Sales Tax Calculator

Work out sales tax on any purchase in the United States. Add tax to a price, remove tax from a total to find the pre-tax price, find the tax rate from two prices, split a multi-item receipt, or compare what the same item costs in different states. With the defaults below — a $100.00 item in California at the average combined rate of 9.03% — the tax is $9.03 and the total is $109.03.

There is no federal sales tax in the United States. Each of the 45 states that levy a statewide sales tax sets its own rate, and 38 of them let counties and cities add their own local tax on top, so the rate you actually pay depends on exactly where you buy. The national population-weighted average combined rate is 7.53%, but it runs from 0% in Oregon to 10.13% in Louisiana. Pick your state below and the calculator fills in the average combined rate for July 2026, from the Tax Foundation’s midyear 2026 table.

How Sales Tax Works in the United States

Sales tax is a tax on the sale of goods and some services, collected by the seller at the till and passed on to the state and local governments. Unlike income tax, which the federal government collects, there is no federal sales tax in the United States. The tax is entirely a state and local matter, which is why the rate changes at state borders and sometimes at city limits. A $100 item costs $109.03 in California, $108.20 in Texas and $100.00 in Oregon, and the difference is purely the tax.

The seller adds the tax to the sticker price, so the price on the shelf is not the price you pay. That is different from most of Europe, where value-added tax is built into the displayed price. In the United States you should always expect the till total to be higher than the shelf price, and the calculator above tells you by exactly how much before you reach the checkout. If you want a second opinion, the EverydayCalcPro sales tax calculator works the same sums out in a different layout.

Who charges sales tax

Forty-five states levy a statewide sales tax. Five states — Alaska, Delaware, Montana, New Hampshire and Oregon — do not. Of the 45 states with a statewide tax, 38 also allow counties, cities and special districts to add local sales taxes of their own, which is why the combined rate is what matters for your wallet rather than the state rate alone. There are more than 13,000 separate sales tax jurisdictions in the United States, which is why two shops a few miles apart can charge different rates.

• State tax: set by the state legislature, from 2.90% in Colorado to 7.25% in California.
• Local tax: added by counties, cities and special districts, averaging from 0% to over 5% depending on the state.
• Combined rate: state plus average local, which is the number the calculator uses and the number in the table below.
• Special district taxes: extra levies for transport, stadiums or tourism, which can push the rate higher in a specific city.

Why rates differ so much

States without an income tax, such as Texas and Washington, lean more heavily on sales tax, while states with high income taxes can afford lower sales tax rates. Tourism-heavy states often tax visitors through sales tax on hotels and rental cars. Local governments use sales tax to fund schools, roads and emergency services, and voters in many places approve local add-ons for specific projects. The result is a patchwork: the same pair of shoes can be taxed at 10.13% in Louisiana and at 0% across the border in a no-tax state.

Three states — California, Utah and Virginia — include a mandatory statewide local add-on inside their published state rate, so do not add it twice. Hawaii charges a General Excise Tax instead of a conventional sales tax, and New Mexico charges a Gross Receipts Tax; both work like a sales tax for the buyer but are legally taxes on the seller’s gross receipts. These details matter less for everyday shopping than the combined rate, which is what the calculator and the table below give you.

The Sales Tax Formula

Sales tax maths is simple once you know which direction you are going. There are three common jobs: adding tax to a price, removing tax from a total, and finding the rate from two prices. The calculator above does all three, and the formulas below let you check the answer by hand.

Add tax to a price

Tax equals the price multiplied by the rate divided by 100, and the total equals the price plus the tax. A $100.00 item in California at 9.03% carries $9.03 of tax, for a total of $109.03. At the national average combined rate of 7.53%, the same item carries $7.53 of tax and costs $107.53.

Remove tax from a total

To find the price before tax, divide the total by one plus the rate as a decimal. A total of $109.03 at 9.03% gives $109.03 divided by 1.0903, which is $100.00, and the tax is the difference, $9.03. This is the calculation shopkeepers and accountants use most often, because till totals are the number you actually see.

Find the tax rate

If you know the price before tax and the total you paid, the rate is the tax divided by the price, times 100. A $100.00 item that costs $109.03 at the till was taxed at 9.03%. This is handy when a receipt does not break out the tax, or when you want to check whether a shop charged the right rate. The percentage calculator does the same percentage maths for any other problem, and the discount calculator covers the opposite direction — taking a percentage off a price instead of adding one on.

The Five States With No State Sales Tax

Five states levy no statewide sales tax at all. Shopping in these states means the shelf price is the price you pay, at least at the state level, which is why border towns in Oregon and New Hampshire are famous for big-ticket shopping trips. The table below gives the picture for each of them.

Delaware, Montana and Oregon are the cleanest cases: no sales tax of any kind, anywhere in the state. New Hampshire is nearly as clean, though it taxes hotel rooms, restaurant meals and rental cars under separate levies. Alaska is the exception among the five: it has no state tax, but local governments may levy one, and the average local rate is 1.82%, with some cities charging up to about 7%.

The border-shopping trap

Buying in a no-tax state does not always escape the tax. Most states have a use tax, which is a tax on goods bought elsewhere and brought home for use in the state. In practice, use tax on personal shopping is rarely enforced against ordinary shoppers, but it is enforced on big purchases such as cars, boats and aircraft, where registration gives the state a record of the purchase. If you buy a car in Oregon and register it in California, California will collect the tax at registration. The same rule applies in reverse: the tax is charged where the car is registered, not where it is bought.

• Delaware, Montana, Oregon: genuinely zero sales tax on ordinary shopping.
• New Hampshire: zero sales tax, but rooms, meals and rental cars carry separate taxes.
• Alaska: check the city, because local taxes vary widely and some are high.
• Use tax: your home state can tax big items bought out of state, especially vehicles.

State-by-State Sales Tax Rates 2026

The table below lists every state and the District of Columbia, with the state rate, the average local rate and the average combined rate as of July 1, 2026, from the Tax Foundation’s midyear 2026 table. Use the combined rate for everyday estimates. Your exact rate depends on the county and city, so verify with your local jurisdiction before a big purchase — the combined rate is an average, and the rate in a particular city can be higher or lower.

Source: Tax Foundation, State and Local Sales Tax Rates, Midyear 2026, as of July 1, 2026. Louisiana raised its state rate to 5% in 2025, so any older figure of 4.45% is out of date. New Jersey’s average local rate shows as −0.02% because of a quirk in how the Tax Foundation averages local rates against the state’s urban enterprise zones. The national population-weighted average combined rate is 7.53%.

Notice how misleading the state rate alone can be. Colorado has the lowest state rate in the country at 2.90%, but its average local rate of 4.99% pushes the combined rate to 7.89%. Alabama’s state rate is only 4.00%, yet its combined rate of 9.46% is one of the highest in the nation. Always use the combined rate when you estimate what you will actually pay.

Highest and Lowest Combined Rates

The spread between the cheapest and the most expensive states is more than ten percentage points, which is real money on a big purchase. On a $1,000 item, the tax is $101.30 in Louisiana and $0 in Oregon. The tables below show the five highest and the five lowest combined rates.

City rates can be higher still. Some cities in Louisiana, Alabama and Tennessee combine state, county and city taxes into rates above 11% in particular districts. On the other hand, a few cities inside high-tax states sit below the state average because their local add-on is small. The calculator’s state average is a good starting point, and the “compare states” mode shows what the same purchase costs in California, Texas, New York, Florida and Oregon side by side.

What Is Taxable and What Is Not

Not everything you buy carries sales tax. Most states exempt groceries and prescription drugs, and a handful exempt clothing. The exemptions exist because taxing food and medicine hits low-income households hardest, so nearly every state leaves them alone. The details vary by state, and the differences can surprise you: a bag of groceries is exempt in most states, but a hot meal from the same shop is usually taxed, and a bottle of vitamins may be taxed in one state and exempt in another.

Use the receipt mode in the calculator above for a mixed shop: tick the taxable items and untick the exempt ones, and the tax is worked out only on the taxable subtotal. A shop with a $49.99 taxable item, $12.50 of groceries and a $29.99 taxable item at California’s 9.03% rate carries tax only on the $79.98 of taxable goods, which is $7.22, for a total of $99.70. The $12.50 of groceries is not taxed at all.

Sales tax holidays

Many states run short sales tax holidays, usually a weekend in late summer, when clothing, school supplies and sometimes computers are exempt. The holidays are popular with back-to-school shoppers, but the savings are modest — a few dollars on a $100 purchase — and the rules are narrow, with caps on the price of each item. Check your state’s revenue department site for the dates and the exact list of exempt items before you plan a trip around one.

• Groceries: exempt in most states, so untick them in the receipt calculator.
• Prescription drugs: exempt everywhere except Illinois, where the rate is 1%.
• Clothing: fully exempt in Minnesota, New Jersey and Pennsylvania; under $110 per item in New York.
• Prepared food: taxed almost everywhere, even where groceries are exempt.
• Digital goods: check your state, because about half tax downloads and streaming and half do not.

Sales Tax vs Use Tax vs VAT

Three different taxes are often confused, and only one of them is what you pay at the till. Sales tax is charged by the seller at the point of sale. Use tax is charged by the buyer’s home state on goods bought elsewhere and brought home. VAT, value-added tax, is the system used in Europe and most of the rest of the world, and the United States does not have one at all.

Use tax exists to stop people dodging sales tax by shopping across a state line. In practice, states rarely chase ordinary shoppers for use tax on small purchases, but they do collect it on vehicles, boats and aircraft, because registration creates a paper trail. VAT is different in kind: it is charged at every stage of making and selling a product, with businesses claiming back the VAT they paid, so the tax is invisible to the shopper and built into the shelf price. That is why a price tag in London already includes the tax, while a price tag in Los Angeles does not.

• Sales tax: what the calculator on this page works out.
• Use tax: the same rate, applied to out-of-state purchases you bring home.
• VAT: not a US tax. If a US price looks low next to a European price, the VAT is usually the reason.

How to Calculate Sales Tax on a Receipt

A real receipt rarely has one item at one rate. Some items are taxable, some are exempt, and the tax is worked out only on the taxable subtotal. The receipt mode in the calculator above handles exactly that. Here is a worked example at California’s average combined rate of 9.03%.

The taxable subtotal is $49.99 plus $29.99, which is $79.98. Tax at 9.03% on $79.98 is $7.22, and the total is $92.48 plus $7.22, which is $99.70. The groceries are not taxed at all. If you had wrongly taxed the whole $92.48, the tax would have been $8.35 and you would have overpaid by $1.13. On a weekly shop that error adds up to nearly $60 a year.

1. Separate taxable from exempt items. Groceries and prescriptions are usually exempt.
2. Add the taxable items. That is the taxable subtotal.
3. Multiply by the rate. Taxable subtotal times the rate divided by 100.
4. Add the tax to the full subtotal. The exempt items are added at their shelf price.

Discounts complicate the picture slightly. A percentage discount usually reduces the taxable price, so the tax is worked out on the discounted amount. A manufacturer’s coupon is sometimes treated as a payment by the manufacturer rather than a discount, so the tax stays on the full price. Our discount calculator shows the discounted price, which is the starting point for the tax in most states.

Reverse Sales Tax: Finding the Price Before Tax

Sometimes you only know the total you paid and you need the price before tax — for an expense claim, a refund, or a budget. The reverse calculation divides the total by one plus the rate as a decimal. A total of $109.03 at 9.03% gives $109.03 divided by 1.0903, which is $100.00, and the tax is the $9.03 difference.

The common mistake is to take 9.03% off the total, which gives $99.19 — the wrong answer. The rate applies to the pre-tax price, not to the total, so the division is the only correct route. The calculator’s “Remove tax from a total” mode does this for you, and the reverse check in the result confirms that adding the tax back gives the original total. The same maths applies in reverse for any rate: a $107.53 total at 7.53% is $100.00 before tax, with $7.53 of tax, because $107.53 divided by 1.0753 is $100.00.

• Divide, do not subtract a percentage. Total divided by 1 plus the rate as a decimal.
• Check the answer. Add the tax back to the pre-tax price and you should get the original total.
• Keep the receipt. The pre-tax price is the number most expense systems want.

Online Shopping and Sales Tax

Online shopping used to be effectively tax-free for most buyers, because sellers only had to collect tax where they had a physical presence. That changed in 2018, when the Supreme Court decided South Dakota v. Wayfair and ruled that states may require out-of-state sellers to collect tax once their sales in the state pass a threshold, usually $100,000 of sales or 200 transactions a year. Today every state with a sales tax has an economic nexus law, and the big marketplaces collect tax on behalf of their sellers.

• Marketplace facilitator laws: Amazon, eBay, Etsy and Walmart collect and remit sales tax on sales made through their platforms, so the tax appears at checkout automatically.
• Direct sellers: a small online shop must collect tax in a state once it passes that state’s nexus threshold.
• Digital goods: about half the states tax downloads, e-books and streaming subscriptions.
• Delivery charges: usually taxable if the goods are taxable, and exempt if the goods are exempt.

For the buyer, the practical effect is simple: the price at checkout now includes the tax for your delivery address, and the rate is the combined rate for that address rather than the seller’s location. If you are comparing prices across sites, use the calculator to add the tax to each one, because a cheaper sticker price in a high-tax state can cost more at the till than a slightly dearer price in a low-tax state.

Sales Tax on Cars, Homes and Big Purchases

Sales tax matters most on big purchases, where a few percentage points are worth thousands of dollars. A $35,000 car in California at the average combined rate of 9.03% carries $3,160.50 of sales tax, for a total of $38,160.50 before title and registration fees. The same car in Oregon carries no sales tax at all, and in Texas at 8.20% the tax is $2,870.00. If you finance the car, the tax is usually rolled into the loan, which means you pay interest on the tax as well — our auto loan calculator has a sales tax field so you can see the true amount financed, and the loan payment calculator covers any other financed purchase.

Real estate is different: homes are not subject to sales tax, though the purchase carries its own taxes and fees, including transfer tax, recording fees and property tax. Our mortgage calculator covers the loan side of a home purchase. For other big items — furniture, appliances, electronics, boats — the sales tax is charged at the rate of the delivery address, so a delivery across a county line can change the rate. Always check the rate for the delivery address, not the shop’s address.

• Cars: tax is charged where the car is registered, not where it is bought, and is usually due at registration.
• Boats and aircraft: taxed like cars in most states, with use tax collected at registration.
• Furniture and appliances: taxed at the delivery address rate.
• Homes: no sales tax, but transfer tax and property tax apply instead.
• Business equipment: usually taxable, though some states exempt manufacturing equipment.

Can you deduct sales tax on your federal return?

Yes, in limited cases. Taxpayers who itemize can deduct either state income tax or state sales tax, but not both, and the total state and local tax deduction is capped at $10,000. The deduction helps mainly in states with no income tax, where the sales tax deduction is the only option, and it only matters if your itemized deductions beat the standard deduction. The IRS provides optional sales tax tables for the deduction, or you can use your actual receipts. This is a tax question, not a calculator question, so check the current IRS rules or ask a tax professional before you claim it.

Common Sales Tax Mistakes

Most sales tax errors come from using the wrong rate or the wrong base. The mistakes below cost shoppers and small businesses real money, and all of them are easy to avoid once you know what to look for.

1. Using the state rate instead of the combined rate. Colorado’s state rate is 2.90%, but the combined rate is 7.89%. The difference on a $1,000 purchase is $49.90.
2. Taxing exempt items. Groceries and prescriptions are exempt in most states. Taxing them overstates the bill.
3. Subtracting a percentage from the total to remove tax. Divide by one plus the rate instead, or the answer is wrong.
4. Using an out-of-date rate. Louisiana raised its state rate to 5% in 2025. Old tables still show 4.45%.
5. Forgetting use tax on out-of-state purchases. Cars, boats and aircraft are taxed at registration in your home state.
6. Assuming the rate is the same everywhere in a state. Local rates vary by county and city, so the average is only an estimate.
7. Ignoring delivery charges. Delivery is usually taxable when the goods are taxable.

• Always use the combined rate for the delivery or purchase address.
• Check the date on any rate table — the table on this page is dated July 2026.
• Keep receipts if you want to claim the sales tax deduction or check a charge later.

Sales Tax for Small Business Owners

If you sell goods in the United States, you probably have to collect sales tax, and the rules have got harder since the 2018 Wayfair decision. A seller has nexus — a taxable connection — in a state where it has a physical presence or where its sales pass the state’s economic threshold, usually $100,000 of sales or 200 transactions in a year. Once you have nexus, you must register with the state, collect the right rate for each buyer’s address, and file returns on the state’s schedule.

Marketplace sellers have it easier, because the marketplace collects the tax for them under facilitator laws. If you sell only through Amazon, eBay or Etsy, the platform handles collection in most states. If you also sell through your own website, you are responsible for that channel yourself. Sales tax software can track rates and file returns automatically, and for a business with sales in many states it is usually worth the cost. The calculator on this page is for shoppers working out a single purchase, not for filing returns, so treat its rates as estimates and use your state’s official lookup for the exact rate on a transaction.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the sales tax on $100 in California?

At California’s average combined rate of 9.03%, the tax on a $100.00 item is $9.03 and the total is $109.03. The exact rate varies by county and city, so the rate where you buy may be slightly higher or lower than the average.

Which states have no sales tax?

Five states have no statewide sales tax: Alaska, Delaware, Montana, New Hampshire and Oregon. Delaware, Montana and Oregon have no local sales tax either, so the shelf price is the price you pay. Alaska has local sales taxes in many cities, averaging 1.82%.

How do I calculate sales tax on a receipt with exempt items?

Add up only the taxable items, multiply that subtotal by the rate, and add the tax to the full subtotal. A $49.99 taxable item, $12.50 of groceries and a $29.99 taxable item at 9.03% carry $7.22 of tax on the $79.98 taxable subtotal, for a total of $99.70.

What is the average sales tax rate in the United States?

The national population-weighted average combined rate is 7.53% as of July 2026. At that rate, a $100.00 item carries $7.53 of tax and costs $107.53. The rate runs from 0% in Oregon, Delaware, Montana and New Hampshire to 10.13% in Louisiana.

Is there a federal sales tax in the USA?

No. The United States has no federal or national sales tax, and no VAT. Sales tax is levied by states and local governments only. The federal government taxes income, payroll and specific goods such as fuel and alcohol, but not general retail sales.

How do I find the price before tax from a total?

Divide the total by one plus the rate as a decimal. A $109.03 total at 9.03% gives $109.03 divided by 1.0903, which is $100.00. Do not subtract 9.03% from the total, because that gives $99.19, which is wrong.

Disclaimer: Sales tax rates change, and the rates on this page are the Tax Foundation’s midyear 2026 averages as of July 1, 2026. Your exact rate depends on the county and city, and some items are taxed differently by state. This calculator is for general information only and is not tax advice. Verify the rate with your state or local tax authority before a major purchase, and talk to a tax professional for advice about your own situation.