Alabama sales tax, and who sets it
Tax year 2026
Set by the state
4%
Set locally
5.46%
statewide average
Combined
9.46%
Local share
57.72%
of what you pay
Work out the tax on a purchase in Alabama
Add the tax on
9.46% effectiveThe general rate applies here: 9.46%, state and local combined. “Statewide average” is a comparison estimate. Named locations use the stored local rate; city and special-district coverage varies, so an address may differ. Rate source · as of 2026-07-01.
How Alabama's sales tax is put together
- Alabama looks cheap until you read the second line. The state's own rate is about 4%. Counties add their own on top, and on average across Alabama that add-on comes to about 5.46% — more than the state charges. Together they make about 9.46%. Most of what you hand over at the register was decided close to home, not in the Alabama capital.
- Food gets a discount in Alabama, not a pass. The rate on groceries is about 4.73%, lower than on everything else but not nothing. A thousand dollars of shopping carries $47 of tax. Plenty of published summaries record Alabama as exempting food. They are wrong.
- Alabama taxes clothes like it taxes everything else. Spend a thousand dollars on apparel and the tax is $95. Some states exempt clothing outright, which sounds minor and is not — it changes what a whole category of spending costs. Prescription drugs are exempt here.
- Alabama's state rate of about 4% accounts for a minority of what a purchase actually pays. The local component, on average across Alabama, is about 5.46%, producing a combined about 9.46% in which the locally-set share exceeds the state-set share. This is the structural reason state-rate league tables mislead: they rank Alabama on the smaller half of its own tax, and a reader comparing states on that basis is comparing the part that varies least.
- Grocery purchases in Alabama are taxed at a preferential about 4.73%, producing $47 on a thousand dollars of food. The reduced-rate treatment sits between the exempting majority and the handful of states applying the full rate, and it is routinely mis-recorded as an exemption in secondary sources. The distinction is worth several hundred dollars a year to a household at ordinary grocery volumes.
- Apparel falls inside Alabama's sales tax base at the full combined rate, contributing $95 per thousand dollars spent. The states exempting clothing form a small group, and base differences of that kind explain more of the variation in real household sales tax burden than headline rates do. Alabama exempts prescription drugs, in line with the near-universal national treatment.
Sales tax on this purchase
A $75,000 salary
| Tax added | $9.46 |
|---|---|
| Rate appliedStatewide average | 9.46% |
Uses this location’s stored combined rate and category rule. Clothing is one item; address-level coverage varies.
Rates across this state
A $75,000 salary
| Counties in this state | 60 |
|---|---|
| Different rates among them | 9 |
| Lowest county rate | 5% |
| Highest county rate | 10% |
Most counties here share a rate with many others. The county line rarely changes what you pay.
County floors only — city, transit and special-district taxes are excluded where applicable.
At the register
A $75,000 salary
| Tax added | $9.46 |
|---|---|
| You hand over | $109.46 |
| Rate here | 9.46% |
Uses this location’s stored combined rate and category rule. Clothing is one item; address-level coverage varies.
How much of that was tax
A $75,000 salary
| Goods before tax | $97.75 |
|---|---|
| Rate applied | 9.46% |
Uses the selected combined rate for ordinary goods. Exempt items or a mixed receipt change the split.
Every county here
A $75,000 salary
| Lowest | 5% |
|---|---|
| Highest | 10% |
| Gap between them | 5% |
County floors only — city, transit and special-district taxes are excluded where applicable.
What gets taxed, in each
A $75,000 salary
Alabama
Statewide average
Texas
Harris County (Houston)
- Sales tax
- Fuel
- Tobacco
| Category | Alabama | Texas |
|---|---|---|
| Groceries | 4.73% | Exempt |
| Clothing at $100 | 9.46% | 8.25% |
| Fuel | 30¢ | 20¢ |
| Tobacco | $0.68 | $1.41 |
Grocery and general rates use the locations named here. Clothing is one item priced at $100; a more expensive garment may be taxed differently. Fuel and tobacco have separate units and scales.
Tax-free days in Alabama
A $75,000 salary
| Severe Weather Preparedness Sales Tax Holiday | 2026-02-20 to 2026-02-22 |
|---|---|
| Back to School Sales Tax Holiday | 2026-07-17 to 2026-07-19 |
Dates come from statute, so they move with the legislature rather than with a data refresh.
The split, county by county
The state rate is the same everywhere in Alabama. Anything beyond it was decided by a county or a city. These counties are a sample chosen to show the range, not a complete list.
| County | State | Local | Combined |
|---|---|---|---|
| Statewide average | 4% | 5.46% | 9.46% |
| Jefferson County (Birmingham) | same | 6% | 10% |
| Madison County (Huntsville) | same | 5% | 9% |
What it costs on a thousand dollars
The same purchase in four categories, priced on average across Alabama. A flat thousand dollars is used deliberately — this is Alabama's own rate restated in money, not a claim about what anyone spends.
| What you're buying | Tax as share of price | Tax on $1,000 |
|---|---|---|
| General goods | 9.46% | $95 |
| Groceries | 4.73% | $47 |
| Prescription drugs | 0% | $0 |
| Clothing | 9.46% | $95 |
Every county in Alabama
This is the whole state, not a sample — 60 counties, from 5% in Clarke County up to 10% in Tuscaloosa County. These are county floors. City, transit and special-district taxes can add to them, so an address may pay more.
Complete county coverage for Alabama: 60 counties spanning 5% (Clarke County) to 10% (Tuscaloosa County), across 9 distinct rates. Figures are county floors: the state rate plus the county's own levy, excluding municipal, transit and special-district taxes. The representative location figures earlier in the page may include additional local layers.
| County | State portion | County levy | Floor (state + county) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Autauga County | 4% | 2% | 6% |
| Baldwin County | 4% | 3% | 7% |
| Barbour County | 4% | 1.5% | 5.5% |
| Bibb County | 4% | 4% | 8% |
| Blount County | 4% | 3% | 7% |
| Bullock County | 4% | 2.5% | 6.5% |
| Butler County | 4% | 1.5% | 5.5% |
| Cherokee County | 4% | 3.5% | 7.5% |
| Choctaw County | 4% | 3% | 7% |
| Clarke County | 4% | 1% | 5% |
| Clay County | 4% | 2% | 6% |
| Cleburne County | 4% | 2% | 6% |
| Coffee County | 4% | 1% | 5% |
| Colbert County | 4% | 1.5% | 5.5% |
| Conecuh County | 4% | 2% | 6% |
| Coosa County | 4% | 2% | 6% |
| Covington County | 4% | 2.5% | 6.5% |
| Crenshaw County | 4% | 3.5% | 7.5% |
| Cullman County | 4% | 4.5% | 8.5% |
| Dale County | 4% | 2% | 6% |
| Dallas County | 4% | 1.5% | 5.5% |
| Dekalb County | 4% | 1% | 5% |
| Elmore County | 4% | 1% | 5% |
| Escambia County | 4% | 2% | 6% |
| Etowah County | 4% | 1% | 5% |
| Fayette County | 4% | 2% | 6% |
| Franklin County | 4% | 2% | 6% |
| Geneva County | 4% | 2% | 6% |
| Greene County | 4% | 3% | 7% |
| Hale County | 4% | 3% | 7% |
| Henry County | 4% | 2% | 6% |
| Houston County | 4% | 1% | 5% |
| Jackson County | 4% | 2% | 6% |
| Jefferson County | 4% | 2% | 6% |
| Lamar County | 4% | 2% | 6% |
| Lauderdale County | 4% | 1.5% | 5.5% |
| Lawrence County | 4% | 3% | 7% |
| Lee County | 4% | 4% | 8% |
| Limestone County | 4% | 2% | 6% |
| Lowndes County | 4% | 4% | 8% |
| Macon County | 4% | 2.5% | 6.5% |
| Marengo County | 4% | 3% | 7% |
| Marion County | 4% | 2% | 6% |
| Mobile County | 4% | 1.5% | 5.5% |
| Monroe County | 4% | 3.5% | 7.5% |
| Montgomery County | 4% | 2.5% | 6.5% |
| Perry County | 4% | 3% | 7% |
| Pickens County | 4% | 4% | 8% |
| Randolph County | 4% | 2.5% | 6.5% |
| Russell County | 4% | 4% | 8% |
| Shelby County | 4% | 1% | 5% |
| St Clair County | 4% | 2% | 6% |
| Sumter County | 4% | 4% | 8% |
| Talladega County | 4% | 3% | 7% |
| Tallapoosa County | 4% | 2% | 6% |
| Tuscaloosa County | 4% | 6% | 10% |
| Walker County | 4% | 2% | 6% |
| Washington County | 4% | 1% | 5% |
| Wilcox County | 4% | 4.5% | 8.5% |
| Winston County | 4% | 2% | 6% |
Streamlined Sales Tax member rate files plus individual state Department of Revenue rate tables — county-level rows only; city, transit and special-district levies excluded — as of 2026-01-01, last verified 2026-08-29.
What this page does not cover
- The first county table and calculator location list for Alabama are a sample, not a complete address lookup. They were chosen to show the range rather than to cover every address, so your own county may sit outside what you see. If you have a receipt to hand, the rate printed on it beats any figure on this page.
- One tax, not all of them. What you see here is Alabama's general sales tax. Gas, drink and cigarettes are taxed separately and those taxes are usually hidden inside the price. Hotels, restaurant meals and vehicle purchases often carry extra charges of their own on top.
- Exemptions are broader on paper than in a shop. Alabama draws its own lines inside each category — what counts as a grocery rather than a prepared meal, what counts as clothing rather than an accessory. Those lines decide the tax on a real basket, and they are where two states with identical rates stop agreeing.
- The first county table and calculator location list for Alabama are representative rather than exhaustive. The listed jurisdictions illustrate the spread of local rates; they are not a complete enumeration, and an address outside them may carry a rate above or below anything shown. Where a complete county-floor table appears separately below, it covers counties but still excludes additional city and district taxes. Prefer the state revenue authority’s address lookup for a specific purchase.
- This covers Alabama's general sales tax in isolation. Fuel, alcohol and tobacco are subject to per-unit excise regimes that are generally included in the advertised price and are invisible at the point of sale. Lodging, prepared food and motor vehicle transactions commonly carry supplementary state or local levies beyond the general rate, so a transaction in one of those categories is not fully described by anything on this page.
- The exemption classes shown for Alabama are broad categories, and the statutory boundaries inside each one govern the actual charge. Prepared and heated food routinely falls outside a grocery exemption; footwear, athletic wear and accessories are commonly carved out of a clothing exemption. Because these definitions differ between states, two jurisdictions with matching rates and matching exemption lists can produce materially different tax on an identical basket.
Questions people ask
Why is the tax at the register higher than the state rate?
The state sets about 4%; local governments stack theirs above it, reaching about 9.46% in practice. The total moves with the address, not with the purchase.
Is food taxed at a lower rate here?
Food gets a lower rate rather than an exemption here. That is a deliberate middle path, and it means groceries still carry tax every week.
Is clothing exempt here?
Clothing is ordinary taxable goods in Alabama. The states that exempt it are the exception rather than the rule, which catches people moving between them.
Who actually decides what I pay at the register — the state or my town?
Mostly your town. about 57.72% of the combined rate is set locally rather than by the state, which means moving a few miles can change what the same purchase costs — and a statewide figure is an average rather than a fact about your address.
What composes the combined rate in this state?
The combined rate is the state levy plus every local levy sourced to the point of sale. Alabama sets about 4%; the representative combined rate is about 9.46%, of which about 57.72% is decided locally. A single statewide figure is therefore an approximation.
What reduced rate applies to groceries in this state?
Alabama applies a preferential reduced rate to groceries rather than a full exemption. Local add-ons may or may not follow the reduced rate depending on state law, so the effective grocery rate is not always the state reduced rate alone.
How is apparel classified for sales tax in this state?
Alabama applies the standard rate to apparel with no general exemption. Only a small minority of states exempt clothing, and among those several impose per-item caps or exclude athletic and formal wear, so cross-state assumptions about apparel are unreliable.
What share of the combined rate is locally determined here?
about 57.72% of the representative combined rate in Alabama is levied below state level. Rates are sourced to the point of sale, so liability varies within the state and the statewide figure is a weighted representative rather than a statutory rate.