Hawaii sales tax, and who sets it
Tax year 2026
Set by the state
4%
Set locally
0.5%
statewide average
Combined
4.5%
Local share
11.11%
of what you pay
Work out the tax on a purchase in Hawaii
Add the tax on
4.5% effectiveThe general rate applies here: 4.5%, 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 Hawaii's sales tax is put together
- Hawaii sets nearly all of this itself. The state rate is about 4%, and local governments can add only a little on top — on average across Hawaii the extra comes to about 0.5%. Moving across a county line here changes your bill barely at all. In some states it changes it a great deal.
- No grocery break in Hawaii. Food is taxed at about 4.5%, the ordinary rate. Work it through on a thousand dollars of shopping and the tax comes to $45. Whether that is fair is an argument; that it falls hardest on people with the smallest budgets is arithmetic.
- Clothing is taxed at the ordinary rate in Hawaii — $45 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.
- Hawaii retains most rate-setting authority at state level: the state rate is about 4% and the local add-on, on average across Hawaii, is about 0.5%, a small fraction of the combined charge. Local authority exists but is narrow, whether by statutory cap or by limited take-up. The practical effect is that the state rate is a reliable proxy for what a purchase pays anywhere in Hawaii — which is not true of the states that delegate heavily, and is why the two groups should not be compared on the same figure.
- Hawaii taxes groceries at its full about 4.5% combined rate, or $45 per thousand dollars of food. The policy question is contested; the distributional arithmetic is not, since the share of income spent on food declines as income rises. States that exempt food are making a deliberate progressivity trade against a narrower base and a correspondingly higher rate on everything else.
- Hawaii applies its full combined rate to clothing, adding $45 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 Hawaii, consistent with essentially every sales-taxing state.
Sales tax on this purchase
A $75,000 salary
| Tax added | $4.50 |
|---|---|
| Rate appliedStatewide average | 4.5% |
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 | 5 |
|---|---|
| Different rates among them | 2 |
| Lowest county rate | 4% |
| Highest county rate | 4.5% |
County floors only — city, transit and special-district taxes are excluded where applicable.
At the register
A $75,000 salary
| Tax added | $4.50 |
|---|---|
| You hand over | $104.50 |
| Rate here | 4.5% |
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 | $102.39 |
|---|---|
| Rate applied | 4.5% |
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 | 4% |
|---|---|
| Highest | 4.5% |
| Gap between them | 0.5% |
County floors only — city, transit and special-district taxes are excluded where applicable.
What gets taxed, in each
A $75,000 salary
Hawaii
Statewide average
Texas
Harris County (Houston)
- Sales tax
- Fuel
- Tobacco
| Category | Hawaii | Texas |
|---|---|---|
| Groceries | 4.5% | Exempt |
| Clothing at $100 | 4.5% | 8.25% |
| Fuel | 16¢ | 20¢ |
| Tobacco | $3.60 | $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 Hawaii. 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% | 0.5% | 4.5% |
| Hawaii County (Big Island) | same | 0.5% | 4.5% |
| Maui County | same | 0.5% | 4.5% |
What it costs on a thousand dollars
The same purchase in four categories, priced on average across Hawaii. A flat thousand dollars is used deliberately — this is Hawaii'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 | 4.5% | $45 |
| Groceries | 4.5% | $45 |
| Prescription drugs | 0% | $0 |
| Clothing | 4.5% | $45 |
Every county in Hawaii
This is the whole state, not a sample — 5 counties, from 4% in Kalawao County up to 4.5% in Maui 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 Hawaii: 5 counties spanning 4% (Kalawao County) to 4.5% (Maui County), across 2 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) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hawaii County | 4% | 0.5% | 4.5% |
| Honolulu County | 4% | 0.5% | 4.5% |
| Kalawao County | 4% | 0% | 4% |
| Kauai County | 4% | 0.5% | 4.5% |
| Maui County | 4% | 0.5% | 4.5% |
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 Hawaii 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.
- This page covers Hawaii'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.
- An exemption is a category, not a promise. Hawaii decides for itself where each category stops — hot food is usually outside the grocery exemption, and accessories are often outside the clothing one. That boundary work is where the real difference between two states with the same rate turns up.
- The first Hawaii 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.
- The figures here describe Hawaii'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.
- Exemption treatment in Hawaii is recorded here at category level; the operative detail is where the state's statute terminates each category. Heated and prepared foods generally revert to the full rate despite a grocery exemption, and clothing exemptions are typically bounded by price threshold or by use. These definitional boundaries account for much of the divergence between states that appear equivalent on rate and exemption list alone.
Questions people ask
Why is the tax at the register higher than the state rate?
Because the state rate is only the first layer. Counties, cities and special districts add their own on top, which takes about 4% up to about 4.5% — and it changes as you cross town lines rather than staying put.
Is food exempt here like it is in most states?
Most states exempt food; Hawaii does not. The full rate applies to groceries, which makes the weekly shop a taxed purchase like any other.
Is clothing exempt here?
No. A handful of states exempt clothing and Hawaii 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?
A little, but the state sets the bulk of it. With just about 11.11% decided locally, crossing a boundary changes the total only slightly.
Does it matter what I spend my money on?
Less than in most states. Hawaii taxes food and clothing at the ordinary rate, so there is no everyday category to shift spending into — which makes the headline rate close to the whole story, and makes the burden fall more evenly across very different households.
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. Hawaii sets about 4%; the representative combined rate is about 4.5%, of which about 11.11% is decided locally. A single statewide figure is therefore an approximation.
Why are groceries taxed at the standard rate in this state?
Hawaii applies the standard rate to groceries with no exemption or preferential rate. Because food expenditure falls as a share of income as income rises, a full-rate grocery tax is regressive relative to an exemption, which is the usual argument raised against it.
How is apparel classified for sales tax in this state?
Hawaii 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 11.11% 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.
Does category composition affect burden in this state?
Hawaii applies the standard rate to both groceries and apparel, so there are no major preferential classes to weight a basket toward. Effective burden therefore approximates the combined rate applied to total taxable consumption, and is less sensitive to household spending mix than in exempting states.