The headline rate matches. The local split does not.
You are not behind because the cap is confusing. You are holding two tickets that both say 8.25% and do not belong in one bucket. Austin's line carries Austin MTA. Round Rock's line does not. San Marcos is a third shape. The path below is the split, then the file.
Travis County's handbook places the University of Texas here in 1881, and it names high-technology industries in Austin and nearby Round Rock as part of the county's later story. Texas Instruments took shape as a local company in 1951, and Tracor made Austin its base in 1955. Bergstrom Air Force Base later became the municipal airport. Hays County's entry says that in the early twenty-first century higher education, tourism, and manufacturing were important, and it names Texas State University in San Marcos, with visitors drawn to the caves, springs, and spas of Wimberley and San Marcos. Beef cattle, goats, nursery crops, hay, corn, sorghum, wheat, and cotton are the agricultural list there.
Three counties form the middle: Hays County, Travis County, and Williamson County. Georgetown is Williamson's seat. Bastrop County and Caldwell County lie farther out. Slips stop matching on the July 2026 rows. Austin's Travis row is a 1% city tax plus Austin MTA at a full extra point, county column zero, no special district. With the state's 6.25% that is 8.25%, and the bus piece is as large as the city piece. Round Rock's Williamson row is a 2% city tax and a blank transit column, still 8.25%. San Marcos, on the Hays row and again on the Caldwell row, is a 1.5% city tax plus a 0.5% county column, transit blank, 8.25%.
Same cap. Three local stories. An owner who codes every 8.25% ticket as Austin city tax has kept the customer's total and lost the return.
Counties: Hays (central); Travis (central); Williamson (central); Bastrop (outlying); Caldwell (outlying).
Five counties means five appraisal districts. Business personal property renditions are due April 15 to the district for the county where the property is. A machine in Round Rock and a machine in San Marcos are not one list.
Sales tax is the other split. Use the city line for the place of the sale. Austin in Travis County: city 1%, Austin MTA 1%, combined 8.25%. Round Rock in Williamson County: city 2%, no transit, combined 8.25%. San Marcos in Hays County: city 1.5%, county column 0.5%, no transit, combined 8.25%. The Bastrop County and Caldwell County rows in the county file each show a county sales tax of 0.5%. Travis County and Williamson County show none. Do not borrow Austin MTA for a Round Rock ticket. The file does not put it there.
State sales tax is 6.25%. The franchise report is due May 15. This page does not print the no-tax-due dollar cutoff. Texas has no state income tax. Your permit still says how often sales tax is filed.
Two customers can both pay the cap and still owe you two different worksheets. Only the Austin receipt carries Austin MTA, a full point beside a 1% city tax. The Round Rock receipt is a 2% city tax and a blank transit column. A San Marcos receipt on the Hays line is 1.5% city and 0.5% in the county column. A single bucket called Sales Tax can add up and still be the wrong story, because the Comptroller row wants the pieces that row already printed.
Bring the return covering those days, the deposit list, and receipts that still show a city. Steven will not retell the University of Texas and will not recode a year of goods. He stamps each receipt with the local pieces above and sets every other city aside. A gift card is not a shirt. A deposit is not a sale, because the card company took its fee first. If the payable was one remembered rate times money in the bank, the reply says so with figures from your own receipts.
Read that reply while the return is still open, early enough to use the split. When the return is finished, you sign it without a trip downtown. If this week is a counter, the retail-store guide linked below is the longer explanation. If this week is not a counter, skip that guide. High-technology firms the Travis County entry names may sell taxable goods or sell none. The receipts decide. The rumor about the industry does not.
A store that rings taxable sales has a longer page on the retail-store site.
Any other shape of business starts from the full list.
Book a time and send the tickets with the city still readable.
Book a time for a free look at the file
Sources:
Handbook of Texas: Travis County
Handbook of Texas: Hays County
County membership is the OMB 2023 delineation supplied for this project. City rates, including Austin MTA, are the July 2026 Texas Comptroller city-rate file. Williamson, Bastrop, and Caldwell are in the delineation; their economy lines are not quoted above.