Maryland 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 Maryland
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 Maryland's sales tax is put together
- Maryland 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.
- Maryland 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.
- Maryland 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 Maryland; 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.
- Maryland 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 Maryland'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. Maryland 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 | 24 |
|---|---|
| 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 | $6.00 |
|---|---|
| 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
Maryland
Statewide average
Texas
Harris County (Houston)
- Sales tax
- Fuel
- Tobacco
| Category | Maryland | Texas |
|---|---|---|
| Groceries | Exempt | Exempt |
| Clothing at $100 | 6% | 8.25% |
| Fuel | 23.5¢ | 20¢ |
| Tobacco | $5.00 | $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 Maryland
A $75,000 salary
| Shop Maryland Energy Sales Tax Holiday | 2026-02-14 to 2026-02-16 |
|---|---|
| Shop Maryland Tax-Free Week | 2026-08-09 to 2026-08-15 |
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 Maryland. 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% |
| Montgomery County | same | 0% | 6% |
| Prince George's County | same | 0% | 6% |
What it costs on a thousand dollars
The same purchase in four categories, priced on average across Maryland. A flat thousand dollars is used deliberately — this is Maryland'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 Maryland
This is the whole state, not a sample — 24 counties, from 6% in Allegany County up to 6% in Worcester County. There is no local general-sales-tax add-on in Maryland, so crossing a county line does not change this rate.
Complete county coverage for Maryland: 24 counties spanning 6% (Allegany County) to 6% (Worcester County), across 1 distinct rates. These rows use the same general state rate because Maryland has no local general-sales-tax add-on.
| County | State portion | County levy | Floor (state + county) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Allegany County | 6% | 0% | 6% |
| Anne Arundel County | 6% | 0% | 6% |
| Baltimore city | 6% | 0% | 6% |
| Baltimore County | 6% | 0% | 6% |
| Calvert County | 6% | 0% | 6% |
| Caroline County | 6% | 0% | 6% |
| Carroll County | 6% | 0% | 6% |
| Cecil County | 6% | 0% | 6% |
| Charles County | 6% | 0% | 6% |
| Dorchester County | 6% | 0% | 6% |
| Frederick County | 6% | 0% | 6% |
| Garrett County | 6% | 0% | 6% |
| Harford County | 6% | 0% | 6% |
| Howard County | 6% | 0% | 6% |
| Kent County | 6% | 0% | 6% |
| Montgomery County | 6% | 0% | 6% |
| Prince George's County | 6% | 0% | 6% |
| Queen Anne's County | 6% | 0% | 6% |
| Somerset County | 6% | 0% | 6% |
| St. Mary's County | 6% | 0% | 6% |
| Talbot County | 6% | 0% | 6% |
| Washington County | 6% | 0% | 6% |
| Wicomico County | 6% | 0% | 6% |
| Worcester 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 county table and calculator list are samples, but Maryland 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 Maryland'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. Maryland 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.
- Maryland 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 Maryland'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 Maryland 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. Maryland 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 Maryland 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 0% decided locally, crossing a boundary changes the total only slightly.
Why is the combined rate uniform across this state?
Maryland 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?
Maryland 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?
Maryland 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.