How much property tax actually gets collected? (DRAFT – not published)

In short

Almost all property tax gets paid. In fiscal 2025, the county collected 99.58% of its main tax bill within the year. Leander ISD collected 99.02% and the City of Leander 99.01%. Over time, the audited reports show the county and the school district ending up with 99.76% to 99.97% of each year’s bill. (A county budget table shows less; see below.) The county tax office collects for all three. Late taxes grow fast under state law, and the unpaid tax stays tied to the property, so most of it is paid in the end. (Sources: each government’s 2025 audited report.)

The numbers

Share of each year’s tax bill paid in the same year, and the share paid so far (later payments added):

Year	County: same year	County: so far	Leander ISD: same year	Leander ISD: so far	City of Leander: same year	City of Leander: so far
2016	99.65%	99.96%	99.54%	99.96%	99.98%	100.95%
2019	99.67%	99.93%	99.56%	99.94%	99.91%	100.03%
2021	99.66%	99.93%	99.22%	99.91%	99.38%	99.44%
2022	99.77%	99.94%	99.38%	99.90%	99.74%	99.74%
2023	99.68%	99.97%	99.13%	99.85%	98.94%	98.64%
2024	99.47%	99.89%	98.95%	99.76%	98.74%	98.74%
2025	99.58%	99.58%	99.02%	99.02%	99.01%	99.01%

Source: each report’s “Property Tax Levies and Collections” table.¹²³ County figures are the main and debt tax (the road tax is almost the same). Years are each government’s budget year. The school year ends June 30; the county and city years end Sept. 30.

What 1% means in dollars (2025, our math): about $1.9 million of the county’s $455.3 million bill was not paid in the year. For Leander ISD it was about $4.6 million of $473.5 million. For the city it was about $0.65 million of $65.5 million.¹²³

How much is still unpaid

Each audited report lists property tax owed but not yet paid at year end:

	Unpaid tax at year end	Date
Williamson County	$5.15 million	Sept. 30, 2025
Leander ISD	$8.71 million ($7.20 million after the amount it expects never to get)	June 30, 2025
City of Leander	$0.59 million, plus $0.21 million in penalties and interest	Sept. 30, 2025

Sources: the receivables notes in each report.⁴⁵⁶ These cover all past years still owed, not just the last one. The county’s large “uncollectible” set-aside is mostly for ambulance and other bills, not property tax.⁴

Who chases late taxes. The county’s tax-sale page says sales are run by its delinquent-tax lawyers, the firm McCreary, Veselka, Bragg & Allen.⁷ We have not read the contract itself, so we don’t report its terms.

The other side. Unpaid tax is not lost tax. It stays tied to the property and grows with penalties until it is paid.⁸

What happens when a tax is late (the law)

• Due date. Bills are due by Jan. 31. After that the tax is late.⁹
• Penalty and interest. A late tax gets a 6% penalty in the first month, plus 1% more each month, up to 12% by July 1. Interest adds 1% a month on top, with no end date.⁸ So a bill unpaid for a year costs about 24% more. After July 1, the collector can also add a collection fee of up to 20%.⁸
• Collection fee. A unit with a collection-lawyer contract may add an extra fee on taxes still unpaid on July 1. It can’t be more than the lawyer’s contract pays.⁸
• The tax stays with the property. Unpaid tax is a lien on the property. A unit can sue and, in the end, have the property sold.¹⁰⁸
• Limits. A unit can’t sue over real-estate tax that has been late for more than 20 years, or business property tax late more than 4 years.⁸
• Help for homeowners. If you are behind on your homestead, the collector must offer a payment plan of 12 to 36 months, if you haven’t had one in the last 2 years. People 65 or older, disabled people and some disabled veterans can put off paying on their homestead. Interest is then 5% a year, and the debt stays on the home.⁸ See help paying property taxes.

What the numbers can and can’t tell you

• They do not compare offices. We did not check other counties’ rates. The tax stays tied to the property, so the law gives units years to collect it.¹⁰⁸
• “So far” can go up or down. Bills change after appeals and corrections. A later refund shows up as a negative “later payment.” That is why the county’s 2024 “so far” figure is computed on a smaller, corrected bill.¹
• Two county sources don’t agree. The county’s budget book has its own collection table from the tax office.¹¹ It counts by tax year, not budget year. It shows later refunds larger than later payments in recent years. So its “so far” share goes down over time: 99.20% for tax year 2023 and 98.90% for tax year 2024. The audited report shows 99.89% or more for every year. Both may be right if they count refunds and corrections in different ways. We don’t know yet. Gap.
• The city’s table looks unfinished for 2023 and 2024. The school district’s table, using the same tax offices, shows $3.7 million in later payments for each of those years. The city’s table shows none for 2024, and a $157,223 reduction for 2023. But the city’s table still lists about $1.45 million of those two years’ bills as unpaid (our math), and the city’s report says only $0.59 million of tax was still owed for all years at Sept. 30, 2025 (our math).³⁶ So some later payments almost surely came in. Our guess is the table’s blanks mean “not filled in,” not “zero.” That is our reading, not the city’s. Gap.³²
• They don’t show who is behind. These are totals. They don’t show how many homes or businesses owe, or how much is in lawsuits.

The other side (counterweight)

• A collection rate near 100% does not by itself show special skill. But it is still a basic check that the office is doing its job, and in the years we checked (2016, 2019 and 2021 to 2025) none of the three fell below 98.6%.
• A drop of half a point can mean a lot of money. For Leander ISD, the gap between 99.5% and 99.0% is more than $2 million a year.
• The county tax office collects these taxes, but it doesn’t set any of them. Rates come from each board. Values come from the appraisal district. See tax assessor collector and which tax office does what.

Questions to ask

• How does the tax office explain the gap between its two collection tables?
• Where does the tax office post collection rates by tax year?

Changes to this page

• Nov. 2, 2026: Removed an unsourced statement about when late tax gets paid, and plainer wording about comparing offices.
• Nov. 2, 2026: Added questions to ask.
• Nov. 2, 2026: We checked every figure against its source. We reworded the other-side points so they stick to what the sources show.

What we still don’t know

• How much in late tax is owed today (the reports above are a year old), and by how many owners.
• Which units add the July 1 collection fee, at what percent, and the terms of the county’s lawyer contract.
• Why the city’s later-payment numbers differ from the school district’s.
• Why the county’s budget book and audited report show different “so far” shares.

Numbers marked “our math” are our estimates, not official figures. The notes show the inputs and the steps.

Footnotes

1. Williamson County FY2025 ACFR, Statistical Section Table 8, “Property Tax Levies and Collections” (p. 166), General and Debt Service and Road and Bridge. Public copy: https://emma.msrb.org/P11938140.pdf (MSRB EMMA). ↩ ↩² ↩³

2. Leander ISD 2025 ACFR, Statistical Section Table 11, “Property Tax Levies and Collections” (p. 130). Public copy: https://www.leanderisd.org/financialtransparency/ (LISD financial transparency page). ↩ ↩² ↩³

3. City of Leander FY2025 annual financial report, Table 9, “Property Tax Levies and Collections” (p. 113). Public copy: https://emma.msrb.org/P11938164.pdf (MSRB EMMA). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

4. Williamson County FY2025 ACFR, Note on receivables (property taxes receivable $5,150,099 across funds). Public copy: https://emma.msrb.org/P11938140.pdf (MSRB EMMA). ↩ ↩²

5. Leander ISD 2025 ACFR, General and Debt Service funds, delinquent property taxes receivable $8,711,982 less allowance $1,511,829. Public copy: https://www.leanderisd.org/financialtransparency/ ↩

6. City of Leander FY2025 annual financial report, Note 4, receivables (property taxes $589,080; penalties and interest $209,395). Public copy: https://emma.msrb.org/P11938164.pdf ↩ ↩²

7. Williamson County, Tax Sales page. https://www.wilcotx.gov/762/Tax-Sales ↩

8. Texas Tax Code §§33.01 (penalty and interest), 33.02 (payment plans), 33.05 (time limits), 33.06 (65+, disabled and veteran deferral), 33.07 (collection fee). https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/TX/htm/TX.33.htm (checked Nov. 1, 2026). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸

9. Texas Tax Code §31.02 (due date). https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/TX/htm/TX.31.htm ↩

10. Texas Tax Code §32.01 (tax lien). https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/TX/htm/TX.32.htm ↩ ↩²

11. Williamson County FY2025-26 Adopted Budget, “Ad Valorem Tax Collection History” (p. 56). https://www.wilcotx.gov/DocumentCenter/View/17712/FY26-GFOA-Final (county website). ↩