Small Business Sales Tax Calculator by State

Enter your sale and the calculator works out the tax from the rate in your state. The state rate fills in on its own, and you add a local rate only if you know it.

1. Pick the state where the sale happens. The state rate fills in automatically.
2. Enter your taxable sales, which is the amount of the sale that is subject to tax, before tax is added.
3. Enter your local rate if you know the extra rate from your city, county or district. Enter 0 to see the state tax alone.
4. Pick Taxable or Exempt. Pick Exempt for a sale that carries no sales tax, such as a resale to a registered reseller.
5. Press Calculate, or press Enter. The sales tax due appears first and large, with the state tax, the local tax and the total with tax below.

Sales tax = taxable sales x effective rate. The effective rate is the state rate plus the local rate, and the total with tax is the taxable sales plus the sales tax.

Taxable sales is the part of the sale that is subject to tax, in dollars. The state rate is the statewide base rate for the state where the sale happens, as a percent. The local rate is the extra rate from the city, county or district, as a percent, and it is 0 if you leave it out. When the sale is exempt, the tax is $0 and the total with tax is the sales amount itself. Our sales tax calculator does the same math from a rate you type in yourself, if you already know the combined rate for your address.

A small shop in Texas sells $2,500 of taxable goods. Texas charges a 6.25% state rate, and the shop adds a 1.5% local rate.

1. Effective rate: 6.25% + 1.5% = 7.75%.
2. State tax: $2,500 x 6.25% = $156.25.
3. Local tax: $2,500 x 1.5% = $37.50.
4. Total tax: $156.25 + $37.50 = $193.75.
5. Total with tax: $2,500 + $193.75 = $2,693.75.

As a second check, take a $1,000 sale in California at the 7.25% state rate with no local rate. The tax is $1,000 x 7.25% = $72.50, and the total with tax is $1,072.50. The same steps work for any state, so try your own numbers in the tool above.

Delaware, Montana, New Hampshire and Oregon charge no sales tax at state or local level, so a taxable sale there shows $0 tax in this calculator. Alaska has no statewide sales tax either, but local governments in Alaska can add their own tax, so a sale in Alaska can still carry tax. Use the local rate field for the Alaska rate that applies to your sale.

At the other end of the range, California has the highest statewide rate at 7.25%, and Colorado has the lowest nonzero statewide rate at 2.90%. Louisiana has the highest average combined state and local rate at 10.13%, which shows how much local tax can add. Rates change over time, so the rates here are the Tax Foundation midyear 2026 figures, and you should confirm the current rate with the state revenue department before you file.

The state rate is only the base. In most states, cities, counties and special districts add their own tax on top, and the rate at a real address can be higher or lower than the state average. That is why this calculator keeps the local rate as a field you fill in, instead of hiding an average inside the result. If you do not know your local rate, the state rate alone gives a useful planning figure, and your receipt or your local tax office gives the exact figure.

You also need to know whether you must collect tax at all. Since the 2018 Wayfair decision, a state can require collection when a seller passes its nexus threshold, even with no shop or office in that state. Most states set the threshold at $100,000 in sales in that state, and some also count the number of transactions. Once you pass a threshold, you register with that state, collect the tax, and file returns there. Our income tax calculator covers a different tax, since sales tax and income tax are filed separately.

Most states tax tangible goods, such as products you hand to a customer, while the rules for groceries, clothing and services vary from state to state. Some states exempt groceries, some tax them at a lower rate, and some tax services that other states leave out. Hawaii, New Mexico and South Dakota tax many business to business services, which most states do not. Check what is taxable in the state where the sale happens before you decide which part of a sale goes in the taxable sales box.

Some sales are exempt even when the goods would normally be taxable. A resale to a registered reseller is the common case, and some sales to nonprofits or government buyers are exempt too. Use the Exempt option in the calculator for those sales, and keep the exemption certificate on file, since the state can ask for it later. Our profit margin calculator helps you set prices that still leave a margin after tax and costs are taken out.