Three tickets. Three local stories, one cap.
You searched because a single afternoon crossed cities that share a headline rate and do not share a bucket. Dallas has Dallas MTA. Fort Worth has Fort Worth MTA. Arlington has neither, and a 2% city tax instead. Steven is in this metro in person. The ordinary first pass is still the file.
Dallas County's handbook, writing about the early twenty-first century, calls the county a hub for national telecommunications and transportation networks, and it names data processing and electronics firms as part of that economy. Campuses on the same entry include Southern Methodist University, the University of Texas at Dallas in Richardson, and the University of Dallas in Irving. Tarrant County's entry says the area's factories turned out airplanes, helicopters, mobile homes, electronics, and plastics, and that Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport generated its own traffic. Arlington's entry names a General Motors plant from 1951, Six Flags as the park that made the city a visitor stop, the Dallas Cowboys' move to a stadium there, and the University of Texas at Arlington. Fort Worth began as a military post at the forks of the Trinity and became a cattle and railroad town. That history is still in the Tarrant County entry. It is not the sales-tax line.
Central counties are Collin County, Dallas County, Ellis County, Johnson County, Rockwall County, and Tarrant County. Outlying counties are Denton County, Hunt County, Kaufman County, Parker County, and Wise County. The July 2026 rate file is the part that changes a return. Dallas in Dallas County is city tax 1% and Dallas MTA 1%, combined 8.25%. Fort Worth in Tarrant County is city tax 1%, Fort Worth MTA 0.5%, and Fort Worth Crm Con Dist 0.5%, combined 8.25%. Arlington is city tax 2%, no transit, combined 8.25%. The transit authority is the whole extra point in Dallas, half a point in Fort Worth, and absent in Arlington. Denton, outlying, adds a third name: Denton CTA at 0.5% beside a 1.5% city tax, still combined 8.25%.
Eleven counties and at least three transit names. An owner here does not need a slogan about the metro. The owner needs the city left on the ticket.
Counties: Collin (central); Dallas (central); Ellis (central); Rockwall (central); Johnson (central); Tarrant (central); Denton (outlying); Hunt (outlying); Kaufman (outlying); Parker (outlying); Wise (outlying).
Each county has its own appraisal district. The business personal property rendition is due April 15 where the property sits.
Sales tax is a city fact. Dallas in Dallas County: city 1%, Dallas MTA 1%, combined 8.25%. Fort Worth in Tarrant County: city 1%, Fort Worth MTA 0.5%, Fort Worth Crm Con Dist 0.5%, combined 8.25%. Arlington: city 2%, no transit, combined 8.25%. Denton: city 1.5%, Denton CTA 0.5%, combined 8.25%. The county file shows no county sales tax in the six central counties, none in Denton or Kaufman, and a 0.5% county sales tax in Hunt, Parker, and Wise. A Wise County location is not an Arlington line.
State sales tax is 6.25%. The franchise report is due May 15. Texas has no state income tax. The sales-tax permit still says how often you file.
Three tickets from one afternoon will teach the return faster than a speech about the airport. Dallas wants one point of city tax and one point of Dallas MTA. Fort Worth wants one point of city tax, half a point of Fort Worth MTA, and half a point of Fort Worth Crm Con Dist. Arlington wants a 2% city tax and an empty transit column. Every customer paid 8.25%. One city bucket balances the drawer and fails the filing. Add Denton and you have also picked up Denton CTA. Card fees leave before the deposit. Cash paid from the drawer never arrives. The deposit cannot rescue a missing split.
Steven is in this metro. When the tickets are easier on a table, sit down with him by appointment. Most first looks still happen remotely, because the job is a split rather than a drive from Arlington to Dallas. You share the online books. He sets the tickets next to what the bank kept. The page that comes back lists each slip's local pieces and whatever was dumped into one pile. Arlington's General Motors plant, Six Flags, and the Cowboys' stadium do not choose the bucket. Airplanes, helicopters, and Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport can stay in the handbook. They land on the worksheet only if your own trade is what the slip sold. Even then, the city is the tax fact.
That page shows up while the return can still change. You approve the franchise report without printing it. This page gives you no street to aim a car at. An appointment is a time, not a storefront in a suburb invented so the meeting feels local. Bring tickets with the city still readable. That is the whole bar.
Pick the trade from the industry list. This metro is too many trades for one funnel to stand in for all of them.
Book a time. In person is an appointment. The file can also move on a screen.
Book a time for a free look at the file
Sources:
Handbook of Texas: Dallas County
Handbook of Texas: Tarrant County
County membership is the OMB 2023 delineation supplied for this project. City rates, including Dallas MTA, Fort Worth MTA, Fort Worth Crm Con Dist, and Denton CTA, are the July 2026 Texas Comptroller city-rate file.