Sales Tax by State Calculator

What the combined sales tax rate means

When people ask what the sales tax is in a state, they usually get one number back, and that number is often wrong for the address where the purchase happens. Most states run two layers. The state sets a base rate, and cities, counties and special districts can pile their own rates on top of it. The figure you pay at the register is the combined rate, and it can sit several points above the headline state number.

The standard reference for this is the Tax Foundation, which publishes population-weighted local averages so that a small town does not count as much as a city. According to its state and local sales tax rates for 2026, 45 states plus Washington DC levy a statewide sales tax, and 38 states allow local sales taxes on top of it. The population-weighted average combined rate across the country is 7.53%.

That average hides a wide spread. Louisiana's average combined rate is 10.11%, which is more than double the 4.50% in Hawaii, and four states sit at zero. The gap between the highest and the lowest is wide enough to change the price of a car by more than a thousand dollars, which is why it pays to know the combined rate rather than the state rate.

The five states with no statewide sales tax

Five states do not run a statewide sales tax: Alaska, Delaware, Montana, New Hampshire and Oregon. Four of those five also have no local sales tax, so a receipt in those states carries no sales tax line at all. Alaska is the exception, and it is the one people get wrong.

• Oregon. No statewide tax and no local sales tax anywhere in the state. A $1,200 laptop rings up at $1,200.00.
• Delaware. No sales tax at any level. The state raises a large share of its revenue from a gross receipts tax on businesses, which is baked into prices instead of printed on your receipt.
• Montana. No general sales tax. A handful of resort communities charge a local resort tax on lodging and some tourist goods, which is not a general sales tax.
• New Hampshire. No tax on goods or services. The state leans on property taxes and a meals and rooms tax instead.
• Alaska. No statewide tax, but boroughs and cities do levy one. The average local rate is 1.82% and the highest local rate reaches 7.85%, so a $100 purchase in Juneau can cost more than the same purchase in Anchorage.

A zero rate does not always mean a zero bill. It means the state government does not run a general sales tax. Anything above zero in those five states comes from a local government whose voters approved it.

Worked example: the same $100 in four states

Here is the same $100 item priced in four states, using the combined rates above. The calculator at the top of this page does the same thing for any price and any state in the table.

• Oregon, 0.00%: tax $0.00, total $100.00
• Texas, 8.20%: tax $8.20, total $108.20, of which $6.25 is state and $1.95 is local
• Washington, 9.51%: tax $9.51, total $109.51, of which $6.50 is state and $3.01 is local
• Louisiana, 10.11%: tax $10.11, total $110.11, of which $5.00 is state and $5.11 is local

The spread is $10.11 on a single $100 purchase. Scale it to something that matters and it stops being pocket change. A $1,200 laptop in Washington carries $114.12 in tax for a total of $1,314.12. Buy the same laptop in Oregon and you pay $1,200.00, which is $114.12 saved for a two-hour drive.

The local layer moves the number inside a single state as well. Washington's average local rate is 3.01%, but the highest local rate anywhere in the state is 4.10%. At that ceiling the combined rate becomes 10.60%, and the $1,200 laptop carries $127.20 in tax for a total of $1,327.20. In Texas the local ceiling is 2.00%, so the combined rate tops out at 8.25% and a $100 purchase carries $8.25 in tax.

Highest and lowest combined rates in 2026

The ranking below uses the population-weighted average combined rate for each state. That is the fairest single number for comparing one state with another, because a straight average of local rates would give a village the same weight as a city of a million people.

The state rate on its own tells you little. Alabama's 4.00% state rate is one of the lowest in the country, but its 5.46% average local rate is one of the highest, and Alabama ends up fifth from the top. Indiana, Rhode Island, Mississippi and Tennessee all charge 7.00% at the state level, yet Tennessee lands near the top of the combined table while the other three sit in the middle, purely because of what local governments add.

State rate, average local rate and the local ceiling

Before you compare two states, it helps to see all three numbers side by side: the state rate, the average local rate, and the highest local rate anywhere in that state. The last column is what you would pay on a $100 purchase at the average combined rate.

Colorado is the clearest example of why one number is not enough. Its 2.90% state rate is among the lowest in the country, but the average local load of 4.99% pushes the combined rate to 7.89%, and the highest local rate in the state is 9.10%. A purchase at that ceiling pays 12.00% all in, which is $4.11 more per $100 than the average, or $411 more on a $10,000 purchase.

Online orders, out-of-state cars and which address sets the rate

Two different rules decide which rate you owe, and they are not the same rule. Knowing which one applies is the difference between an accurate budget and a nasty surprise.

For delivered goods, the destination sets the rate. Order a sofa from a warehouse in Nevada and have it shipped to a home in Austin, and the Texas rate applies, not the Nevada one. The seller collects at the rate for the address the sofa is going to. This is called destination sourcing, and it is the rule in the majority of states.

For a purchase you carry out of the store, the store's address sets the rate. Buy the same sofa in person in Las Vegas and strap it to a trailer, and Nevada's rate applies, even though the sofa is going to Texas.

For vehicles, the registration address sets the rate, not the dealer's lot. This is the one that catches people out. Drive from Portland to Seattle, buy a $32,000 car in Oregon because Oregon has no sales tax, and you have not avoided the tax. When you register the car in Washington, the state charges its use tax and collects it before the plates go on. Registering that $32,000 vehicle at Washington's 9.51% combined rate costs $3,043.20. The same car registered in Oregon costs nothing at the counter.

Out-of-state sellers are pulled into collecting by economic nexus rules. After the 2018 South Dakota v. Wayfair decision, a state may require a seller with no building in the state to collect once the seller passes a sales threshold there, and $100,000 of sales a year is the most common threshold. Marketplaces such as Amazon, eBay and Etsy collect on behalf of the sellers who list on them, so a one-person shop is taxed the same way as a national chain.

What is taxed, and where states disagree

Two states with an identical rate can still send you out the door with different totals, because the list of goods and services that gets taxed is not the same from one state to the next.

The grocery line is worth checking before you move or plan a big shop, because it drives the largest difference in a household's yearly total. A family that spends $9,600 a year on groceries pays nothing in a state that exempts food, and roughly $480 a year in a state that taxes it at a reduced rate. Clothing exemptions matter most in the back-to-school season, and several states run a sales tax holiday in late July or August covering clothing, shoes and school supplies.

How much sales tax you pay in a year

Most people never add up what they pay in sales tax, because each amount is small and spread across hundreds of receipts. The yearly total is not small.

Take a household that spends $15,000 a year on taxable goods, which is a reasonable figure for a family buying electronics, furniture, clothing, household goods and the odd appliance. At the 7.53% national average that is $1,129.50 in sales tax. The same basket in Louisiana at 10.11% costs $1,516.50. In Oregon it costs nothing. The gap between the highest-rate state and the no-tax state on that basket is $1,516.50 a year, which works out to about $29 a week.

Vehicles are where the rate bites hardest, because the base is large and the purchase is not one you repeat. A $32,000 car costs $32,000.00 in Oregon and $34,624.00 in Texas, where the combined rate is 8.20%. The tax on that single transaction is $2,624.00, which is more than most households pay in sales tax on everything else they buy all year.

If you itemize on your federal return, you can choose to deduct state and local general sales taxes instead of state and local income taxes, and that choice helps most in the states with no income tax. The IRS guidance on deductible taxes covers how the election works and the records it requires. Keep receipts for large purchases if you plan to claim the actual amount rather than the table figure.

This page is an estimate for planning, not tax advice. Rates change on set dates, some addresses sit inside several overlapping districts, and local taxes can be approved or expire mid-year. Confirm the exact rate for a real purchase with your state's department of revenue.