Iowa sales tax, and who sets it
Tax year 2026
Set by the state
6%
Set locally
0.94%
statewide average
Combined
6.94%
Local share
13.54%
of what you pay
Work out the tax on a purchase in Iowa
Add the tax on
6.94% effectiveThe general rate applies here: 6.94%, 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 Iowa's sales tax is put together
- Almost all of Iowa's sales tax is set in the state capital. The rate is about 6%. Counties can add a slice, and on average across Iowa that slice is about 0.94% — small enough that it will not change how you shop. Where you buy matters much less here than what you buy.
- No sales tax on groceries in Iowa. 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 Iowa — $69 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.
- The locally-set share of Iowa's sales tax is minor. Against a state rate of about 6%, local jurisdictions add about 0.94% on average across Iowa, leaving the combined rate close to the state figure at essentially any address. Where a state delegates this little, address-level rate variation stops being a material input to a purchase decision, and the exemption schedule — what is taxed at all — becomes the larger source of variation in what a given basket actually costs.
- Grocery purchases are exempt from sales tax in Iowa. 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.
- Iowa applies its full combined rate to clothing, adding $69 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 Iowa, consistent with essentially every sales-taxing state.
Sales tax on this purchase
A $75,000 salary
| Tax added | $6.94 |
|---|---|
| Rate appliedStatewide average | 6.94% |
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 | 99 |
|---|---|
| Different rates among them | 1 |
| Lowest county rate | 6% |
| Highest county rate | 6% |
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 | $6.94 |
|---|---|
| You hand over | $106.94 |
| Rate here | 6.94% |
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 | $100.06 |
|---|---|
| Rate applied | 6.94% |
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
Iowa
Statewide average
Texas
Harris County (Houston)
- Sales tax
- Fuel
- Tobacco
| Category | Iowa | Texas |
|---|---|---|
| Groceries | Exempt | Exempt |
| Clothing at $100 | 6.94% | 8.25% |
| Fuel | 30¢ | 20¢ |
| Tobacco | $1.36 | $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.
Tax-free days in Iowa
A $75,000 salary
| Annual Sales Tax Holiday | 2026-08-01 to 2026-08-02 |
|---|
Dates come from statute, so they move with the legislature rather than with a data refresh.
The split, county by county
The state rate is the same everywhere in Iowa. 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% | 0.94% | 6.94% |
| Polk County (Des Moines) | same | 1% | 7% |
| Linn County (Cedar Rapids) | same | 1% | 7% |
What it costs on a thousand dollars
The same purchase in four categories, priced on average across Iowa. A flat thousand dollars is used deliberately — this is Iowa'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 | 6.94% | $69 |
| Groceries | 0% | $0 |
| Prescription drugs | 0% | $0 |
| Clothing | 6.94% | $69 |
Every county in Iowa
This is the whole state, not a sample — 99 counties, from 6% in Adair County up to 6% in Wright 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 Iowa: 99 counties spanning 6% (Adair County) to 6% (Wright County), across 1 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) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Adair County | 6% | 0% | 6% |
| Adams County | 6% | 0% | 6% |
| Allamakee County | 6% | 0% | 6% |
| Appanoose County | 6% | 0% | 6% |
| Audubon County | 6% | 0% | 6% |
| Benton County | 6% | 0% | 6% |
| Black Hawk County | 6% | 0% | 6% |
| Boone County | 6% | 0% | 6% |
| Bremer County | 6% | 0% | 6% |
| Buchanan County | 6% | 0% | 6% |
| Buena Vista County | 6% | 0% | 6% |
| Butler County | 6% | 0% | 6% |
| Calhoun County | 6% | 0% | 6% |
| Carroll County | 6% | 0% | 6% |
| Cass County | 6% | 0% | 6% |
| Cedar County | 6% | 0% | 6% |
| Cerro Gordo County | 6% | 0% | 6% |
| Cherokee County | 6% | 0% | 6% |
| Chickasaw County | 6% | 0% | 6% |
| Clarke County | 6% | 0% | 6% |
| Clay County | 6% | 0% | 6% |
| Clayton County | 6% | 0% | 6% |
| Clinton County | 6% | 0% | 6% |
| Crawford County | 6% | 0% | 6% |
| Dallas County | 6% | 0% | 6% |
| Davis County | 6% | 0% | 6% |
| Decatur County | 6% | 0% | 6% |
| Delaware County | 6% | 0% | 6% |
| Des Moines County | 6% | 0% | 6% |
| Dickinson County | 6% | 0% | 6% |
| Dubuque County | 6% | 0% | 6% |
| Emmet County | 6% | 0% | 6% |
| Fayette County | 6% | 0% | 6% |
| Floyd County | 6% | 0% | 6% |
| Franklin County | 6% | 0% | 6% |
| Fremont County | 6% | 0% | 6% |
| Greene County | 6% | 0% | 6% |
| Grundy County | 6% | 0% | 6% |
| Guthrie County | 6% | 0% | 6% |
| Hamilton County | 6% | 0% | 6% |
| Hancock County | 6% | 0% | 6% |
| Hardin County | 6% | 0% | 6% |
| Harrison County | 6% | 0% | 6% |
| Henry County | 6% | 0% | 6% |
| Howard County | 6% | 0% | 6% |
| Humboldt County | 6% | 0% | 6% |
| Ida County | 6% | 0% | 6% |
| Iowa County | 6% | 0% | 6% |
| Jackson County | 6% | 0% | 6% |
| Jasper County | 6% | 0% | 6% |
| Jefferson County | 6% | 0% | 6% |
| Johnson County | 6% | 0% | 6% |
| Jones County | 6% | 0% | 6% |
| Keokuk County | 6% | 0% | 6% |
| Kossuth County | 6% | 0% | 6% |
| Lee County | 6% | 0% | 6% |
| Linn County | 6% | 0% | 6% |
| Louisa County | 6% | 0% | 6% |
| Lucas County | 6% | 0% | 6% |
| Lyon County | 6% | 0% | 6% |
| Madison County | 6% | 0% | 6% |
| Mahaska County | 6% | 0% | 6% |
| Marion County | 6% | 0% | 6% |
| Marshall County | 6% | 0% | 6% |
| Mills County | 6% | 0% | 6% |
| Mitchell County | 6% | 0% | 6% |
| Monona County | 6% | 0% | 6% |
| Monroe County | 6% | 0% | 6% |
| Montgomery County | 6% | 0% | 6% |
| Muscatine County | 6% | 0% | 6% |
| O'Brien County | 6% | 0% | 6% |
| Osceola County | 6% | 0% | 6% |
| Page County | 6% | 0% | 6% |
| Palo Alto County | 6% | 0% | 6% |
| Plymouth County | 6% | 0% | 6% |
| Pocahontas County | 6% | 0% | 6% |
| Polk County | 6% | 0% | 6% |
| Pottawattamie County | 6% | 0% | 6% |
| Poweshiek County | 6% | 0% | 6% |
| Ringgold County | 6% | 0% | 6% |
| Sac County | 6% | 0% | 6% |
| Scott County | 6% | 0% | 6% |
| Shelby County | 6% | 0% | 6% |
| Sioux County | 6% | 0% | 6% |
| Story County | 6% | 0% | 6% |
| Tama County | 6% | 0% | 6% |
| Taylor County | 6% | 0% | 6% |
| Union County | 6% | 0% | 6% |
| Van Buren County | 6% | 0% | 6% |
| Wapello County | 6% | 0% | 6% |
| Warren County | 6% | 0% | 6% |
| Washington County | 6% | 0% | 6% |
| Wayne County | 6% | 0% | 6% |
| Webster County | 6% | 0% | 6% |
| Winnebago County | 6% | 0% | 6% |
| Winneshiek County | 6% | 0% | 6% |
| Woodbury County | 6% | 0% | 6% |
| Worth County | 6% | 0% | 6% |
| Wright County | 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 Iowa 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 Iowa'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. Iowa 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.
- The first Iowa 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 Iowa'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 Iowa 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?
What the statute says and what the register charges are different numbers. about 6% is the state's share; local layers carry it to about 6.94%, varying street by street.
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 Iowa 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 13.54% of the combined rate, so a statewide figure is close to right almost everywhere in Iowa.
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. Iowa sets about 6%; the representative combined rate is about 6.94%, of which about 13.54% is decided locally. A single statewide figure is therefore an approximation.
How are groceries classified for sales tax here?
Iowa 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?
Iowa 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 13.54% 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.