Hendersonville TN Property Tax: Rates, Due Dates & Exemptions

Property owners in Hendersonville pay a combined city and county property tax rate of $2.0093 per $100 of assessed value. The City of Hendersonville charges $0.5883 and Sumner County charges $1.4210.¹² On a home appraised at $400,000, that works out to roughly $2,009 for the year. Bills arrive around October, and anything unpaid after February 28 becomes delinquent on March 1.

How Your Bill Is Calculated

Tennessee assesses residential property at 25% of its appraised market value, not the full appraisal.³ The Sumner County Assessor of Property sets the appraised value. You multiply that figure by 0.25 to get your assessed value, divide by 100, then multiply by the tax rate.

For a home appraised at $400,000:

Assessed value: $400,000 × 0.25 = $100,000
City tax: ($100,000 ÷ 100) × $0.5883 = $588.30
County tax: ($100,000 ÷ 100) × $1.4210 = $1,421.00
Total: $2,009.30

The assessed value is purely mechanical once the appraisal is set, so the appraised value is the figure worth paying attention to. A reduction there drops both the city and county portions of your bill.

Both rates can change year to year. The Hendersonville Board of Mayor and Aldermen sets the city rate; the Sumner County Board of Commissioners sets the county rate.

When Payment Is Due

Tax notices go out around October. You can pay anytime after the bill arrives, but the hard deadline is February 28. Every dollar outstanding on March 1 is legally delinquent.⁴

Delinquent taxes carry 1.5% interest on March 1 and another 1.5% on the first of every month after that, which comes to 18% a year.⁵ Interest accrues on the full unpaid balance. A $2,000 bill left unpaid for six months would carry about $180 in extra interest alone. There is no grace period after February 28, and the county does not negotiate the penalties away.

Long-term delinquency can lead the county to sue and sell the property at a court-ordered tax sale. After the sale, the former owner has up to 12 months to redeem the property by paying the full amount owed plus costs.⁶ Tax sales are uncommon for homeowners who miss a single bill, but the interest math gets painful fast.

How to Pay

Hendersonville runs an online payment portal that accepts credit cards and electronic checks for both the city and county portions.⁷ The Sumner County Trustee’s office also takes online payments through tnpayments.com with Visa or Mastercard.⁸

Card payments come with a processing fee of 2.65% plus $1, charged by the payment processor rather than the county.⁸ On a $2,000 bill, that adds about $54. To avoid the fee, mail a check to either the Sumner County Trustee’s office or Hendersonville City Hall and include the top portion of your tax notice. Both offices also accept in-person payments during regular business hours.

Keep your receipt. If a mortgage company escrows your taxes, you may need proof of payment, and you will certainly need it if a payment ever gets misapplied.

Challenging Your Appraised Value

If the appraised value on your notice looks too high, you have two levels of appeal before any courtroom becomes involved. Start with an informal review through the Sumner County Assessor’s office, which has its own annual deadline; for 2025 that date was May 30.⁹ Bring recent comparable sales, a recent independent appraisal, or documentation of defects that reduce the home’s value. Many disputes get resolved at this stage without a formal hearing.

If the informal review does not settle it, appeal to the Sumner County Board of Equalization. The county board hears taxpayer complaints and can lower overvalued properties. You generally need to go through the county board before taking the matter higher; skipping that step makes the assessment final in most cases.¹⁰

If the county board rules against you, the next step is the Tennessee State Board of Equalization. That appeal must be filed by August 1 of the tax year or within 45 days of receiving the county board’s decision, whichever is later.¹⁰

Watch for Reappraisal Years

Sumner County reappraises property on a four-year cycle. Assessors review every parcel over three years and update all values in the fourth.¹¹ If prices in your neighborhood have jumped, expect your appraised value to jump too the next reappraisal year.

A reappraisal does not automatically raise your bill by the same percentage. Tennessee law requires local governments to calculate a “certified tax rate” after every reappraisal, meaning the rate that would produce roughly the same total revenue as the year before.¹² If the city or county wants to collect more than the certified rate would generate, the governing body has to hold a public hearing and formally adopt the higher rate. That hearing is the point at which residents can push back before an increase takes effect.

Programs That Can Lower What You Owe

Tennessee reimburses part of the property tax bill for three groups of homeowners who own and live in the home as their primary residence: low-income seniors, people with permanent disabilities, and disabled veterans. Sumner County also offers a tax freeze for qualifying seniors. Applications for all of these programs go through the Sumner County Trustee’s office.

Elderly Homeowners

If you are 65 or older by December 31 of the tax year, you may qualify for state reimbursement of part of your property taxes. Total household income from all sources, including your spouse and any co-owners, must fall below an annually adjusted limit. The base limit was $24,000 and rises each year by the Social Security cost-of-living adjustment.¹³ You will need proof of age, income documentation such as Social Security statements or tax returns, and proof that the property is your primary residence.

Disabled Homeowners

Homeowners who are totally and permanently disabled can qualify for the same reimbursement regardless of age, with matching income limits and documentation requirements. The disability must be verified under the rules set by the State Board of Equalization. A temporary move to a hospital or care facility does not disqualify you as long as you intend to return home.¹³

Disabled Veterans

Veterans with a service-connected permanent and total disability as determined by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs can receive property tax relief on their primary residence, with no household income limit. The program also covers veterans with paraplegia, legal blindness, or loss of use of two or more limbs from a service-connected cause. A dishonorable discharge disqualifies a veteran.¹³

Property Tax Freeze for Seniors

Sumner County participates in Tennessee’s Property Tax Freeze Act, which locks in your tax amount at the level it was when you first qualified.⁸ You must be 65 or older by the end of the year you apply, own and occupy the home as your primary residence, and have household income below the county-specific limit.¹⁴ The limit varies by county, recalculated each year from local median household income for residents 65 and older and adjusted for the Social Security cost-of-living increase. Counties can also adopt a local option that sets the limit at $60,000 as of 2024, likewise adjusted annually.

The freeze does not reduce your current bill. It prevents future increases. If your taxes are $1,800 the year you first qualify, they stay at $1,800 even if rates or appraisals rise later. You have to reapply every year to keep the freeze in place.¹⁵

If You Own Something Other Than a House

The 25% assessment ratio and the figures above apply to residential property. Commercial and industrial real estate is assessed at 40% of appraised value, nearly double the residential ratio.¹⁶ Business owners also face a separate obligation on tangible personal property, which is assessed at 30% of depreciated value and requires a schedule filed with the county assessor by March 1 each year.¹⁷ Farmland may qualify for Tennessee’s Greenbelt program, which taxes agricultural land on its farm-use value rather than its development potential.

1
City of Hendersonville, TN. Tax Structure
2
Sumner County, Tennessee Government. How to Calculate Your Taxes
3
Justia. Tennessee Code 67-5-801 – Classification and Rate of Assessment
4
Tennessee Comptroller of the Treasury. Assessment Schedule
5
Justia. Tennessee Code 67-5-2010 – Interest – Delinquent Taxes
6
Justia. Tennessee Code 67-5-2501 – Sale of Land Generally
7
City of Hendersonville, TN. Make Online Payments
8
Sumner County, TN Government. Trustee
9
Sumner County, Tennessee Government. Appealing Your Assessment
10
Tennessee Comptroller of the Treasury. Value Appeals
11
Sumner County, Tennessee Government. The Reappraisal Cycle
12
Tennessee Comptroller of the Treasury. Property Tax Reappraisal and Certified Tax Rate
13
Tennessee Comptroller of the Treasury. Tennessee Code 67-5-701 Through 67-5-704
14
Justia. Tennessee Code 67-5-705 – Property Tax Freeze Act
15
Tennessee Comptroller of the Treasury. Property Tax Freeze
16
Tennessee Comptroller of the Treasury. How to Calculate Your Tax Bill
17
Tennessee Comptroller of the Treasury. Tangible Personal Property