Dallas, Texas
Planning for Dallas households, where the headquarters are.
About 67,000 Dallas households earn $200,000 or more a year, more than in any other city in North Texas, and many of those paychecks come from headquarters: AT&T, Texas Instruments and Southwest Airlines, along with the hospital systems of the medical district. Executive pay, company stock, a home in one of five counties, and a retirement taxed only federally: that is the Dallas planning problem.
The situation
A corporate city with a deep bench of high earners
Dallas is the ninth-largest city in the country, with about 1.33 million residents as of July 2025. For planning, the useful figures are counts: 67,436 households earn $200,000 or more, and roughly one household in five earns above $150,000. They live in a city that reaches beyond Dallas County into Collin, Denton, Rockwall and Kaufman counties, so two Dallas addresses can carry different county and school-district rates.
The employers are the other half of the story. AT&T still runs its headquarters from its downtown tower and has announced a move to a 54-acre Plano campus, with partial occupancy targeted for 2028 and the downtown lease running through 2031. Texas Instruments is headquartered in Dallas, Southwest Airlines beside Love Field, and UT Southwestern, Parkland and Baylor Scott & White each employ thousands. Pay at employers like these arrives in layers: salary, bonus, restricted stock, deferred compensation, a pension in some cases, and a 401(k) in nearly all of them.
Why it’s complex
Five Dallas decisions that reward coordination
Executive pay at a headquarters employer
Years of RSU grants, ESPP purchases and a nonqualified deferred-compensation plan can make one employer the largest line on a Dallas balance sheet. Deferred-comp elections are made years ahead and are hard to undo, so we set them beside the retirement date, the vesting calendar and the federal brackets they will land in.
Executives and equity compensationThe City of Dallas adds exemptions of its own
Beyond the state’s $140,000 school exemption, the City of Dallas exempts 20% of a homestead’s value from city tax and a further $175,000 at 65 or if disabled, an amount the council kept in place for 2026. On a median-value home the 20% is worth about $448 a year at the 2025 city rate; the over-65 exemption lowers the city bill to roughly $570.
Five counties, several school districts
Most of the city pays Dallas County ($0.2155 per $100 in 2025) and Dallas ISD ($0.993835), and a Dallas home in Dallas ISD pays roughly $2.23 per $100 all in. Addresses in the Collin ($0.1493), Denton ($0.1859) or Rockwall ($0.2510) portions of the city pay a different county rate and often a different district.
Physician and hospital households
UT Southwestern, Parkland, Baylor Scott & White and Texas Health Resources each employ more than 10,000 people in the region. Physician households here often hold a 403(b), a 457(b) at a public institution, a practice interest and a backdoor Roth, each with its own rules.
Planning for physiciansTexas now bars a capital-gains tax, too
The Texas Constitution has prohibited a personal income tax since 2019 and, since November 2025, a tax on realized or unrealized capital gains. For a Dallas executive selling down concentrated company stock, or an owner selling a business, the state’s share is zero, which changes how quickly it can make sense to diversify.
Capital gains after a liquidity eventSources: U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 2020–2024 5-year estimates and Vintage 2025 city population estimates; City of Dallas, over-65 or disabled exemption; Texas Comptroller, homestead exemptions; Tex. Const. art. VIII, §§24-a, 24-b; Texas Comptroller 2025 city, ISD and county rate reports; Dallas Central Appraisal District 2025 rate tables.
Our approach
One plan across pay, stock, house and retirement
We start with how the household is paid and what it owns, then plan taxes and retirement across all of it, with property tax as its own line. A worked example on a home at Dallas’s median value: the $140,000 exemption lowers the school-taxable value to $180,700, and at Dallas ISD’s 2025 rate that is about $1,796 a year for the school portion ($180,700 × $0.993835 / $100). For the city portion, the 20% exemption leaves $256,560, or about $1,793 at the 2025 city rate ($256,560 × $0.6988 / $100).
Set the rules for pay and stock
Decide in advance what sells at vest, how large one employer’s stock may grow, and how deferred-compensation elections line up with the year you expect to stop working.
Claim what the city and state allow
File the homestead exemption, add the City of Dallas over-65 exemption when you qualify, and read the appraisal notice line by line, since the county and district taxing a Dallas home depend on the address.
Turn layers of pay into income
Sequence deferred-comp payouts, pension elections, Roth conversions taxed only federally, and Social Security so that the high-income years do not all land at once.
The work
What you’ll work through with us
- RSU, stock option and ESPP planning, including a plan for concentrated positions
- Nonqualified deferred-compensation election and payout timing
- Homestead, City of Dallas over-65 and school-tax ceiling filings
- A line-by-line read of the appraisal notice: county, district and city
- Physician-household plan coordination: 403(b), 457(b), practice interests
- Roth conversion sizing in the years before required distributions
- Retirement income, pension elections and Social Security timing
- Investment management coordinated with your CPA and estate attorney
Planning is led by Theo Halbardier, CFP®, CIMA®, CAIA®, the firm’s founder. We are fee-only: no commissions, no product sales. About Theo
Questions
Common questions from Dallas households
Do you have an office in Dallas?
We work with Dallas households by video and, by arrangement, in person. We do not maintain a public office location.
How do the City of Dallas exemptions work with the school exemption?
They stack, but each applies only to its own taxing unit. The state’s $140,000 exemption (and $200,000 at 65 or if disabled) reduces the value taxed by the school district. The City of Dallas separately exempts 20% of value from city tax, plus $175,000 at 65 or if disabled. With both city exemptions, a home valued at $218,500 or less owes no city tax at all. County and hospital-district exemptions are set separately.
My employer is moving to Plano. Does that change our taxes?
Not your state taxes; a move within Texas changes nothing there. What can change is property tax if you follow the job and buy in Collin County, where the county rate is lower than Dallas County’s but the school district differs. Deferred-comp and equity elections are unaffected by the move itself; a relocation package is taxable income, so its timing is worth planning.
Which county and school district taxes our Dallas home?
Most of the city lies in Dallas County and Dallas ISD, but Dallas also extends into Collin, Denton, Rockwall and Kaufman counties, and several other districts serve parts of the city. The 2025 county rates range from $0.1493 in Collin to $0.2510 in Rockwall per $100. Your appraisal notice lists every unit that taxes the home.
Does Texas tax the sale of company stock?
No. Texas has no personal income tax, and since November 2025 its constitution also bars a tax on capital gains. Federal tax still applies, and for a large position the federal rate, the net investment income tax and Medicare premium thresholds two years later all matter.
How are you paid?
We are fee-only. Our clients pay us directly; we do not earn commissions on products.
Reviewed by Theo Halbardier, CFP® · Updated September 2026 · Figures current for 2026
Tell us where you are.
The first conversation is 30 minutes. Bring your questions; no preparation needed.
We work with individuals and families across Dallas and throughout Texas, meeting by video or in person by arrangement.
Meet with usWe do not maintain a public office at this location; Dallas is part of the area we serve. Figures reflect law and published rates as of September 2026 and may change.