What States Tax Groceries? Rates, Exemptions, and SNAP Relief

As of 2026, only two states apply their full sales tax to groceries: Idaho at 6% and Hawaii at 4% (plus up to 0.5% county surcharge). Six more states tax food at a reduced rate below their general sales tax: Alabama, Mississippi, Missouri, South Dakota, Tennessee, and Utah. Every other state either has no sales tax or exempts groceries from the state-level rate, though local city and county taxes on food still apply in many places. The question of what states tax groceries has shifted quickly in the last two years, with Kansas, Oklahoma, Illinois, and Arkansas all eliminating their state grocery taxes since 2024.

States That Tax Groceries at the Full Rate

Idaho charges its full 6% state sales tax on food for home consumption.¹ It is the only traditional sales-tax state that does so. Idaho offsets the burden with a per-person food tax credit, described later in this article.

Hawaii applies its 4% general excise tax to groceries, with counties adding up to 0.5% for a possible 4.5% total.² The general excise tax is technically a tax on businesses rather than a sales tax on consumers, but retailers typically pass it through at the register. Hawaii also offers a refundable credit for lower-income households.

States That Tax Groceries at a Reduced Rate

Six states charge sales tax on groceries at a rate lower than their general sales tax. Rates run from just over 1% up to 5%.

Alabama: 2%, lowered from 3% on September 1, 2025. Local jurisdictions add their own sales taxes on top, and those add-ons can be significant.³
Mississippi: 5%, reduced from 7% in July 2025. Even after the cut, this remains one of the highest state grocery tax rates in the country.⁴
Missouri: 1.225%, the standard 4.225% rate reduced by 3 percentage points for food items eligible for SNAP. The reduced rate is in effect through at least December 31, 2026.⁵
South Dakota: 4.2%, applied to everything including groceries under a temporary tax holiday that began in July 2023. The rate is scheduled to return to 4.5% on July 1, 2027.⁶
Tennessee: 4% on groceries, compared to a 7% general sales tax. Proposals to eliminate the grocery tax have not passed as of early 2026.⁷
Utah: 1.75% state rate, plus uniform local levies that bring the combined rate to 3% statewide.⁸

States That Recently Dropped the Grocery Tax

Several states have eliminated their state grocery taxes in the past two years. If you shop in one of these states, the state rate is gone, but local taxes may still show up at checkout.

Kansas eliminated its state sales tax on groceries entirely on January 1, 2025, completing a phased reduction that began in 2023.⁹
Oklahoma eliminated its 4.5% state grocery tax on August 29, 2024. Local sales taxes still apply, and those can run as high as 7% in some places. Restaurant meals remain subject to the full state rate.¹⁰
Illinois eliminated its 1% state grocery tax on January 1, 2026. Municipalities and counties can adopt their own 1% grocery tax by ordinance, but the total cannot exceed what applied on December 31, 2025.¹¹
Arkansas passed Act 1008 to eliminate its remaining 0.125% state grocery tax in 2026.
Virginia eliminated its state grocery tax in 2023. Local governments kept the authority to charge up to 1%, and 2026 legislation has proposed ending that as well.

States With No Grocery Tax at All

Five states have no general sales tax, so groceries are untaxed by default: Alaska, Delaware, Montana, New Hampshire, and Oregon. Alaska is the only one that lets local governments impose sales taxes, so some Alaskan municipalities do tax food.

The rest of the states exempt groceries from the state sales tax through statute. In each of them, unprepared food sold for home consumption is not subject to the state rate. Local jurisdictions, however, may still tax food, which is where most of the surprises happen.

Local Taxes Can Still Apply

A state exemption isn’t the same as zero tax at the register. Cities and counties in many states retain the power to tax groceries even when the legislature has zeroed out the state rate. Oklahoma illustrates the gap: the state rate is gone, but local taxes still show up on every grocery receipt.¹⁰

Illinois followed the same pattern in 2026, ending its 1% state tax while authorizing municipalities and counties to adopt their own 1% grocery tax.¹¹ Whether your grocery bill actually fell on January 1 depends on what your city and county decided.

Alabama is the sharpest example. The state rate on food is 2%, but stacked city and county levies push the total tax on groceries above 9% in some Alabama counties.³ The same layering happens in Colorado, Virginia, and other exempting states with independent local taxing authority. The only reliable way to know your grocery tax rate is to check your specific city and county.

What Actually Counts as Groceries

Grocery exemptions apply to a legal category of food, not everything sold in a grocery store. Most states follow definitions influenced by the Streamlined Sales and Use Tax Agreement, which treats food as substances sold for human consumption for taste or nutritional value.¹² Alcohol and tobacco are always excluded. States may also exclude candy, soft drinks, bottled water, and dietary supplements from the exemption, and many do.

Candy and Soft Drinks

Roughly half of the states that exempt groceries still charge full sales tax on candy and soft drinks. Under the standardized definition, candy is a sugar-based preparation combined with chocolate, fruits, nuts, or similar ingredients in bars, drops, or pieces. If the product contains flour, it’s reclassified as food. That means a chocolate bar is taxable candy while a flour-based cookie bar sitting on the next shelf is exempt food. Soft drinks are defined as non-alcoholic sweetened beverages that do not contain milk or milk products.

Prepared Food

Prepared food is almost always taxed at the full sales tax rate, even in states that exempt groceries. Definitions vary but generally cover food sold heated, food where the seller has mixed two or more ingredients, and food sold with eating utensils provided by the seller. Hot deli items, ready-to-eat sandwiches, and restaurant meals fall squarely in this category. Cold deli items and bakery goods can land on either side of the line depending on the state’s rules about utensils and packaging.

Dietary Supplements

Supplements sit awkwardly between food and medicine. States following the standardized definition treat them as a separate category, so they can be taxed even when groceries are exempt. Other states include supplements in the grocery exemption as long as the label makes no medicinal claims. Whether your multivitamin is taxed depends on the state.

Credits and SNAP Relief

States that tax groceries generally acknowledge the policy hits low-income households hardest and offer credits or rebates to offset it.

Idaho offers a food tax credit of $155 per person against the 6% state grocery tax. Residents can claim up to $250 per person by submitting receipts showing the actual sales tax paid on food, and the credit is available even to residents who don’t earn enough to file an income tax return.¹

Hawaii offers a refundable food/excise tax credit on a sliding scale. The maximum is $220 per qualified exemption for households with adjusted gross income under $15,000, phasing down and disappearing at $40,000 for single filers and $60,000 for joint filers.¹³

Oklahoma still offers a sales tax relief credit of $40 per household member, even though the state grocery tax is gone, because local taxes on food remain. Eligibility requires gross income of $20,000 or less, or $50,000 or less if the filer is 65 or older, has a qualifying dependent, or has a disability.¹⁴

Purchases made with SNAP benefits are exempt from sales tax in every state, regardless of local rules. Federal law prohibits retailers from charging sales tax on any transaction paid for with SNAP, and the same rule covers WIC vouchers.¹⁵ If a transaction is split between SNAP benefits and another form of payment, only the non-SNAP portion can be taxed. In states like Mississippi and Tennessee, that federal rule is worth several percentage points per shopping trip.

1
Idaho State Tax Commission. Idaho Food Tax Credit
2
State of Hawaii, Department of Taxation. Tax Facts 37-1
3
Alabama Department of Revenue. NOTICE State Sales and Use Tax Rate Reduced on Food Beginning September 1, 2025
4
Mississippi Department of Revenue. Reduced Sales Tax on Groceries Begins July 1
5
Missouri Department of Revenue. Missouri Sales Tax Reduction on Food
6
South Dakota Department of Revenue. Sales and Use Tax
7
Tennessee Department of Revenue. Due Dates and Tax Rates
8
Utah State Tax Commission. Grocery Food Sales and Use Tax
9
Office of the Governor, State of Kansas. Governor Kelly Announces Food Sales Tax Completely Eliminated
10
Oklahoma.gov. State Sales Tax on Food and Food Ingredients
11
Illinois Department of Revenue. FY 2026-11, Municipal and County Grocery Occupation Tax Rate
12
Streamlined Sales Tax Governing Board. Streamlined Sales and Use Tax Agreement – Appendix C Library of Definitions
13
State of Hawaii, Department of Taxation. Form N-311 Instructions – Refundable Food/Excise Tax Credit
14
Oklahoma.gov. 2025 Form 538-S Claim for Credit Refund of Sales Tax
15
USDA Food and Nutrition Service. SNAP Retailer Notice – Sales Tax, Fees, and Refunds