Sales tax calculator for every state, with property tax

A sales tax is charged by the seller on the price of taxable goods and some services, and passed to the state with a periodic return. Each state decides three things on its own: the statewide rate, what is taxable, and whether its counties and cities may add a rate of their own. On $1,000 of furniture in California, the statewide part alone is $73; the local districts add the rest, which is why two stores a few miles apart can ring up different totals for the same item.

Since the Supreme Court decided South Dakota v. Wayfair in 2018, states can require online and out-of-state sellers to collect their tax even without a store in the state, and every state with a sales tax now does so above a sales threshold. When a seller does not collect it, the buyer usually owes the same amount as use tax: see use tax on online and out-of-state purchases.

Local sales tax rates are where most calculators go wrong. They change at the start of a quarter in many states, they follow district lines rather than ZIP codes, and a city, a county and a transit district can stack on the same address. A combined rate copied from a table, even a recent one, is easily out of date for one street. So we do the opposite of a guess: the state rate comes from the state, and the local part is a field you fill in from the free address lookup that each state publishes, linked from its page here. How local sales taxes stack, state by state explains which governments may levy one.

Three categories change the bill more than any rate difference. Food for home consumption is exempt from the state rate in 38 of the states that have a sales tax, and taxed in 8, often at a reduced rate (Alabama, Hawaii, Idaho, Mississippi, Missouri, South Dakota, Tennessee and Utah). Clothing is exempt in Minnesota, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Vermont, and exempt up to a price per item in Massachusetts, New York and Rhode Island. Prescription drugs are exempt almost everywhere. Choose the category in the calculator and the state’s own rule is applied; the details are in grocery sales tax by state and clothing sales tax by state.

Bookkeepers, expense reports and anyone checking a receipt need the opposite calculation: the price before tax from the amount paid. Switch the calculator to “Remove tax”. For a single rate the price is the total divided by one plus the rate; with a clothing threshold or an exempt category, the calculator solves the forward calculation instead, so the answer matches what the register would have charged. The reverse sales tax calculator page does only that, with worked examples.

19 states held at least one sales tax holiday in 2026, most of them on back-to-school weekends in July and August, some on hurricane or emergency supplies, Energy Star appliances or firearms safety equipment. Each holiday has its own list of items and price caps per item, and in several states local governments decide whether their rate is suspended too. The 2026 sales tax holiday calendar lists every one of them with its dates and its official notice.

Property tax is a local tax on real estate, collected by counties, cities, school districts and special districts; most states levy little or nothing themselves. The bill follows a chain: the assessor estimates the market value, applies the assessment ratio the state sets (100% in many states, a fraction in others), subtracts exemptions such as the homestead exemption, and multiplies the result by the combined levy of every local government, written in mills: one mill is one dollar per $1,000 of taxable value. Each step is explained, with a calculator, in how property tax is calculated.

Most states reduce the tax on the home you live in: a fixed dollar amount off the assessed value, a percentage, a credit on the bill, or a cap on how fast the assessed value may rise. The amounts range from a few thousand dollars to six figures, and some only apply to school taxes. You usually have to apply once, with the county assessor, by a deadline in the spring. The homestead exemption by state page lists the main one of each state with its official page.

The typical bills on this site come from the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey, 2024 1-year estimates: the median real estate taxes paid by owner-occupants (table B25103) and the median value of their homes (table B25077). The middle state of the 51 has a median bill of $2,937. Dividing the two medians gives an effective rate that already includes exemptions and caps: 1.92% in Illinois, the highest, 0.27% in Hawaii, the lowest. It describes a typical owner of the state, not your county; your own bill’s mill rate does that, and the calculator above accepts it.