US Sales Tax Calculator (by State)

US Sales Tax Guide

What's the key thing to understand about Sales Tax Basics?

Unlike VAT in the UK/EU, US sales tax is added AT the register, not included in the displayed price. Total cost is always higher than the sticker price. Sales tax is collected by the state (and sometimes by city/county) where the sale occurs — not where the seller is based. For online purchases, sales tax is typically based on the buyer's shipping address (post-Wayfair v. South Dakota 2018). Five states have NO state sales tax: Alaska, Delaware, Montana, New Hampshire, Oregon. Note Alaska has local sales taxes in some municipalities despite no state-level tax, so a purchase there can still incur tax depending on exactly where it's made.

What should I know about Combined Rates Are What Matter?

Headline state rate often understates total. Examples of combined rates (state + average local): Louisiana 9.55%, Tennessee 9.55%, Arkansas 9.46%, Washington 9.40%, Alabama 9.29%, California 8.85%, Oklahoma 8.99%. Lower combined rates: Maine 5.5%, Wyoming 5.36%, Wisconsin 5.43%, Hawaii 4.5% (technically GET, not sales tax), Alaska 1.76%. Where you live (or where you have your items shipped) makes a meaningful difference. A $50,000 car purchase: 1.76% Alaska = $880 tax. 9.55% Louisiana = $4,775 tax — a difference of nearly $3,900 on an identical purchase, purely down to which state the sale takes place in.

What's the key thing to understand about Common Exemptions?

Most states exempt or reduce tax on essentials. Grocery food: fully exempt in many states (CA, CT, FL, IL — many others). Reduced rate (1-3%) in AR, MO, IL, TN. Fully taxed: AL, MS, SD, HI. Prescription drugs: exempt in all 50 states with sales tax. Over-the-counter medications: varies by state. Clothing: fully exempt in MN, NJ, PA, VT. Exempt up to $175/item in MA. Otherwise taxable. Some states have annual sales tax holidays — typically back-to-school weekends in Texas, Florida, Virginia, Oklahoma, South Carolina, and Alabama, where clothing, school supplies, and sometimes computers are temporarily exempt from sales tax for a limited window each year.

What do I need to know about Online Shopping and Sales Tax?

Before 2018, online retailers only collected sales tax if they had physical presence in the buyer's state. South Dakota v. Wayfair (June 2018) changed this — states can now require online sellers to collect sales tax based on economic nexus (typically $100k+ sales or 200+ transactions in the state per year). Amazon, Walmart, eBay, Etsy now collect sales tax in all states with sales tax. Small sellers (under threshold) may not. Tax-free shopping online is increasingly rare — but possible from genuinely small, independent sellers operating below their state's economic nexus threshold, though this is an increasingly narrow exception.

Why Sales Tax Can Differ Block to Block Within the Same State

US sales tax is a patchwork of state, county, city, and special-district rates that stack together, which is why the total rate paid at checkout can vary meaningfully even between two addresses a short distance apart within the same state. A handful of states charge no state-level sales tax at all, while others allow local jurisdictions wide latitude to add their own additional percentage on top of the state rate, producing combined rates that can differ by several percentage points from one city to the next. This localized structure is also why online retailers calculating sales tax need to know the exact delivery address, not just the state, to charge the correct combined rate — a single statewide number is often not accurate enough.

Why Not Everything You Buy Is Taxed the Same Way

Many states exempt or apply reduced rates to certain categories of purchase — commonly groceries, prescription medication, and sometimes clothing up to a certain price — on the reasoning that taxing necessities disproportionately burdens lower-income households, who spend a larger share of their income on these items. Other categories, particularly prepared restaurant food, alcohol, and tobacco, are sometimes taxed at a higher rate than the general sales tax rate rather than a lower one. Because these exemptions and surcharges vary by state and sometimes by city, a sales tax estimate for a specific purchase category can differ noticeably from simply applying the general combined rate to every transaction.

Economic Nexus: Why Online Sellers Must Collect Tax in States They Don't Operate

Sales tax collection obligations used to depend mainly on whether a business had a physical presence, a store, warehouse, or employees, in a given state, but a Supreme Court ruling in 2018 (South Dakota v. Wayfair) opened the door for states to require tax collection based on sales volume alone, even with zero physical presence. Under this "economic nexus" standard, most states now require an online seller to register and collect sales tax once their sales into that state cross a set threshold, commonly measured in total sales revenue or number of transactions over a trailing twelve-month period, regardless of whether the seller has ever set foot there. This means a small online business can find itself legally required to collect and remit tax in dozens of states if its sales are spread widely enough, a significant compliance burden compared to the pre-2018 landscape where only states with a physical footprint mattered. Marketplace facilitator laws have simplified this somewhat for sellers using platforms like major online marketplaces, since many states now require the marketplace itself to collect and remit tax on behalf of third-party sellers, shifting the compliance burden away from the individual seller for sales made through that channel, though direct sales through a seller's own website still generally remain the seller's own responsibility.

Use Tax: The Sales Tax You Owe When Nobody Collects It

Almost every state that charges sales tax also charges a parallel "use tax" at the identical rate, owed by the buyer directly to the state whenever sales tax wasn't collected at the point of purchase. This typically applies to out-of-state purchases where the seller has no obligation to collect tax, items bought while traveling in a no-tax state and brought home, and some private-party sales like used vehicles or boats bought from an individual rather than a dealer. Most people never pay it because enforcement on small personal purchases is minimal, but states have become more aggressive about collecting use tax on big-ticket items such as vehicles, aircraft, and boats, which are typically registered with a state agency that cross-checks for tax payment at the point of registration or title transfer. Many state income tax returns include a line asking filers to voluntarily report use tax owed on untaxed online or out-of-state purchases over the year; a small number of states even include a lookup table based on income level as a simplified way to estimate it. Businesses face more rigorous use tax audits, since purchasing equipment or supplies from an out-of-state vendor that didn't charge sales tax creates an immediate use tax liability that auditors specifically look for.

State vs Local Sales Tax: A Worked Example

Combined sales tax is built from a state-level rate plus however many local layers apply — county, city, and sometimes special districts for transit or stadiums. The table below illustrates how layered rates stack in a few representative cities.

Worked example: a $1,200 laptop bought in Chicago at a combined rate of 10.25% adds $123 in tax, for a total of $1,323. The same laptop bought by someone living just across the state line in a no-sales-tax state like Oregon costs exactly $1,200, a $123 difference that explains why border-area retail and "tax-free weekend" shopping trips are common in parts of the country where state lines sit close together. For a household buying several large items a year — furniture, electronics, appliances — comparing the combined rate between a home city and a neighboring lower-tax jurisdiction can represent a genuine and legal saving, provided any applicable use tax back home is accounted for on registered goods like vehicles.

Sales Tax Holidays

Many states run temporary "sales tax holidays," typically a few days a year, during which certain categories of goods — commonly back-to-school items like clothing, footwear, and school supplies, and in some states emergency preparedness supplies or Energy Star appliances — are exempt from sales tax up to a specified price cap per item. The exemption usually applies only to the state-level portion of the tax in some states, while others suspend local tax too during the holiday, so the actual saving at checkout can vary even within the same state depending on which city or county the purchase happens in. Because the exemption is typically capped per item (for example, clothing items under $100 each) rather than per transaction, buying ten qualifying items at $90 each saves the full tax on all ten, but buying one item at $150 may not qualify for any exemption at all on that single purchase. Checking the specific state's published list of qualifying categories and price caps before a planned purchase is worthwhile, since the rules differ meaningfully from state to state and change periodically.