Sales Tax Calculator
The Sales Tax Calculator can compute any one of the following, given inputs for the remaining two: before-tax price, sale tax rate, and final, or after-tax price.
What is Sales Tax?
A sales tax is a levy imposed by governments on the purchase of selected products and services. Typically the seller adds this charge at the point of sale and forwards it to the tax authority. In many nations the comparable charge is known as value‑added tax (VAT) or goods‑and‑services tax (GST), which function as consumption taxes of a different structure. Some jurisdictions list prices exclusive of tax, adding the sales tax at checkout, while others display the total amount already inclusive of the tax.
U.S. Sales Tax
The United States does not impose a federal sales tax. At the state level, every state, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and Guam have a sales tax except for five jurisdictions: Alaska, Delaware, Montana, New Hampshire and Oregon. Each state sets its own rate, and many allow additional municipal or county taxes. Unlike the VAT system, which the U.S. does not use, sales tax is applied only to consumer‑facing sales; most wholesale or inter‑company transactions are exempt.
Depending on the state and the type of item, sales‑tax rates vary from 0 % up to about 16 %. For instance, Texas does not tax prescription drugs or seed for planting, while Vermont levies a base 6 % rate plus an extra 10 % surcharge on alcoholic beverages consumed on site. These examples illustrate the diverse tax structures that exist across the country, as each state establishes its own rules and exemptions.
On average, sales taxes represent roughly two percent of an American’s yearly earnings. They generate almost a third of state budgets, ranking just behind income taxes as a primary revenue source. Dependence on this tax differs widely: southern and western states lean heavily on it, whereas New England and the industrial Midwest rely less. Florida, Washington, Tennessee and Texas each collect over half of their fiscal income from sales tax, with some approaching sixty percent, while New York draws merely about one‑fifth of its revenue from the same source.
The following is an overview of the sales tax rates for different states.
| State | General State Sales Tax | Max Tax Rate with Local/City Sale Tax |
| Alabama | 4% | 13.50% |
| Alaska | 0% | 7% |
| Arizona | 5.60% | 10.725% |
| Arkansas | 6.50% | 11.625% |
| California | 7.25% | 10.50% |
| Colorado | 2.90% | 10% |
| Connecticut | 6.35% | 6.35% |
| Delaware | 0% | 0% |
| District of Columbia | 6% | 6% |
| Florida | 6% | 7.50% |
| Georgia | 4% | 8% |
| Guam | 4% | 4% |
| Hawaii | 4.166% | 4.712% |
| Idaho | 6% | 8.50% |
| Illinois | 6.25% | 10.25% |
| Indiana | 7% | 7% |
| Iowa | 6% | 7% |
| Kansas | 6.50% | 11.60% |
| Kentucky | 6% | 6% |
| Louisiana | 4.45% | 11.45% |
| Maine | 5.50% | 5.50% |
| Maryland | 6% | 6% |
| Massachusetts | 6.25% | 6.25% |
| Michigan | 6% | 6% |
| Minnesota | 6.875% | 7.875% |
| Mississippi | 7% | 7.25% |
| Missouri | 4.225% | 10.85% |
| Montana | 0% | 0% |
| Nebraska | 5.50% | 7.50% |
| Nevada | 6.85% | 8.375% |
| New Hampshire | 0% | 0% |
| New Jersey | 6.625% | 12.625% |
| New Mexico | 5.125% | 8.688% |
| New York | 4% | 8.875% |
| North Carolina | 4.75% | 7.50% |
| North Dakota | 5% | 8% |
| Ohio | 5.75% | 8% |
| Oklahoma | 4.50% | 11% |
| Oregon | 0% | 0% |
| Pennsylvania | 6% | 8% |
| Puerto Rico | 10.50% | 11.50% |
| Rhode Island | 7% | 7% |
| South Carolina | 6% | 9% |
| South Dakota | 4% | 6% |
| Tennessee | 7% | 9.75% |
| Texas | 6.25% | 8.25% |
| Utah | 6.1% | 8.35% |
| Vermont | 6% | 7% |
| Virginia | 5.30% | 7% |
| Washington | 6.50% | 10.60% |
| West Virginia | 6% | 7% |
| Wisconsin | 5% | 7.9% |
| Wyoming | 4% | 6% |
U.S. History of Sales Tax
During the 1700s, when the future United States was still a British colony, the Crown imposed duties on everyday items sold to colonists—taxes they paid without any representation in Parliament. This “taxation without representation” helped spark events like the Boston Tea Party and ultimately contributed to the American Revolution. After independence, the nation struggled with a federal sales tax, and early state experiments often ran into problems. It wasn’t until the economic hardships of the Great Depression that states turned to sales taxes as a reliable revenue stream. Mississippi led the way in 1930, and the model quickly spread nationwide, becoming a standard tool for state and local financing.
How to Deduct Sales Tax in the U.S.?
When preparing a federal tax return, taxpayers must decide between the standard deduction and itemizing their expenses. Most Americans opt for the standard deduction, but only those who itemize can claim sales‑tax payments as a deduction. For many, the effort required to track every receipt and submit detailed sales‑tax documentation outweighs any potential benefit, making itemization unattractive unless the sales‑tax amount is substantial.
After selecting either the standard deduction or itemizing, taxpayers face another choice: deducting state and local income taxes or sales taxes—never both. The majority favor income‑tax deductions because they usually yield a larger reduction. However, individuals who made significant purchases—such as a new vehicle, wedding expenses, a vacation, or major appliances—might find that their cumulative sales‑tax payments exceed the state income tax they would otherwise deduct. In practice, fewer than two percent of filers elect to deduct sales tax each year.
For more information about or to do calculations involving income tax, please visit the Income Tax Calculator.
Value-Added Tax (VAT)
Value‑added tax (VAT) is the form of sales tax most commonly used outside the United States, adopted by more than 160 countries. It is an indirect levy applied at each stage of production when value is added to a good or service. VAT can also be charged on imported and exported items. Unlike the U.S. sales tax, which is collected only from the final consumer, every entity in the supply chain—wholesalers, distributors, manufacturers, retailers—generally remits VAT. The tax is calculated as the selling price minus the cost of previously taxed inputs.
A 1979 Tax Foundation report examined the pros and cons of VAT versus a traditional sales tax. One key advantage of VAT is that taxing each production step makes avoidance difficult and encourages businesses to keep costs low. VAT can also generate more revenue at a given rate compared with a sales tax. On the downside, VAT tends to be regressive, taking a larger share of income from lower‑earning households, and its cascading nature can burden new or marginal firms, fuel inflation, and hurt export competitiveness. For further details or to run your own VAT calculations, visit the VAT Calculator.
Goods and Services Tax (GST)
The Goods and Services Tax (GST) functions much like a VAT—a multi‑stage indirect tax on selected products and services throughout the supply chain. Although many nations employ either a GST or a VAT, the specific rules differ so much that the terms are not interchangeable. Countries that label their sales tax as a GST include Spain, Greece, India, Canada, Singapore and Malaysia.