look up your specific parcel at Bastrop CAD’s property search rather than assuming.
How to file — and why you should never pay for it
The application is Texas Comptroller Form 50-114. Bastrop CAD now accepts homestead applications through its online Taxpayer Portal. You may also file by mail to P.O. Box 578, Bastrop, TX 78602, by email to exemptions@bastropcad.org, or in the drop box at 212 Jackson Street. If you email the application, send the completed PDF rather than photos of the pages. Review Bastrop CAD’s current exemption instructions, including identification requirements, before filing.
It is free. Every year, new homeowners get official-looking letters offering to file the “homestead designation” for a fee of thirty or forty dollars. No appraisal district in Texas charges to file this. Throw those letters away.
The deadline is before May 1 — postmarked or delivered by midnight April 30. And if you missed it, Texas lets you file late: generally up to two years after the delinquency date, which usually means you can still capture the two most recent tax years and get a corrected bill or a refund. Disabled veterans get five years for the total exemption.
The first-year trap nobody warns you about
Here is the one I wish every buyer heard before closing.
For a qualifying residence homestead, the capped appraised value is the lower of its market value or the prior year’s appraised value plus 10 percent and the market value of new improvements. Ordinary repairs and maintenance are not new improvements. This limits appraised value, not the tax bill.
The limitation generally starts January 1 of the tax year after you first qualify for the residence homestead exemption. Buying in 2026 does not by itself establish a January 1, 2027 start date; eligibility and effective timing must be confirmed with Bastrop Central Appraisal District. Do not use the seller’s capped value as your future tax estimate.
A lender’s escrow estimate may use the seller’s current bill or preliminary assumptions and may not reflect the home’s value after the sale. Ask how the estimate was calculated, and budget using a reasonable projected taxable value and the current rates for every applicable taxing unit rather than relying only on what the seller pays now.
One more nuance: the cap limits value, not your bill. If the taxing units raise rates, your taxes still go up.
What the rate actually is
Rates are quoted per $100 of taxable value and adopted each year. The figures below are historical tax year 2025 examples, not current 2026 rates. Bastrop County now publishes its 2026–2027 tax-rate order. For a current estimate, use the parcel record and the adopted rate for every applicable taxing unit; the county rate alone is not the full bill.
- Bastrop County — 0.350500
- Bastrop County Road — 0.078210
- City of Bastrop — 0.504000
- Bastrop ISD — 1.067900
These four historical 2025 rates add to $2.00061 per $100 of taxable value. Applying that sum to an illustrative $350,000 of taxable value gives about $7,002 per year. This is a partial example: exemptions can produce a different taxable value for each taxing unit, and additional districts or assessments may apply.
That total assumes no MUD, PID, emergency services district or water district. Plenty of Bastrop County properties have one, which brings us to the next part.
MUDs and PIDs — why two similar houses have very different tax bills
A Municipal Utility District is created to finance the water, sewer and drainage infrastructure for a new development, using bonds repaid by an extra property tax. It shows up as its own line on the bill, stacked on top of everything else.
In the historical 2025 table, West Bastrop Village MUD levied $1.00 per $100 of taxable value and several Colony MUDs levied $0.85. A $1.00 rate applied to an illustrative $400,000 of taxable value produces $4,000 for that unit. Adding $1.00 to a hypothetical $2.00 combined rate increases it by 50%, to $3.00; it does not double it. This arithmetic does not establish which city, school or other district rates actually overlap on a parcel, and taxable values may differ by unit.
MUD rates can change as debt, development, taxable value, and district budgets change. Do not assume a district’s rate will decline on a particular schedule. When comparing a MUD subdivision with an in-town resale, include the current district tax in the full monthly-cost estimate.
A Public Improvement District uses assessments under its adopted service and assessment plan. The allocation method, annual installment, collection method and payoff are specific to the district and parcel; an assessment is not universally a fixed amount calculated the same way in every PID. Hunters Crossing is administered by the City of Bastrop. Request its current adopted plan, parcel assessment and payoff information from the City and title company, separately from the appraisal district’s ad valorem tax-rate table.
How to find out before you are under contract
Three ways, and you should use all three:
- Look up the parcel at esearch.bastropcad.org. Every taxing jurisdiction levying on that property is listed. A MUD or water district will be named there. A PID will not, because it is an assessment rather than a tax.
- The water district notice. Texas Water Code section 49.452 requires a seller to give you written notice of a district before you sign a binding contract, disclosing its tax rate and bonded debt. If it is not delivered on time, you may terminate the contract.
- The PID notice. Texas Property Code section 5.014 requires a separate written notice before the contract’s effective date, telling you an assessment has been levied, that it can be paid in full at any time, and what happens if you do not pay.
Also read Schedule B of the title commitment. Assessment liens live there. Shopping new builds? My guide to new homes for sale in Bastrop covers the builder-side questions.
Protesting your value
You have the right to protest, it costs nothing, and a great many people never do it.
The deadline rule: your protest is due by May 15, or 30 days after the appraisal district delivered your notice of appraised value, whichever is later. Because Bastrop CAD often mails notices later in the spring, the real date is frequently later than May 15 — the 2026 deadline was May 29. Do not trust a generic “May 15” you read online. The actual date is printed on your notice.
Most protests never reach a hearing. Bastrop CAD offers an informal conference first — a conversation with an appraiser, in person, by phone or by email. Some disputes resolve there; unresolved protests proceed to the Appraisal Review Board, an independent citizen panel. Those hearings typically start after June 1.
What evidence actually helps
Bastrop CAD says it plainly: if you are protesting market value, the best evidence is sales of properties similar to yours. If you are protesting unequal appraisal, it is a random selection of comparable properties. The district also accepts recent fee appraisals, contracts and settlement statements, surveys, photographs and professional repair estimates.
If you bought recently, your signed closing statement may be relevant evidence. An arm’s-length purchase price can help explain the property’s market value as of the appraisal date, although Bastrop CAD or the Appraisal Review Board determines the weight of every item submitted. I am happy to help identify comparable sales for protest preparation, whether or not I represented you in the purchase.
If you are a veteran
Texas is genuinely good to disabled veterans, and the rules are widely misunderstood.
A service-connected disability rating earns a flat exemption off value: $5,000 at 10–29 percent, $7,500 at 30–49 percent, $10,000 at 50–69 percent and $12,000 at 70–100 percent. That one applies to a property you own, and it does not have to be your homestead.
A veteran rated 100 percent, or receiving 100 percent compensation through individual unemployability, is exempt from property tax on their homestead entirely. Not a discount — the total appraised value. The individual unemployability route is the part people miss: you do not need a 100 percent schedular rating if the VA pays you at the 100 percent rate through TDIU.
Separate exemptions may apply to qualifying surviving spouses and to certain donated homesteads. Late-filing periods depend on the particular exemption; veteran status alone does not establish a five-year filing period for every exemption. Confirm the applicable form, qualification date and deadline with Bastrop CAD and the Comptroller’s disabled-veteran exemption guidance.
I served in the Army myself, and this is the area where I most often find money my clients did not know they were entitled to. If you are a veteran buying here, ask me.
Over 65
At 65 you get the extra $60,000 school exemption and, more importantly, a school tax ceiling — your school taxes on that homestead cannot go above what they were the first year you qualified. The ceiling can go down. It cannot go up, except for new improvements.
The ceiling moves with you, but not the way most people assume. You do not carry a dollar amount to your next house. You carry the percentage of tax reduction you were getting. The appraisal district in your old county must give you a written certificate — Form 50-311 — showing the numbers needed to calculate it. Request it when you list. This is the single most common mistake I see agents make with senior sellers.
Texas also lets homeowners 65 or older pay in four equal installments with no penalty or interest, due before February 1, April 1, June 1 and August 1, and offers a tax deferral option.
The calendar
- January 1 — the usual valuation date. Some exemptions can begin after January 1, including qualifying prorated residence homesteads and certain age, disability or veteran exemptions. Confirm the effective date with the appraisal district.
- Around April 1 — notices of appraised value mailed for homesteads.
- April 30 — last day to file exemption applications, and agricultural applications.
- May 15, or 30 days after your notice — protest deadline. Check your notice.
- After June 1 — Appraisal Review Board hearings.
- Late September — taxing units adopt the year’s rates.
- October 1 — tax bills mailed.
- January 31 — payment due.
- February 1 — delinquent. A 6 percent penalty and 1 percent interest hit immediately, and the penalty climbs monthly to 12 percent in July.
A worked example: why the same price can mean different taxes
Illustration only: these are invented taxable values and rates to explain the calculation, not current rates or estimates for any Bastrop County property. Suppose two homes each have $300,000 of taxable value for every unit in this simplified example. At a combined rate of $2.00 per $100, the annual tax is $300,000 ÷ 100 × $2.00 = $6,000. At $2.50 per $100, it is $7,500. The difference is $1,500 a year, or $125 a month before any lender escrow adjustment.
For a real property, calculate each taxing unit separately using that unit’s taxable value and adopted rate, then add the amounts. Exemptions and other adjustments can make the taxable value different for each unit. A purchase price is not a confirmed taxable value, and the seller’s existing exemption is not proof of the buyer’s eligibility or future bill. Include any separate assessments when comparing total ownership costs.
- Find the exact parcel in Bastrop CAD’s property search; check the address and legal description.
- List every taxing unit, its adopted rate and the relevant tax year. Confirm which exemptions and taxable values apply to your circumstances with the appraisal district.
- Ask the lender for a property-specific escrow estimate and confirm separate assessments or charges. Retain the source documents and the date checked.
For the statewide framework, see the Texas Comptroller’s property-tax system basics. Check the Comptroller’s tax-rate resources and local records for actual rates. This example is general education, not tax advice or a quote.
Buying a home? Start with the property record
Before relying on a listing’s tax estimate, save the exact parcel record and ask which tax year, taxable values, exemptions and taxing units the estimate uses. Keep any MUD tax or PID assessment visible in your comparison. Your lender and the responsible tax authorities should confirm the figures used for closing.
Look up the parcel at Bastrop CAD · Find official homestead instructions
Ask Bre about a property you are considering · Compare Bastrop and Elgin
Related reading: flood zones and elevation certificates · MUD and PID districts · buying land and acreage in Bastrop County · VA loans and veteran buyers · first-time home buyers · all services
Written by Bre Meador, REALTOR® — All City Real Estate, Bastrop County, TX · U.S. Army veteran and former nurse · TREC #0835116
Read client reviews. Targeted updates October 12 and October 17, 2026: opening guidance, historical tax-example clarification, and a property-record checklist. Dated figures retain their stated tax years. This page is general information from a licensed REALTOR®, not tax, legal, engineering or insurance advice.
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