Maine sales tax, and who sets it
Tax year 2026
Set by the state
5.5%
Set locally
0%
statewide average
Combined
5.5%
Local share
0%
of what you pay
Work out the tax on a purchase in Maine
Add the tax on
5.5% effectiveThe general rate applies here: 5.5%, 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 Maine's sales tax is put together
- In Maine the rate is the rate. It comes to about 5.5%, and it is the same in every county, every city, every corner of the state. Counties here cannot add anything of their own. Most states let them, which is why a shopper who moves to Maine stops needing to check the rate before buying anything expensive.
- No sales tax on groceries in Maine. 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.
- Maine taxes clothes like it taxes everything else. Spend a thousand dollars on apparel and the tax is $55. 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.
- Maine levies a uniform about 5.5% statewide with no local add-on, because its statute grants counties and municipalities no general sales tax authority. Uniformity of this kind is a minority arrangement nationally: in most states the combined rate a purchase pays depends on the delivery or point-of-sale address, and a quoted state rate is only the floor. Here the state rate and the combined rate are the same number everywhere, which removes address-level rate risk from any purchase priced in this state.
- Grocery purchases are exempt from sales tax in Maine. 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.
- Apparel falls inside Maine's sales tax base at the full combined rate, contributing $55 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. Maine exempts prescription drugs, in line with the near-universal national treatment.
Sales tax on this purchase
A $75,000 salary
| Tax added | $5.50 |
|---|---|
| Rate appliedStatewide average | 5.5% |
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 | 16 |
|---|---|
| Different rates among them | 1 |
| Lowest county rate | 5.5% |
| Highest county rate | 5.5% |
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 | $5.50 |
|---|---|
| You hand over | $105.50 |
| Rate here | 5.5% |
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 | $101.42 |
|---|---|
| Rate applied | 5.5% |
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 | 5.5% |
|---|---|
| Highest | 5.5% |
| 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
Maine
Statewide average
Texas
Harris County (Houston)
- Sales tax
- Fuel
- Tobacco
| Category | Maine | Texas |
|---|---|---|
| Groceries | Exempt | Exempt |
| Clothing at $100 | 5.5% | 8.25% |
| Fuel | 30¢ | 20¢ |
| Tobacco | $3.50 | $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 Maine. 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 | 5.5% | 0% | 5.5% |
| Cumberland County (Portland) | same | 0% | 5.5% |
| York County | same | 0% | 5.5% |
What it costs on a thousand dollars
The same purchase in four categories, priced on average across Maine. A flat thousand dollars is used deliberately — this is Maine'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 | 5.5% | $55 |
| Groceries | 0% | $0 |
| Prescription drugs | 0% | $0 |
| Clothing | 5.5% | $55 |
Every county in Maine
This is the whole state, not a sample — 16 counties, from 5.5% in Androscoggin County up to 5.5% in York County. There is no local general-sales-tax add-on in Maine, so crossing a county line does not change this rate.
Complete county coverage for Maine: 16 counties spanning 5.5% (Androscoggin County) to 5.5% (York County), across 1 distinct rates. These rows use the same general state rate because Maine has no local general-sales-tax add-on.
| County | State portion | County levy | Floor (state + county) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Androscoggin County | 5.5% | 0% | 5.5% |
| Aroostook County | 5.5% | 0% | 5.5% |
| Cumberland County | 5.5% | 0% | 5.5% |
| Franklin County | 5.5% | 0% | 5.5% |
| Hancock County | 5.5% | 0% | 5.5% |
| Kennebec County | 5.5% | 0% | 5.5% |
| Knox County | 5.5% | 0% | 5.5% |
| Lincoln County | 5.5% | 0% | 5.5% |
| Oxford County | 5.5% | 0% | 5.5% |
| Penobscot County | 5.5% | 0% | 5.5% |
| Piscataquis County | 5.5% | 0% | 5.5% |
| Sagadahoc County | 5.5% | 0% | 5.5% |
| Somerset County | 5.5% | 0% | 5.5% |
| Waldo County | 5.5% | 0% | 5.5% |
| Washington County | 5.5% | 0% | 5.5% |
| York County | 5.5% | 0% | 5.5% |
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 county table and calculator list are samples, but Maine has no local general-sales-tax add-on. Ordinary goods use the same about 5.5% 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.
- This page covers Maine'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. Maine 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.
- Maine permits no local general-sales-tax add-on, so its representative location list does not imply rate variation: ordinary goods use the uniform about 5.5% 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.
- The figures here describe Maine'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 Maine 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
Does the rate change depending on which town I shop in?
Not here. Maine allows no local add-on, so about 5.5% 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?
Raw food is exempt in Maine. 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 Maine 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 Maine.
Why is the combined rate uniform across this state?
Maine authorizes no general local sales tax, so the combined rate equals the state rate of about 5.5% 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?
Maine 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?
Maine 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.