United States sales tax calculator

• Only the state level general sales tax rate is applied. County, city, transit and special district rates are out of scope, and in several states those add more than half again to the total.
• The item is fully taxable at the general rate. Groceries, prescription drugs, clothing and other categories are taxed differently or not at all in many states.
• 5 jurisdictions carry a state rate of zero. Local sales taxes still apply in some of them, so a receipt there can still show tax.
• Taking tax out of a total assumes the whole total was taxed at the state rate.
• Sales tax holidays, thresholds for remote sellers, and use tax owed on untaxed purchases are not modelled.
• 2 of the state records carry an earlier effective year, because those states have not published a 2026 figure. The table names the year for each one.

The United States has no national sales tax. Each state sets its own rate, decides what is taxable, and then lets counties, cities and special districts add rates of their own. The number this tool reports is the state layer alone, which is the only layer published in one place per state.

The gap between the state rate and the till can be wide. Several states with a modest state rate allow local add ons that more than double it, and a few states with no state rate at all still see local tax charged. A rate quoted for a state is therefore a floor, not a total.

What counts as taxable varies as much as the rate does. Many states exempt groceries or tax them at a reduced rate, most exempt prescription drugs, and a handful exempt clothing below a price threshold. Some run annual sales tax holidays on school supplies or storm equipment. None of that is applied here.

Which rate applies is decided by where the buyer takes delivery for most goods, which is why an online order carries the destination rate rather than the seller's. Since the 2018 Wayfair decision, a seller with enough sales into a state has to register and collect there even with no physical presence.