Arizona sales tax, and who sets it
Tax year 2026
Set by the state
5.6%
Set locally
2.94%
statewide average
Combined
8.54%
Local share
34.43%
of what you pay
Work out the tax on a purchase in Arizona
Add the tax on
8.54% effectiveThe general rate applies here: 8.54%, 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 Arizona's sales tax is put together
- Two governments tax the same purchase in Arizona. The state takes about 5.6%. Local government takes another about 2.94% on top on average across Arizona, and the till adds them together into about 8.54%. Neither one is the whole story, which is why the state rate alone is a poor guide to what you will actually pay.
- No sales tax on groceries in Arizona. Unprepared food is exempt outright, so what you save depends on how much of your shopping is raw ingredients rather than ready meals. That boundary is where the money actually is, and it catches people out constantly at the deli counter.
- Clothing is taxed at the ordinary rate in Arizona — $85 on a thousand dollars of it. That is the usual arrangement nationally, though a small group of states exempt apparel entirely. Prescription medicine, by contrast, is exempt here, as it is almost everywhere.
- A purchase in Arizona is taxed by two layers. The state levies about 5.6%; local jurisdictions levy about 2.94% on average across Arizona, for a combined about 8.54%. The split is genuinely shared rather than nominal, so the combined figure is address-dependent and the state rate functions as a floor rather than as the rate. Any price comparison drawn across states on state rates alone will misrank Arizona against its more centralised neighbors.
- Grocery purchases are exempt from sales tax in Arizona. Because the exemption is complete rather than reduced, the practical question for a shopper is classification rather than rate: prepared and heated foods generally fall outside the exemption and are taxed at the full combined rate. States drawing that boundary differently produce noticeably different effective rates on identical shopping baskets, which is why a grocery exemption is a weaker predictor of household sales tax burden than it first appears.
- Arizona applies its full combined rate to clothing, adding $85 to a thousand dollars of apparel. This is the majority treatment; a small group of states exempts clothing outright, and those exemptions are a larger source of variation in real household burden than the rate differences that dominate published comparisons. Prescription drugs are exempt in Arizona, consistent with essentially every sales-taxing state.
Sales tax on this purchase
A $75,000 salary
| Tax added | $8.54 |
|---|---|
| Rate appliedStatewide average | 8.54% |
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 | 15 |
|---|---|
| Different rates among them | 9 |
| Lowest county rate | 5.6% |
| Highest county rate | 6.9% |
County floors only — city, transit and special-district taxes are excluded where applicable.
At the register
A $75,000 salary
| Tax added | $8.54 |
|---|---|
| You hand over | $108.54 |
| Rate here | 8.54% |
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 | $98.58 |
|---|---|
| Rate applied | 8.54% |
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 | 5.6% |
|---|---|
| Highest | 6.9% |
| Gap between them | 1.3% |
County floors only — city, transit and special-district taxes are excluded where applicable.
What gets taxed, in each
A $75,000 salary
Arizona
Statewide average
Texas
Harris County (Houston)
- Sales tax
- Fuel
- Tobacco
| Category | Arizona | Texas |
|---|---|---|
| Groceries | Exempt | Exempt |
| Clothing at $100 | 8.54% | 8.25% |
| Fuel | 18¢ | 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 Arizona. 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 | 5.6% | 2.94% | 8.54% |
| Maricopa County (Phoenix) | same | 3.5% | 9.1% |
| Pima County (Tucson) | same | 3.1% | 8.7% |
What it costs on a thousand dollars
The same purchase in four categories, priced on average across Arizona. A flat thousand dollars is used deliberately — this is Arizona'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 | 8.54% | $85 |
| Groceries | 0% | $0 |
| Prescription drugs | 0% | $0 |
| Clothing | 8.54% | $85 |
Every county in Arizona
This is the whole state, not a sample — 15 counties, from 5.6% in Mohave County up to 6.9% in Coconino 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 Arizona: 15 counties spanning 5.6% (Mohave County) to 6.9% (Coconino 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) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Apache County | 5.6% | 0.5% | 6.1% |
| Cochise County | 5.6% | 0.5% | 6.1% |
| Coconino County | 5.6% | 1.3% | 6.9% |
| Gila County | 5.6% | 1% | 6.6% |
| Graham County | 5.6% | 1% | 6.6% |
| Greenlee County | 5.6% | 0.5% | 6.1% |
| La Paz County | 5.6% | 1% | 6.6% |
| Maricopa County | 5.6% | 0.7% | 6.3% |
| Mohave County | 5.6% | 0% | 5.6% |
| Navajo County | 5.6% | 0.83% | 6.43% |
| Pima County | 5.6% | 0.5% | 6.1% |
| Pinal County | 5.6% | 1.1% | 6.7% |
| Santa Cruz County | 5.6% | 1% | 6.6% |
| Yavapai County | 5.6% | 0.75% | 6.35% |
| Yuma County | 5.6% | 1.11% | 6.71% |
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 Arizona county table and calculator location list are samples, picked to show how much local rates move rather than to cover everywhere. Your address might land outside the range shown. A recent receipt is the better source if you have one.
- One tax, not all of them. What you see here is Arizona'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.
- Categories have edges, and the edges are where the money is. Arizona 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.
- The first Arizona county table and calculator location list are representative samples, not a complete register. It exists to demonstrate the magnitude of local variation, so the highest and lowest figures shown bound the sample rather than the state. Any specific address should be checked against the local revenue authority or a recent receipt; a complete county-floor table, where shown separately, still excludes additional city and district taxes.
- This covers Arizona'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 three exemption classes recorded for Arizona 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?
What the statute says and what the register charges are different numbers. about 5.6% is the state's share; local layers carry it to about 8.54%, varying street by street.
Is food taxed the same as everything else?
Raw food is exempt in Arizona. Prepared food is not, and the boundary between them is the part that surprises people.
Is clothing exempt here?
No. A handful of states exempt clothing and Arizona is not one of them, so a coat is taxed exactly like a television. The exemption is unusual enough that assuming it is the common mistake.
Will the rate change if I shop in the next town?
Barely. The local portion is about 34.43% of the combined rate, so a statewide figure is close to right almost everywhere in Arizona.
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. Arizona sets about 5.6%; the representative combined rate is about 8.54%, of which about 34.43% is decided locally. A single statewide figure is therefore an approximation.
How are groceries classified for sales tax here?
Arizona 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?
Arizona 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.
How much intra-state variation is there in the combined rate?
Locally determined levies account for about 34.43% of the representative combined rate, so intra-state dispersion is limited and the statewide figure approximates most locations closely. Rates remain sourced to the point of sale.