District of Columbia sales tax, and who sets it
Tax year 2026
Set by the state
6%
Set locally
0%
statewide average
Combined
6%
Local share
0%
of what you pay
Work out the tax on a purchase in District of Columbia
Add the tax on
6% effectiveThe general rate applies here: 6%, 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 District of Columbia's sales tax is put together
- District of Columbia keeps this simple. One rate, about 6%, everywhere. No county add-ons, no city surcharges, nothing extra for shopping in the wrong postcode. That is unusual — in most of the country the rate on your receipt depends on where you were standing.
- District of Columbia leaves groceries alone. Raw food carries no sales tax here. Prepared food usually does, which means the tax on a supermarket trip depends less on what you spend than on which aisle you spent it in.
- District of Columbia taxes clothes like it taxes everything else. Spend a thousand dollars on apparel and the tax is $60. 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.
- A single about 6% rate applies throughout District of Columbia; no local jurisdiction may levy a general sales tax on top of it. The practical consequence is that the state rate and the combined rate are identical at every address, so the rate quoted in a price comparison is the rate actually charged. Most states cannot make that claim, and the gap between quoted and charged is where a good deal of cross-state price confusion originates.
- District of Columbia grants a full grocery exemption, charging nothing on unprepared food. The exemption's edge is where the revenue and the confusion both sit: prepared, heated and often bakery items typically revert to the full combined rate, so two baskets of identical value can attract materially different tax. Comparisons of grocery exemptions across states are only meaningful alongside each state's definition of what counts as a grocery.
- Apparel falls inside District of Columbia's sales tax base at the full combined rate, contributing $60 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. District of Columbia exempts prescription drugs, in line with the near-universal national treatment.
Sales tax on this purchase
A $75,000 salary
| Tax added | $6.00 |
|---|---|
| Rate appliedStatewide average | 6% |
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 | 1 |
|---|---|
| Different rates among them | 1 |
| Lowest county rate | 6% |
| Highest county rate | 6% |
County floors only — city, transit and special-district taxes are excluded where applicable.
At the register
A $75,000 salary
| Tax added | $6.00 |
|---|---|
| You hand over | $106.00 |
| Rate here | 6% |
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 | $100.94 |
|---|---|
| Rate applied | 6% |
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 | 6% |
|---|---|
| Highest | 6% |
| Gap between them | 0% |
County floors only — city, transit and special-district taxes are excluded where applicable.
What gets taxed, in each
A $75,000 salary
District of Columbia
Statewide average
Texas
Harris County (Houston)
- Sales tax
- Fuel
- Tobacco
| Category | District of Columbia | Texas |
|---|---|---|
| Groceries | Exempt | Exempt |
| Clothing at $100 | 6% | 8.25% |
| Fuel | 23.5¢ | 20¢ |
| Tobacco | $5.08 | $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 District of Columbia. 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 | 6% | 0% | 6% |
What it costs on a thousand dollars
The same purchase in four categories, priced on average across District of Columbia. A flat thousand dollars is used deliberately — this is District of Columbia'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 | 6% | $60 |
| Groceries | 0% | $0 |
| Prescription drugs | 0% | $0 |
| Clothing | 6% | $60 |
Every county in District of Columbia
This is the whole state, not a sample — 1 counties, from 6% in District of Columbia up to 6% in District of Columbia. There is no local general-sales-tax add-on in District of Columbia, so crossing a county line does not change this rate.
Complete county coverage for District of Columbia: 1 counties spanning 6% (District of Columbia) to 6% (District of Columbia), across 1 distinct rates. These rows use the same general state rate because District of Columbia has no local general-sales-tax add-on.
| County | State portion | County levy | Floor (state + county) |
|---|---|---|---|
| District of Columbia | 6% | 0% | 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 list are samples, but District of Columbia has no local general-sales-tax add-on. Ordinary goods use the same about 6% rate across the state. A longer county list would not change that rate. What you buy still matters: category exemptions and separate taxes on meals or other purchases can change the bill.
- One tax, not all of them. What you see here is District of Columbia'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. District of Columbia 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.
- District of Columbia permits no local general-sales-tax add-on, so its representative location list does not imply rate variation: ordinary goods use the uniform about 6% state rate. Complete county-floor coverage, where shown separately, records that same rate. Category definitions, per-item exemptions and special transaction taxes remain separate questions; a uniform general rate does not establish the tax treatment of every purchase.
- This covers District of Columbia'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 District of Columbia 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
Does the rate change depending on which town I shop in?
Not here. District of Columbia allows no local add-on, so about 6% applies everywhere in the state — the same figure in every county, which is unusual and makes a single rate an honest answer rather than an average.
Is food taxed the same as everything else?
Groceries escape it here. What separates exempt food from taxable food is usually whether it has been prepared, so identical ingredients can be taxed or not depending on who assembled them.
Is clothing exempt here?
No. A handful of states exempt clothing and District of Columbia 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 0% of the combined rate, so a statewide figure is close to right almost everywhere in District of Columbia.
Why is the combined rate uniform across this state?
District of Columbia authorizes no general local sales tax, so the combined rate equals the state rate of about 6% in every jurisdiction. This is structural rather than sampled: no loaded county levies an add-on because the statute provides for none.
How are groceries classified for sales tax here?
District of Columbia 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?
District of Columbia 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 0% 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.