Alaska sales tax, and who sets it
Tax year 2026
Set by the state
0%
Set locally
1.82%
statewide average
Combined
1.82%
Local share
100%
of what you pay
Work out the tax on a purchase in Alaska
Add the tax on
1.82% effectiveThe general rate applies here: 1.82%, 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 Alaska's sales tax is put together
- Alaska is the odd one out. Every other state that taxes sales sets a rate for the whole state and lets counties add to it. Alaska skips the first part. There is no statewide rate, only local ones, averaging about 1.82% and varying enormously between towns.
- Groceries are not taxed in Alaska. Fill a cart with unprepared food and the sales tax on it is nothing. That is the common treatment, though not the universal one — a few states charge full rate on food, and a few more charge a reduced rate. The line here falls between groceries and prepared food, and it is narrower than it sounds.
- Alaska taxes clothes like it taxes everything else. Spend a thousand dollars on apparel and the tax is $18. 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.
- Alaska inverts the standard structure. Elsewhere a state rate forms a floor that local jurisdictions build on; here there is no floor at all, and the entire charge is whatever the borough or city has enacted. Averaged statewide that comes to about 1.82%, but the average conceals a range running from zero to figures comparable with the highest combined rates in the country.
- Alaska exempts groceries from sales tax entirely, so unprepared food carries no charge at any rate. This is the majority treatment nationally but far from universal: a small number of states apply the full rate to food and another group applies a reduced one. The consequential detail in an exempting state is the boundary rather than the exemption — where the statute separates exempt groceries from taxable prepared food, and rotisserie chicken, bakery items and heated food are where that line is usually drawn.
- Apparel falls inside Alaska's sales tax base at the full combined rate, contributing $18 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. Alaska exempts prescription drugs, in line with the near-universal national treatment.
Sales tax on this purchase
A $75,000 salary
| Tax added | $1.82 |
|---|---|
| Rate appliedStatewide average | 1.82% |
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 | 24 |
|---|---|
| Different rates among them | 6 |
| Lowest county rate | 0% |
| Highest county rate | 7% |
County floors only — city, transit and special-district taxes are excluded where applicable.
At the register
A $75,000 salary
| Tax added | $1.82 |
|---|---|
| You hand over | $101.82 |
| Rate here | 1.82% |
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 | $105.09 |
|---|---|
| Rate applied | 1.82% |
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 | 0% |
|---|---|
| Highest | 7% |
| Gap between them | 7% |
County floors only — city, transit and special-district taxes are excluded where applicable.
What gets taxed, in each
A $75,000 salary
Alaska
Statewide average
Texas
Harris County (Houston)
- Sales tax
- Fuel
- Tobacco
| Category | Alaska | Texas |
|---|---|---|
| Groceries | Exempt | Exempt |
| Clothing at $100 | 1.82% | 8.25% |
| Fuel | 8¢ | 20¢ |
| Tobacco | $2.00 | $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.
The split, county by county
The state rate is the same everywhere in Alaska. 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 | 0% | 1.82% | 1.82% |
| Anchorage (Municipality of Anchorage) | same | 0% | 0% |
| Juneau (City and Borough of Juneau) | same | 5% | 5% |
What it costs on a thousand dollars
The same purchase in four categories, priced on average across Alaska. A flat thousand dollars is used deliberately — this is Alaska'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 | 1.82% | $18 |
| Groceries | 0% | $0 |
| Prescription drugs | 0% | $0 |
| Clothing | 1.82% | $18 |
Every county in Alaska
This is the whole state, not a sample — 24 counties, from 0% in Aleutians West Census Area up to 7% in Wrangell City and Borough. These are county floors. City, transit and special-district taxes can add to them, so an address may pay more.
Complete county coverage for Alaska: 24 counties spanning 0% (Aleutians West Census Area) to 7% (Wrangell City and Borough), across 6 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) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Aleutians West Census Area | 0% | 0% | 0% |
| Anchorage Municipality | 0% | 0% | 0% |
| Bethel Census Area | 0% | 0% | 0% |
| Dillingham Census Area | 0% | 0% | 0% |
| Fairbanks North Star Borough | 0% | 0% | 0% |
| FIPS 02063 | 0% | 0% | 0% |
| FIPS 02158 | 0% | 0% | 0% |
| Haines Borough | 0% | 7% | 7% |
| Hoonah-Angoon Census Area | 0% | 0% | 0% |
| Juneau City and Borough | 0% | 5% | 5% |
| Kenai Peninsula Borough | 0% | 3% | 3% |
| Ketchikan Gateway Borough | 0% | 2.5% | 2.5% |
| Kodiak Island Borough | 0% | 0% | 0% |
| Lake and Peninsula Borough | 0% | 0% | 0% |
| Matanuska-Susitna Borough | 0% | 0% | 0% |
| Nome Census Area | 0% | 0% | 0% |
| Northwest Arctic Borough | 0% | 0% | 0% |
| Petersburg Census Area | 0% | 6% | 6% |
| Prince of Wales-Hyder Census Area | 0% | 0% | 0% |
| Sitka City and Borough | 0% | 6% | 6% |
| Skagway Municipality | 0% | 5% | 5% |
| Wrangell City and Borough | 0% | 7% | 7% |
| Yakutat City and Borough | 0% | 5% | 5% |
| Yukon-Koyukuk Census Area | 0% | 0% | 0% |
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
- Only sampled locations appear in the first Alaska county table and calculator list. Covering every one would mean maintaining thousands of rates that change on their own local timetables, so this site samples instead. The consequence is simple: treat the figures as the shape of the thing, and your receipt as the truth.
- This page covers Alaska's general sales tax and nothing else. Fuel, alcohol and tobacco carry their own separate taxes, usually built into the shelf price where you never see them. Cars, hotel rooms and restaurant meals are often taxed at their own rates too. The general rate is the floor, not the ceiling.
- Categories have edges, and the edges are where the money is. Alaska sets its own rules for what falls inside each exemption. A roast chicken and the ingredients for one are not always taxed the same way, and neither are trainers and shoes. Those distinctions decide what a real shopping trip costs.
- Alaska's first county table and calculator location list are curated samples rather than an exhaustive address dataset, a deliberate trade against maintaining several thousand independently-revised local rates. The figures characterise the distribution of local add-ons; they do not establish a minimum or maximum for the state. Address-level accuracy requires either the state revenue authority's lookup or a recent transaction record.
- The figures here describe Alaska's general sales tax only. Selective excise taxes on motor fuel, alcohol and tobacco operate separately and are typically embedded in the displayed price rather than added at the register. Vehicle purchases, lodging and prepared food frequently attract their own rates or additional local levies. The general rate should therefore be treated as a floor for a given transaction rather than a complete account of what it is taxed.
- The three exemption classes recorded for Alaska describe treatment at category level only. Statutory definitions determine what actually qualifies: prepared, heated and ready-to-eat foods are commonly excluded from grocery exemptions, and clothing exemptions frequently exclude athletic footwear, accessories or items above a stated price. Effective burden on a real basket therefore depends on these boundaries at least as much as on the headline rate.
Questions people ask
Why is the tax at the register higher than the state rate?
The state sets about 0%; local governments stack theirs above it, reaching about 1.82% in practice. The total moves with the address, not with the purchase.
Is food taxed the same as everything else?
No — groceries are exempt in Alaska, which is why a basket of raw ingredients can leave a shop untaxed while a sandwich from the same shop does not. The line is drawn at preparation, not at the food itself.
Is clothing exempt here?
Clothing is ordinary taxable goods in Alaska. 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?
Local government, for the larger part. about 100% of what you hand over is decided below state level, so the rate follows the address rather than the state line.
Is the sales tax higher here because there is no income tax?
Often, and that is the trade. Alaska levies no income tax on wages, so revenue has to come from what people buy and own instead — which is why the rate at the register — about 1.82% — tends to sit above what an income-taxing state charges.
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. Alaska sets about 0%; the representative combined rate is about 1.82%, of which about 100% is decided locally. A single statewide figure is therefore an approximation.
How are groceries classified for sales tax here?
Alaska exempts groceries from general sales tax. The exemption typically excludes prepared food, and definitional boundaries — utensils supplied, heating, or a seller's prepared-food share — determine which side a specific item falls on. Those tests vary by state and are not uniform.
How is apparel classified for sales tax in this state?
Alaska 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 100% of the representative combined rate in Alaska 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.
How does the absence of an income tax affect consumption tax burden?
Alaska levies no personal income tax on wages, so general revenue relies more heavily on consumption and property bases. The representative combined sales rate is about 1.82%. ⚠️ Relative overall burden depends on a household's consumption share of income and cannot be inferred from the rate alone.