Only five states have no statewide sales tax: Alaska, Delaware, Montana, New Hampshire, and Oregon. Every zip code in those five is free of state-level sales tax, but that does not mean every purchase in them is tax-free, and outside those five, no zip code in the country escapes sales tax entirely because every other state charges a statewide rate. If you are looking for states and zip codes with no sales tax, the honest answer is that Oregon and most of Montana come closest to truly tax-free shopping, while the other three have quirks worth knowing before you plan a trip or a move.1Tax Foundation. State and Local Sales Tax Rates, 2026
What You Actually Pay in the Five No-Sales-Tax States
Each of the five handles consumption taxes a little differently. The “no sales tax” label is accurate at the state level, but local taxes and narrow category taxes still catch shoppers off guard.
Alaska
Alaska has no state sales tax, but cities and boroughs can levy their own, and in some places a city tax and a borough tax stack on the same purchase.2Department of Commerce, Community, and Economic Development. Sales Tax, Local Government Online, Division of Community and Regional Affairs There is no statutory cap on local rates, and combined local rates run as high as 7.85% in some jurisdictions.1Tax Foundation. State and Local Sales Tax Rates, 2026 The statewide average local rate is roughly 1.82%. Which Alaska zip code you shop in makes a real difference.
Delaware
Delaware charges no sales tax anywhere in the state, which is why shoppers cross the border to buy big-ticket items. The state does impose a gross receipts tax on businesses at rates from 0.0945% to 2.4218%, depending on the activity, but this is legally the seller’s obligation and does not appear on your receipt.3Division of Revenue – State of Delaware. Gross Receipts Tax FAQs Sellers may bake it into shelf prices, but you will not see a tax line at checkout.
Montana
Most of Montana is genuinely tax-free at the register. The exception is designated resort communities and resort areas, which can impose a resort tax of up to 3% on retail sales from hotels, restaurants, bars, ski facilities, and similar tourism businesses, plus an additional 1% for infrastructure.4Montana State Legislature. Montana Code 7-6-1503 – Limit on Resort Tax Rate — Goods and Services Subject to Tax Communities currently collecting a resort tax include Whitefish, Red Lodge, Virginia City, West Yellowstone, Big Sky, St. Regis, and Seeley Lake.5Montana Department of Transportation. Financing Districts – Resort and Local Option Taxes Shopping in a Montana zip code outside those areas, you pay nothing.
New Hampshire
New Hampshire has no sales tax on retail goods. Electronics, clothing, furniture, appliances: none of it is taxed at the register. The state does charge an 8.5% meals and rooms tax on restaurant food, hotel stays, and motor vehicle rentals.6NH Department of Revenue. Meals and Rooms (Rentals) Tax So the state is tax-free for shopping, but not for a weekend trip that includes dinner and a hotel.
Oregon
Oregon is the cleanest case. No state sales tax, no local sales tax, no general use tax.7Oregon Department of Revenue. Sales Tax in Oregon – Businesses The one narrow exception is a vehicle use tax when you buy a new car out of state and bring it into Oregon for registration. For everyday shopping, every zip code in Oregon is tax-free.
Why Zip Codes Are the Wrong Unit for This Question
Sales tax lookup tools often ask for a zip code, and it feels like the natural way to check. It isn’t. A zip code is a mail-delivery zone, not a tax jurisdiction, and the two do not line up cleanly. A single zip code can straddle several cities, counties, or special taxing districts, each with its own rate. One Georgia zip code covers parts of four different counties, each charging a different local rate.
The Streamlined Sales Tax project, a multistate agreement that standardizes tax administration, handles this with a default rule: when a five-digit zip code spans more than one tax rate, sellers apply the lowest combined rate for that zip code.8Streamlined Sales Tax Project. Rates and Boundary Databases Instructional Paper That protects buyers from being overcharged, but it also means a zip code alone can understate what you actually owe. An accurate rate requires a full street address or a nine-digit zip. So when someone asks which zip codes have no sales tax, the answerable version of the question is which states do, and then which parts of those states carry local add-ons.
Use Tax: Why Cross-Border Shopping Isn’t Really Tax-Free
This is where most tax-free shopping plans quietly fall apart. Nearly every state that charges sales tax also charges a companion called use tax. If you buy something out of state or online and no sales tax is collected, your home state expects you to pay the equivalent tax yourself, at your home state’s rate.
Say you live in a state with a 6% sales tax and drive to Delaware for a laptop. Your home state technically expects 6% use tax on that purchase. If you had paid 4% sales tax in some other state, you would owe the 2% difference. If you already paid a rate at or above your home state’s rate, you owe nothing.
Enforcement on small individual purchases has historically been loose, which is why many people have never heard of use tax. But states have gotten sharper, especially for items that require registration: vehicles, boats, and equipment. Some states put a use tax line on the state income tax return; others require a separate filing. An audit can bring back taxes, interest, and penalties.
Online Shopping and the Five States
Before 2018, an online retailer only had to collect sales tax in states where it had a physical presence. In South Dakota v. Wayfair, Inc., the Supreme Court held that states can require remote sellers to collect sales tax based on economic activity alone, upholding a threshold of $100,000 in annual sales or 200 separate transactions delivered into the state.9Supreme Court of the United States. South Dakota v. Wayfair, Inc. (17-494) Every state with a sales tax has since adopted some form of economic nexus rule, and many have dropped the transaction count in favor of the dollar threshold.
All 45 states with a sales tax, plus Washington, D.C., have also passed marketplace facilitator laws that require platforms like Amazon, eBay, and Etsy to collect and remit sales tax on behalf of their third-party sellers.10Streamlined Sales Tax. Marketplace Facilitator So most online orders now include sales tax automatically, and shipping address, not seller location, determines the rate. If you want tax-free online shopping, you need a shipping address in one of the five no-tax states, and even then, Alaska localities may still tax the sale.