California sales tax, and who sets it
Tax year 2026
Set by the state
7.25%
Set locally
3%
Los Angeles County
Combined
10.25%
Local share
29.27%
of what you pay
Work out the tax on a purchase in California
Add the tax on
10.25% effectiveThe general rate applies here: 10.25%, 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 2026-10-01.
How California's sales tax is put together
- The rate you pay in California is built from two pieces. California sets about 7.25%. Local government adds about 3% more in Los Angeles County. Stack them and you get about 10.25% — the number that actually turns up on a receipt, and the one worth quoting.
- Groceries are not taxed in California. 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.
- California taxes clothes like it taxes everything else. Spend a thousand dollars on apparel and the tax is $103. 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.
- California sets its state rate at about 7.25% and permits locally-set add-ons on top; in Los Angeles County that add-on is about 3% and the combined rate is about 10.25%. Both layers are substantive, so neither figure alone describes the charge. Published state-rate rankings capture only the first, which is why California's position in such a table can differ markedly from its position on combined rates.
- California 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 California's sales tax base at the full combined rate, contributing $103 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. California exempts prescription drugs, in line with the near-universal national treatment.
Sales tax on this purchase
A $75,000 salary
| Tax added | $0.00 |
|---|---|
| Rate appliednot on file | — |
No rate is on file for this county yet, so no sales tax is added here.
Rates across this state
A $75,000 salary
| Counties in this state | 58 |
|---|---|
| Different rates among them | 14 |
| Lowest county rate | 7.25% |
| Highest county rate | 10.25% |
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 | — |
|---|---|
| You hand over | — |
| Rate here | — |
No rate is on file for this location. Choose a county or enter your combined rate in the purchase calculator.
How much of that was tax
A $75,000 salary
No rate is on file for this location. Choose a county or enter your combined rate in the purchase calculator.
Every county here
A $75,000 salary
| Lowest | 7.25% |
|---|---|
| Highest | 10.25% |
| Gap between them | 3% |
County floors only — city, transit and special-district taxes are excluded where applicable.
What gets taxed, in each
A $75,000 salary
California
Los Angeles County
Texas
Harris County (Houston)
- Sales tax
- Fuel
- Tobacco
| Category | California | Texas |
|---|---|---|
| Groceries | Exempt | Exempt |
| Clothing at $100 | 10.25% | 8.25% |
| Fuel | 63.4¢ | 20¢ |
| Tobacco | $2.87 | $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 California. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Los Angeles County | 7.25% | 3% | 10.25% |
| San Diego County | same | 0.5% | 7.75% |
| Orange County | same | 0.5% | 7.75% |
What it costs on a thousand dollars
The same purchase in four categories, priced in Los Angeles County. A flat thousand dollars is used deliberately — this is California'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 | 10.25% | $103 |
| Groceries | 0% | $0 |
| Prescription drugs | 0% | $0 |
| Clothing | 10.25% | $103 |
Every county in California
This is the whole state, not a sample — 58 counties, from 7.25% in Alpine County up to 10.25% in Alameda 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 California: 58 counties spanning 7.25% (Alpine County) to 10.25% (Alameda County), across 14 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) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Alameda County | 6% | 4.25% | 10.25% |
| Alpine County | 6% | 1.25% | 7.25% |
| Amador County | 6% | 1.75% | 7.75% |
| Butte County | 6% | 2.25% | 8.25% |
| Calaveras County | 6% | 2.25% | 8.25% |
| Colusa County | 6% | 1.75% | 7.75% |
| Contra Costa County | 6% | 2.75% | 8.75% |
| Del Norte County | 6% | 2.25% | 8.25% |
| El Dorado County | 6% | 1.25% | 7.25% |
| Fresno County | 6% | 1.98% | 7.98% |
| Glenn County | 6% | 1.25% | 7.25% |
| Humboldt County | 6% | 2.75% | 8.75% |
| Imperial County | 6% | 1.75% | 7.75% |
| Inyo County | 6% | 1.75% | 7.75% |
| Kern County | 6% | 2.25% | 8.25% |
| Kings County | 6% | 1.25% | 7.25% |
| Lake County | 6% | 1.25% | 7.25% |
| Lassen County | 6% | 1.25% | 7.25% |
| Los Angeles County | 6% | 3.75% | 9.75% |
| Madera County | 6% | 1.75% | 7.75% |
| Marin County | 6% | 2.25% | 8.25% |
| Mariposa County | 6% | 2.25% | 8.25% |
| Mendocino County | 6% | 1.88% | 7.88% |
| Merced County | 6% | 1.75% | 7.75% |
| Modoc County | 6% | 1.25% | 7.25% |
| Mono County | 6% | 1.25% | 7.25% |
| Monterey County | 6% | 2.75% | 8.75% |
| Napa County | 6% | 1.75% | 7.75% |
| Nevada County | 6% | 1.5% | 7.5% |
| Orange County | 6% | 1.75% | 7.75% |
| Placer County | 6% | 1.25% | 7.25% |
| Plumas County | 6% | 1.25% | 7.25% |
| Riverside County | 6% | 1.75% | 7.75% |
| Sacramento County | 6% | 1.75% | 7.75% |
| San Benito County | 6% | 2.25% | 8.25% |
| San Bernardino County | 6% | 1.75% | 7.75% |
| San Diego County | 6% | 1.75% | 7.75% |
| San Francisco County | 6% | 2.63% | 8.63% |
| San Joaquin County | 6% | 1.75% | 7.75% |
| San Luis Obispo County | 6% | 1.25% | 7.25% |
| San Mateo County | 6% | 3.38% | 9.38% |
| Santa Barbara County | 6% | 1.75% | 7.75% |
| Santa Clara County | 6% | 3.75% | 9.75% |
| Santa Cruz County | 6% | 3.5% | 9.5% |
| Shasta County | 6% | 1.25% | 7.25% |
| Sierra County | 6% | 1.25% | 7.25% |
| Siskiyou County | 6% | 1.25% | 7.25% |
| Solano County | 6% | 1.38% | 7.38% |
| Sonoma County | 6% | 3.25% | 9.25% |
| Stanislaus County | 6% | 1.88% | 7.88% |
| Sutter County | 6% | 1.25% | 7.25% |
| Tehama County | 6% | 1.25% | 7.25% |
| Trinity County | 6% | 1.25% | 7.25% |
| Tulare County | 6% | 1.75% | 7.75% |
| Tuolumne County | 6% | 1.25% | 7.25% |
| Ventura County | 6% | 1.25% | 7.25% |
| Yolo County | 6% | 1.25% | 7.25% |
| Yuba County | 6% | 2.25% | 8.25% |
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 California 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.
- One tax, not all of them. What you see here is California'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. California 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.
- California'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.
- This covers California'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 California 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 7.25%; local governments stack theirs above it, reaching about 10.25% 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 California, 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 California. The states that exempt it are the exception rather than the rule, which catches people moving between them.
Will the rate change if I shop in the next town?
A little, but the state sets the bulk of it. With just about 29.27% decided locally, crossing a boundary changes the total only slightly.
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. California sets about 7.25%; the representative combined rate is about 10.25%, of which about 29.27% is decided locally. A single statewide figure is therefore an approximation.
How are groceries classified for sales tax here?
California 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?
California 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 29.27% 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.