Ouachita County Arkansas Property Tax Calculator

How Ouachita County property taxes are calculated

Ouachita County applies the Arkansas formula without any local wrinkle in the arithmetic: 20% of market value becomes assessed value, and every mill in the parcel's school, city and county combination adds $1 of tax per $1,000 of that assessed value. What makes this county worth checking before you buy is that its two biggest lines both vary, and they do not vary together.

A $130,000 house in Camden inside the Camden-Fairview #16 district, at 50 mills for 2026 collections, works through as follows:

1. $130,000 market value times 20% equals $26,000 assessed value.
2. $26,000 times 50 divided by 1,000 equals $1,300 tax before credit.
3. Subtract the $600 homestead credit for $700 estimated annual tax, or $58.33 a month.

Now move the same house across the county line into East Camden and the number changes sharply. East Camden sits in the Harmony Grove district, which carries 45.8 school mills, and the city adds 5.6, for 59.8 mills overall. The tax before credit becomes $1,555 and the bill after credit $955, a difference of $255 a year against a Camden address of the same value. Ouachita County is also one of the few places where a city can be cheaper than the countryside: Camden city pays a total of 50 mills while rural parcels in the Harmony Grove district pay 54.2.

Ouachita County millage rates by district and city

Eleven taxing combinations are published for Ouachita County for 2026 collections, and all eleven are listed below. Every row adds up: school mills plus city mills plus the county levy equals the overall figure. The county levy is 8.4 mills on almost every line, with Camden city the single exception at 8 mills. A "Rural" row carries no city millage.

Ouachita County rows taken from the Arkansas DFA Assessment Coordination Division 2025 Millage Report, covering 2026 collections and issued March 2026. All eleven combinations are listed here. On city parcels the county's 8.4 mills carries a 1.5 mill road allotment, 5 mills general, 1.5 mills of county road and 0.4 mills of library tax; on rural parcels the road line is 3 mills instead of the allotment. Camden city is the one line where the county total drops to 8 mills.

Why Ouachita County rates differ by more than 17 mills

Ouachita County's five school districts range from 34 to 45.8 mills and its six cities range from 5 to 8 mills, which together produce a 17.4 mill spread between the cheapest and dearest published combination. Neither line dominates: depending on the address, either one can be the reason your bill is high or low.

• East Camden is the dearest address at 59.8 mills. It sits in the Harmony Grove district, whose 45.8 school mills are the highest in the county, and adds a 5.6 mill city rate. On a $130,000 home that is $1,555 before credit.
• Rural Camden-Fairview is the cheapest at 42.4 mills. The district's 34 school mills are the lowest here and rural parcels add nothing to a city. The same $130,000 value pays $1,102 before credit, or $452 less than East Camden.
• Camden carries the county's highest city rate and lowest county line. Camden city levies 8 mills, of which 5 is general, 1 fire, 1 police and 1 library, but the county line in Camden is 8 mills rather than 8.4, so a Camden address lands at exactly 50 mills while a Chidester address in the same district lands at 47.4 and a Stephens address at 48.4.
• Stephens costs more than Chidester inside one district. Both sit in Camden-Fairview #16. Stephens levies 6 city mills and Chidester 5, so the two towns are 1 mill apart on identical school and county lines.
• The Nevada district reaches into this county. One rural tier in the Ouachita County table carries 44.8 school mills from the Nevada district, giving it 53.2 mills, higher than four of the five local districts' city rates.
• Rural Harmony Grove is dearer than city Camden. Rural Harmony Grove parcels pay 54.2 mills, which is 4.2 mills more than a Camden city address, a rare case where the city levies more and pays less.

District and city boundaries do not line up in Ouachita County. Bearden #53 fringes into Calhoun and Dallas counties, Harmony Grove #1 reaches into Dallas and Clark, and Smackover #39 fringes in from Union County as well as reaching into Columbia. Two consolidation histories matter too: the Sparkman district consolidated with Harmony Grove, and McNeil consolidated with Stephens before Stephens merged into Camden-Fairview, which is why neither of those district names appears in the current table.

Camden, East Camden, Bearden and the rest of Ouachita County

Camden

Camden is the county seat and the only city in Ouachita County where the city tax rate is not the whole story, because the county line here is 8 mills instead of the 8.4 mills charged everywhere else in the county. That combination gives a Camden city address exactly 50 mills, the same as the county average, even though the city levy of 8 mills is the highest in Ouachita County. The 1933 courthouse at 145 Jefferson Street houses the assessor, the collector and the county clerk, so every property tax question has one address.

East Camden

East Camden pays the county's highest published rate at 59.8 mills, and very little of that comes from the city. The driver is the Harmony Grove district's 45.8 school mills, which are 11.8 mills above the Camden-Fairview district rate. East Camden's own city levy is a modest 5.6 mills, split 5 general and 0.6 fire. A buyer comparing East Camden with Camden should compare school districts, not city services.

Bearden

Bearden sits in the Bearden #53 district, whose 34 school mills are the lowest in the county, and pays a 5.4 mill city rate for 48.7 mills overall. Bearden's city rate is the only one in the county that includes a fire line of 0.4 mills alongside its 5 mill general levy. On a $102,000 median-value home the difference against East Camden is $226 a year.

Chidester, Stephens and Louann

These three towns show how much the city line alone can matter inside one school district. Chidester pays 47.4 mills, Stephens 48.4 and Louann 54.4. Chidester and Stephens share the Camden-Fairview district and differ only by their city levies, 5 against 6 mills. Louann sits in the higher-rated Smackover district with a 5 mill city rate, which is why it lands more than a mill above Stephens despite charging less city tax.

Rural Ouachita County

Rural addresses carry no city tax, but their range is still wide: 42.4 mills in Camden-Fairview, 43.3 in Bearden #53, 49.4 in Smackover #39, 53.2 in the Nevada district tier and 54.2 in Harmony Grove #1. That is nearly 12 mills without a single city levy involved, decided entirely by which school district the land falls inside.

Ouachita County Assessor

Official name: Ouachita County Assessor's Office. Assessor: Tonya McKenzie. The office is at 145 Jefferson Street in Camden and handles property valuation, parcel records, personal and business personal property assessment, homestead registration and the age 65 or disabled value freeze. It does not collect tax payments. The county's 2025 reappraisal round was carried out by Total Assessment Solutions Corp, the appraisal contractor named in state filings.

One source conflict to note. The DFA county officials directory and the Association of Arkansas Counties both name Tonya McKenzie as assessor with the same 145 Jefferson Street address and phone, and those are the sources used above. Arkansas.gov's Ouachita page instead shows a former office holder in this field, and the county services directory carries that same former name, so the state's own Assessor listing has not been refreshed. Personal and business personal property must be assessed by May 31 to avoid the 10% state penalty; real estate is assessed automatically as of January 1.

Sources: Arkansas DFA county officials directory and Association of Arkansas Counties, Ouachita. The statewide list is in the site's Arkansas assessor directory.

Ouachita County Collector

Official name: Ouachita County Sheriff and Collector. Collector: David Norwood, who holds both offices, and the county labels the department accordingly. The office bills and collects real and personal property tax and handles delinquency. It does not set values. For payments the county publishes a dedicated online route rather than sending residents to a generic state page.

The collector's record on the county-sponsored tax search and the county's own collector page list the same Camden number, (870) 837-2260, so there is no contact discrepancy to resolve here. Arkansas.gov's directory gives a different phone for this office but does not name the office holder, so the county and state tax record sources are the ones used above. The sheriff's law enforcement line is a separate number, so call (870) 837-2260 for anything to do with a tax bill.

Sources: Ouachita County Collector's Office and ARCountyData Ouachita County collector record.

How to find an Ouachita County parcel and its exact tax

Ouachita County does something most Arkansas counties do not: its collector's page links four separate public systems in one place, covering real estate records, tax records, personal property assessment and payment. That makes a full parcel-to-bill lookup possible without calling the office.

1. Start with the real estate search on actDataScout, linked from the county collector's page. Search by owner name, address or parcel number to pull ownership, value and property characteristics.
2. Confirm the school district and the city on the record. In Ouachita County these are the only two fields that change your rate, and the city line alone spans 5 to 8 mills.
3. Check whether the record shows a homestead credit or a value freeze, which explains any gap between market value and the assessed figure listed.
4. Move to the ARCountyData tax record search for the collector's side. It lets you filter by tax book (current or delinquent), property type, school district and receipt date, and returns the parcel number, name, owner address and book.
5. For vehicles and personal property, the county links a personal property assessment lookup on the ar.scoutassess service, which is the online route for assessing and then renewing tags.

The ARCountyData county page listed 40,977 parcels with collector data refreshed in September 2026, which is the most current refresh date of any county in this batch. Its district codes for filtering are 01, 01G, 04, 13, 13S, 16, 16C, 16H, 16R, 16S, 16SR, 39, 39L, 53, 53B and LIEN, which correspond to the eight school and special combinations the county uses. For a boundary question, the assessor's office at 145 Jefferson Street keeps the parcel maps.

Sources: Ouachita County Collector's Office, Ouachita County tax record search, actDataScout Ouachita County real estate records and the personal property assessment lookup.

Paying Ouachita County property taxes

Ouachita County tax on the previous year's assessment is payable through October 15, and the county offers online payment, an in-person counter in Camden and mail, with the mailing address printed as a post office box rather than the street address.

Payment options for this county

• Online: the personal property and real estate portal linked from the county collector's page, which routes to the Arkansas tax payment service run by CountyService.Net. It is status-dependent and shows which tax year it is currently accepting, so confirm that before you pay.
• In person: the collector's office at 145 Jefferson Street in Camden, weekdays during courthouse hours.
• By mail: the collector's mailing address is P.O. Box 217, Camden, AR 71701. Mail in time to arrive before October 15 rather than posting on the day.

The county's tax record search also offers proof of payment and real-time receipt information, which is useful if you need documentation for a mortgage escrow or a tax filing and do not want to request a copy by phone. Card fees on the online portal are set by the payment processor rather than the county, and the county does not publish a fee table, so read the amount shown at checkout. Statewide context on the deadline and what follows it is in Arkansas property tax due dates and paying Arkansas property taxes online.

Sources: Ouachita County Collector's Office and ARCountyData Ouachita County.

Homestead credit in Ouachita County

Ouachita County homeowners file the Arkansas homestead credit with the assessor's office at 145 Jefferson Street in Camden, because the assessor registers homesteads in every Arkansas county. The same office handles the age 65 or disabled value freeze. The county's own site does not host a downloadable homestead form, so this is a counter or mail filing with the assessor rather than an online submission.

The credit is not automatic, and figures quoted on older pages are stale. The current maximums are $600 on a 2026 tax bill under Act 330 of 2025 and $675 on a 2027 bill under HB1103, also known as Act 174 of 2026; anything citing $375 or $500 is describing a superseded level. The calculator on this page models the 2026 bill and applies $600. The state's own account is on the DFA property tax relief page, and the step-by-step filing route is in how to apply for the Arkansas homestead credit.

Amendment 79 protections apply as they do statewide, holding annual taxable value growth to 5% on a primary residence and 10% on other real property, with a full value freeze available to owners 65 or older or disabled. Ouachita County went through a county-wide reappraisal in 2025, with the next round listed for 2029 on a five-year cycle, so current bills reflect that 2025 work. Background is in Arkansas Amendment 79 property tax limits and the senior property tax freeze in Arkansas.

Sources: Arkansas DFA property tax relief, Arkansas DFA county officials directory and the DFA reappraisal cycle schedule.

Appealing an Ouachita County assessment

Begin with the assessor's office in Camden. Its appraisers will review your property record card and compare the value against comparable parcels, which is the informal route the state encourages and often the end of the matter. Ouachita County does not publish an appeal form online, so the first step is a call to (870) 837-2240 or a visit to 145 Jefferson Street.

The formal step is the Ouachita County Board of Equalization. Ark. Code 26-27-317 allows an owner or an agent to apply in person, by petition or by letter to the secretary of the county equalization board, on or before the third Monday in August. In every Arkansas county the county clerk serves as the board secretary; in Ouachita County that office also sits at 145 Jefferson Street. The board begins hearing appeals no later than the second Monday in August and its session runs from August 1 through October 1.

• Filing route: petition or letter to the equalization board secretary, through the county clerk's office.
• Deadline: the third Monday in August of the assessment year, with filing able to begin as early as July 1.
• Scope: the board rules on whether the valuation is correct, and may lower, raise or confirm it.
• Evidence: property record cards and sale prices for comparable parcels in the same district, plus any recent appraisal of your own property. Material evidence not given to the assessor at least five business days before the hearing can lead to a continuance.
• Onward appeal: a petition to the county court, filed with the county clerk on or before the second Monday in October, with the county judge sitting as the court.

Because Ouachita County completed a reappraisal in 2025, the first bills reflecting the new values are recent, and any dispute has to be raised in the year the assessment was made: the board cannot reach back to earlier years. More on the process is in how to appeal a property tax assessment in Arkansas and the site's property tax appeal guide.

Sources: Ark. Code 26-27-317, Ark. Code 26-27-318 and Association of Arkansas Counties, Ouachita for the clerk's office details.

Ouachita County property tax examples

The rows below price five market values at the 50.11 mill county average for 2026 collections with the $600 credit applied, which is exactly what the calculator above does. Because Ouachita County's own range runs 42.4 to 59.8 mills, a real parcel can land either side of these figures.

Calculated at the 50.11 mill Ouachita County average for 2026 collections, one $600 credit per row, using the site's standard formula.

Ouachita County median home value and median tax

Keep this section separate from the calculator in your head: it contains survey statistics about the county, not inputs or outputs for any property.

An Ouachita County reader can test the two figures against each other. The median home value of $102,100, run through the 20% assessment ratio and the 50.11 mill average, implies about $1,023 before credit, close to double the survey's median tax of $525. Surveyed bills reflect Amendment 79 caps that hold taxable value below full assessed value, districts other than the average, and credits claimed, while the calculation reflects a full-value purchase in an average district. Use the survey for county-to-county comparison and the calculator for a figure you might budget against.

Sources: B25077, median value; B25103, median tax; B01003, population. These are survey estimates and carry sampling error.

Ouachita County property tax questions

• What is the property tax rate in Ouachita County Arkansas?+

  The county average is 50.11 mills for 2026 collections, blending 38.56 school mills, 5.83 city mills and 8.36 county mills. Published rates in Ouachita County run from 42.4 mills in the rural Camden-Fairview tier to 59.8 mills for an East Camden address inside the Harmony Grove district.

• Why is an Ouachita County city levy different from the county average?+

  City millage in Ouachita County spans 5 to 8 mills. Camden levies 8 mills, made up of 5 mills general, 1 mill fire, 1 mill police and 1 mill library, while Chidester and Louann each levy 5 mills. That 3 mill city difference moves a $130,000 home by $78 a year before any credit.

• How do I search Ouachita County property records and tax records?+

  The county's own site links a real estate search on actDataScout for ownership and value, the collector's tax record search on ARCountyData for bills and receipts, and a personal property assessment lookup on the ar.scoutassess service. All three are free and linked from the county collector's page.

• Can I pay Ouachita County property taxes online?+

  Yes. Ouachita County takes personal property and real estate payments through the Arkansas tax payment portal run by CountyService.Net, and the county's own collector page links that portal. The portal is status-dependent and shows which tax year it is accepting at checkout.

• Who is the Ouachita County collector?+

  David Norwood is the Ouachita County sheriff and collector, and the county styles the office as Sheriff and Collector. The collector's office is at 145 Jefferson Street, Camden, AR 71701, on (870) 837-2260, and the county mailing address is P.O. Box 217, Camden.

• How do I file the homestead credit or an appeal in Ouachita County?+

  Both go through offices at 145 Jefferson Street in Camden. Homestead registration and the age 65 or disabled value freeze are handled by the assessor on (870) 837-2240. Valuation appeals go to the secretary of the county equalization board, which is the county clerk's office, on or before the third Monday in August.

• When was Ouachita County last reassessed?+

  The DFA reappraisal schedule lists Ouachita County on a five-year cycle with the current round dated 2025 and the next listed in 2029, so the 2025 round governs values on current bills. The 2025 round was carried out by Total Assessment Solutions Corp, the appraisal contractor named in DFA filings.

Nearby county pages

Official sources