Sebastian County Arkansas Property Tax Calculator

How Sebastian County property taxes are calculated

Arkansas assesses real property at 20% of market value. Sebastian County then multiplies that assessed value by the total millage for the parcel's school district and city, where one mill equals $1 of tax per $1,000 of assessed value. A homestead credit, if the property qualifies as a primary residence, is deducted at the end.

Here is the working for a $250,000 home in Lavaca inside the Lavaca #3 district, which carries a combined 60.4 mills for 2026 collections, the highest rate in the county:

1. $250,000 market value times 20% equals $50,000 assessed value.
2. $50,000 times 60.4 divided by 1,000 equals $3,020 tax before credit.
3. Subtract the $600 homestead credit to reach $2,420 estimated annual tax.

Move the same house into a rural Charleston #9 parcel at 46.0 mills and the tax before credit falls to $2,300, or $1,700 after the credit. Same market value, $720 less per year. Sebastian County's 14.4 mill spread between its cheapest and dearest addresses is wider than most of its neighbours, and it comes from the school district and the city levy together.

Sebastian County millage rates by district and city

Each row below is a taxing combination published for Sebastian County for 2026 collections. The three levy columns sum to the overall rate on every line. Sebastian County has seven school districts and eleven millage-levying cities, and it is the only county in this batch where the county levy itself changes between parcels in the same district.

Sebastian County rows taken from the Arkansas DFA Assessment Coordination Division 2025 Millage Report, covering 2026 collections and issued March 2026. The county average county figure of 8.45 mills blends an 8.5 mill rural levy with an 8.0 mill levy inside Fort Smith.

Why two Sebastian County homes can have different tax bills

Sebastian County has the most complicated tax geography of any county in this batch, because two things change at once. The school district sets the largest share of the rate, and the city levy ranges from 5.0 mills to 10.0 mills. On top of that, the county levy drops from 8.5 mills to 8.0 inside Fort Smith.

• Lavaca is the most taxed address in the county. Lavaca levies 10.0 mills, double the rate charged by most Sebastian County cities, split into 5.0 mills general and 5.0 mills for voluntary fire protection. Combined with the 41.9 mill Lavaca #3 district and the 8.5 mill county levy, a Lavaca city address pays 60.4 mills, the highest published rate in the county. On a $250,000 home that is $3,020 before any credit.
• The Fort Smith levy is lower than the rest of the county. Inside Fort Smith the county levy is 8.0 mills, not 8.5, because the city takes over the 1.5 mill road allotment and the county road line drops out. That is why a Fort Smith address in the Fort Smith school district pays 57.5 mills while a Barling address in the same district pays 55.0 despite Fort Smith's city levy being much higher.
• Fort Smith city levies 8.0 mills. That breaks down as 5.0 mills general, 1.0 mill fire, 1.0 mill police and 1.0 mill library. It is the second highest city levy in the county after Lavaca and the only one with a library line.
• Charleston is the cheapest address in the county. Charleston #9 levies the lowest school millage in Sebastian County at 37.5 mills, and the district appears only as a rural tier, so no city tax applies. The result is 46.0 mills, 14.4 mills below Lavaca. On a $250,000 home that is a $720 annual difference.
• A single city can carry two different rates. Barling appears twice: 55.0 mills inside the Fort Smith district and 53.5 inside Greenwood #25, because the school districts differ by 1.5 mills. The Barling city levy is the same 5.0 mills in both rows.

The city levy pattern across the county is unusual. Fort Smith and Lavaca are the only cities with anything beyond a basic general levy: Fort Smith adds fire, police and library lines, and Lavaca doubles its general rate for voluntary fire protection. Barling, Bonanza, Central City, Greenwood, Hackett and Midland each levy exactly 5.0 mills of general city tax with no other component. Huntington and Mansfield levy 5.3 mills each, the 0.3 mill addition being a fire line. The practical effect is that outside Fort Smith and Lavaca, the city share of a Sebastian County bill is nearly constant, and the school district does the rest.

Fort Smith, Greenwood, Lavaca and the rest of Sebastian County

Fort Smith

Fort Smith is the county seat and the largest city, and it is the only place in Sebastian County where the county levy is 8.0 mills instead of 8.5. The city levy is 8.0 mills. Fort Smith addresses can sit in the Fort Smith school district at 57.5 mills or in the Greenwood #25 district at 56.0 mills, and the Fort Smith school district is the most expensive school levy in the county at 41.5 mills. Fort Smith also holds the assessor's main office at 35 South 6th Street, Room 105, and the collector's main office in the same courthouse.

Greenwood

Greenwood is the second city and the seat of its own school district. A Greenwood city address pays 53.5 mills, which is 4 mills below Fort Smith and 6.9 below Lavaca, because the city levy is the standard 5.0 mills and the Greenwood #25 district is 1.5 mills cheaper than Fort Smith's. Greenwood also has its own courthouse at 301 E. Center, where the assessor keeps a real estate desk and the collector keeps an office.

Lavaca and Central City

These two sit in the Lavaca #3 district, the second most expensive school levy in the county at 41.9 mills. Lavaca's 10.0 mill city levy makes it the most taxed address in Sebastian County at 60.4 mills. Central City pays the standard 5.0 mills, so a Central City address in the same district lands at 55.4, five mills below its neighbour. That 5 mill gap is entirely the Lavaca voluntary fire protection levy.

Barling, Hackett, Hartford, Midland and Bonanza

These five all levy exactly 5.0 mills of general city tax and no more. Barling appears in two districts, paying 55.0 mills in the Fort Smith district and 53.5 in Greenwood #25. Hackett, Hartford, Midland and Bonanza all sit in the Hackett #17 district, the cheapest school levy with city rows, and all four pay an identical 51.5 mills.

Mansfield and Huntington

Both levy 5.3 mills, the extra 0.3 being a fire line, and both sit in the Mansfield #76 district at 40.01 school mills, giving each an identical 53.81 mills. The Mansfield district also reaches into Scott and Logan counties, so a Mansfield address is not automatically a Sebastian County parcel.

Rural Sebastian County

Rural parcels skip the city levy entirely, which is why the cheapest rates in the county are all rural tiers. Rural Charleston #9 is the lowest at 46.0 mills. Rural Hackett #17 is 46.5, rural Greenwood #25 is 48.5, rural Booneville #65 is 48.7, rural Mansfield #76 is 48.51 and rural Lavaca #3 is 50.4. Two of those districts, Booneville #65 and Charleston #9, appear only as rural tiers, so no city address in Sebastian County uses them.

Sebastian County Assessor

Official name: Sebastian County Assessor's Office. Assessor: Zach Johnson. The assessor maintains ownership records, lists all property with legal descriptions, prepares splits and combinations, assigns parcel numbers, assesses vehicles and businesses, and handles homestead credit and 65 and over or disabled freeze filings. Payment collection is not handled by the assessor's office.

Use the right number. Real estate, homestead and freeze questions go to (479) 784-1516. Personal property and business assessment questions go to (479) 783-8948. The Phoenix Avenue office handles personal and business only and does not deal with real estate, so a homestead question sent there will be redirected. The assessor also maintains the county's GIS mapping system and Pictometry maps, which is why school district and floodplain questions route through this office rather than the clerk.

Sources: Sebastian County Assessor property assessment and the Arkansas DFA county officials directory. For the office split in general, see Arkansas property tax assessor vs collector.

Sebastian County Collector

Official name: Sebastian County Treasurer and Collector. Collector: Lora Rice, who holds both offices. The collector gathers municipal, county, school and improvement district taxes and transfers the money to the treasurer monthly for distribution to the taxing entities. Assessed values are set by the assessor, not the collector.

Sebastian County documents its rules more completely than most. It accepts installment payments on current taxes, any amount, mailed in whenever you want between March 1 and October 15. It stopped accepting e-checks on October 16, 2018. It does not accept checks at all for delinquent taxes. Credit and debit card payments can take up to seven days to post to your account, which matters if you are paying near the deadline. For an electronic statement, Act 27 of 2013 lets the collector email tax statements, and the county asks you to include your taxpayer ID, which sits above the mailing address on your statement.

Sources: Sebastian County Treasurer and Collector payment page and Sebastian County paying taxes.

How to look up a Sebastian County parcel and its tax

Sebastian County runs its own real estate record system and its collector keeps a separate tax inquiry, so a complete search usually uses two pages on the same county site. Both are free and both are the county's own tools rather than a vendor site.

1. Open the Sebastian County real estate records search, linked from the assessor's department page and from the county's online services menu. Search by owner name, address or parcel number.
2. Read the market value and the assessed value on the parcel record, along with the school district. Arkansas assessed value is 20% of market value, so the two should differ by that factor unless an Amendment 79 cap or a freeze applies.
3. Note the school district and the city or area. In Sebastian County this matters twice over, because the city levy ranges from 5.0 to 10.0 mills and the county levy drops to 8.0 inside Fort Smith. That combination picks the row in the millage table above.
4. For what is owed, use the collector's public tax inquiry, which searches by name, address, parcel number or taxpayer ID and covers both current and delinquent books. It also goes back several tax years, so you can see payment history.
5. To pay, use the pay online option linked from the collector's payment page, which is the same CountyService.net tax payment portal used by the county and is currently accepting tax year 2025 payments.

The collector's office also answers balance questions directly: [email protected] or (479) 783-4163. The county's real estate records are maintained online by the assessor, and the assessor's department also maintains the GIS mapping system, so boundary and district questions belong there rather than with the collector.

Sources: Sebastian County real estate and GIS records and Sebastian County public tax inquiry.

Paying Sebastian County property taxes

Sebastian County collects all property tax from March 1 through October 15 in the calendar year after the year of assessment. Anything unpaid after October 15 is delinquent and the collector extends a 10% penalty against the taxpayer under Ark. Code 26-35-501. The county also states plainly that failure to receive a statement does not excuse you from the tax or the penalty and interest, which is worth remembering if a bill does not arrive.

Payment methods documented by the collector

• Online: available 24 hours a day, seven days a week, accepting Visa, Mastercard, American Express and Discover. A convenience fee is charged by the service provider and the county states it receives no portion of it. Card processing can take up to seven days to post.
• By mail: Sebastian County Tax Collector, PO Box 1358, Fort Smith, AR 72902. Postmarked by October 15 to avoid the late penalty. Include your statement or your taxpayer ID number on the check.
• In person: at any of the three offices, 35 S. 6th St. or 6515 Phoenix Ave. in Fort Smith, or 301 E. Center St. in Greenwood. This is the only option if you are paying with cash.
• Drop box: available at each of the three office locations.
• By phone: call the collector's office at (479) 783-4163 to pay by credit or debit card.
• Bank bill pay: the county asks that you schedule it to arrive by October 5 to be sure the payment lands on time.

Two rules are worth stating separately. The county stopped accepting e-checks on October 16, 2018, and it does not accept checks for delinquent taxes at all, so a delinquent balance has to be cleared by another method. Sebastian County also publishes a delinquent list to a legal newspaper before December 1 each year, as required by law. For the statewide picture on deadlines and what follows non-payment, see Arkansas property tax due dates and the Arkansas petition to redeem a tax sale.

Sources: Sebastian County Treasurer and Collector payment page and Sebastian County Treasurer and Collector department page.

Homestead credit in Sebastian County

The Arkansas homestead credit reduces the property tax on a qualifying primary residence. It is not automatic, and in Sebastian County you apply through the assessor's office, which lists completion of homestead exemption forms and removal of homestead credits among its stated services.

Sebastian County publishes one rule that is easy to miss: once you have filed, you do not have to re-file as long as you live in the same residence, but if you move you must file a new homestead on the new residence. The county also handles the 65 and over and disabled value freeze through the same office. Two figures circulate for the credit itself and they cover different tax years: $600 applies to the 2026 bills modelled by the calculator on this page, and $675 applies from 2027. Filing mechanics are covered in the homestead credit application guide.

Sebastian County homeowners also get the Amendment 79 protections: taxable value on a primary residence can rise at most 5% per year, other real property at most 10% per year, and owners 65 or older or disabled can freeze the taxable value of their residence. The freeze holds value, not the bill, so a millage increase can still raise what you pay. More detail is in Arkansas Amendment 79 property tax limits and the Arkansas senior property tax freeze guide.

Sources: Sebastian County Assessor homestead tax credit information and Sebastian County Assessor forms and downloads.

Appealing a Sebastian County assessment

Start with the assessor. Sebastian County's own process page notes that at any time a property owner who disagrees with an assessment or believes there are inaccuracies in the record should first check with the assessor, because errors in property details are often corrected without a formal appeal. The assessor's real estate line is (479) 784-1516.

For a dispute about the value itself, the route is the Sebastian County Board of Equalization. The county states the deadline plainly and publishes it in two places.

• Deadline: the third Monday in August each year, stated by the county as the Equalization Board appeal deadline.
• What the board hears: appeals for the current tax year, payable the following year. In Arkansas the taxes payable in any year are based on the previous year's assessment, which is why a 2026 value change lands on a 2027 bill.
• Filings route: an application may be made in person, by petition or by letter to the secretary of the board. The County Clerk's office at 35 South 6th Street, Room 102, Fort Smith, (479) 782-5065, serves as the clerk for that purpose.
• Board convenes: hearings must begin by the second Monday in August.
• Decision: written notice within ten business days, including the right to appeal to County Court and the deadline for doing so.
• Next step: a County Court petition, due on or before the second Monday in October.

On evidence, the state's model procedure sets out the order a hearing follows: the assessor presents the evidence used to set the value, the owner presents evidence for a different value, and the assessor may rebut. The board decides on the preponderance of the evidence. If you are filing for a business entity, a County Court petition must be signed and filed by an attorney licensed in Arkansas. Sebastian County is one of the counties that publishes an outline of this process on its own site rather than leaving owners to find the statute. The statewide framework is in how to appeal a property tax assessment in Arkansas and in the site's property tax appeal guide.

Sources: Sebastian County assessor process for appeal and Arkansas AACD county board of equalization model hearing procedures.

Sebastian County property tax examples

These examples use the Sebastian County average of 52.18 mills for 2026 collections with the $600 homestead credit applied. They are estimates, not quotes, because your parcel uses its own district and city combination, and the county levy itself changes inside Fort Smith.

Calculated at the 52.18 mill Sebastian County average for 2026 collections. A single $600 homestead credit is applied to each row.

Sebastian County median home value and median tax

This section is historical and statistical information for comparison. No figure here is wired into the calculator or tied to your parcel.

The gap between the median bill and a millage-derived figure is worth understanding. Multiplying the median home value of $176,200 by the 20% assessment ratio and the 52.18 mill average implies roughly $1,838, against a surveyed median of $1,102. Sebastian County has the highest median tax of the five counties in this batch and also one of the higher effective rates in the state, so the millage-derived estimate overshoots less here than it does elsewhere, but it still overshoots. Amendment 79 caps and the district mix account for the rest. Treat the ACS data as background and run planning numbers through the calculator above.

Sources: Files behind these numbers: B25077, B25103 and B01003, ACS 2024 five-year estimates. Sampling error applies.

Sebastian County property tax questions

• What is the property tax rate in Sebastian County?+

  The county average total millage is 52.18 mills for 2026 collections, blending 39.90 school mills, 5.89 city mills and 8.45 county mills. Actual rates run from 46.0 mills for a rural Charleston #9 parcel to 60.4 mills for a Lavaca city address in the Lavaca #3 district.

• Why is Lavaca the most expensive address in Sebastian County?+

  Because Lavaca levies 10.0 mills of city tax, double what most Sebastian County cities charge. Of that, 5.0 mills is general city tax and 5.0 mills is a voluntary fire protection levy. Combined with the 41.9 mill Lavaca #3 school district, a Lavaca address reaches 60.4 mills.

• Is the county levy the same everywhere in Sebastian County?+

  No. Inside Fort Smith the county levy is 8.0 mills rather than 8.5. The difference is the road line: Fort Smith takes the 1.5 mill road allotment and the county road levy drops out. That is why a Fort Smith address pays 57.5 mills in the Fort Smith school district while a Barling address in the same district pays 55.0.

• When are Sebastian County property taxes due?+

  October 15. Anything unpaid after that date is delinquent and the collector extends a 10% penalty under Ark. Code 26-35-501. The county states that failure to receive a statement does not excuse the tax or the penalty.

• Can I pay Sebastian County taxes in installments?+

  Yes, on current taxes. You can mail payments for any amount, whenever you want, from March 1 through October 15, and payments can also be made at any of the three offices by check, cash, debit card, credit card or money order. The full balance is still due by October 15.

• Does Sebastian County accept checks for delinquent taxes?+

  No. The county states plainly that it does not accept checks for delinquent taxes. It also stopped accepting e-checks for any payment on October 16, 2018.

• How do I look up a Sebastian County parcel and its tax?+

  Use the county's own real estate records search for ownership and values, then the collector's public tax inquiry for amounts owed. The tax inquiry searches by name, address, parcel number or taxpayer ID and covers current and delinquent books.

• Why does my bill differ from this estimate?+

  Your parcel uses its own school district and city combination rather than the 52.18 mill county average, and Amendment 79 caps can hold your taxable value below 20% of market value. Homesteads are limited to 5% annual growth, other real property to 10%.

Nearby county pages

Official sources