Sales Tax Guide resource

Data Methodology: How Rates Are Sourced and Labelled

How Sales Tax Guide sources, labels, and limits its sales tax rate data: the five rate statuses, the official state tables behind each figure, what "checked" does and does not mean, and the known gaps in coverage.

Quick Answer

Every rate page on this website carries a rate status that says where its number came from and how far it has been checked. Nothing here is described as verified unless an official source was actually opened for that record. Where a rate is not available, no number is shown at all.

Of the 4,509 local rate pages on this site, 664 have been confirmed against the official state source, and 3,845 have not. Each page says which group it belongs to.

The five rate statuses

Each city, county, parish, borough, municipality, and equivalent jurisdiction page is assigned exactly one of these. The counts below are generated from the current dataset.

Rate statusWhat it meansCity pagesCounty-equivalent pages
Local rate from the official state rate table Carried from the official state rate table cited on the page. 664 0
Local rate from an official table with an earlier effective date From an official state table whose effective date predates the current year; reconfirm before filing. 93 0
Statewide rate; no local add-on recorded The jurisdiction applies one rate with no county, city, or district add-on recorded. 3,207 489
No broad statewide sales tax recorded No broad statewide sales tax recorded. Other transaction taxes may still apply. 545 49
Combined rate not available in this dataset No combined rate is stored, so none is shown. 0 2,684

Which official sources the local rates come from

JurisdictionSource agency and documentRate effectiveSource opened and checkedPages
California California Department of Tax and Fee Administration (CDTFA) — California City and County Sales and Use Tax Rates July 1, 2026 August 6, 2026 483
Florida Florida Department of Revenue — Form DR-15DSS, Discretionary Sales Surtax Information (current edition) Current edition August 6, 2026 255
New York New York State Department of Taxation and Finance — Publication 718, New York State Sales and Use Tax Rates by Jurisdiction March 1, 2025 Not re-checked 19

What “checked” does and does not mean here

These fields are kept separate on purpose, because collapsing them is how a build date ends up being shown to readers as a verification date:

  • Rate effective date — the date the official source says the rate takes effect.
  • Source last updated — the revision date printed on the official document itself.
  • Official source opened and checked — whether the official source was actually opened to confirm this record, and on what date. Where this says “No”, the figure was carried from the underlying dataset and has not been re-confirmed against the agency.

A code deployment date is not a data-verification date, and this site does not display one as if it were. For any figure you will rely on to collect, invoice, or file, open the official source linked on the page and check the exact address.

Known limitations in the current data

  • County-equivalent coverage. 2,684 of 3,222 county-equivalent pages have no combined rate in the dataset. Those pages say so rather than showing a placeholder, a zero, or the bare statewide figure presented as a county rate.
  • City coverage. City-level pages exist for 16 of 52 jurisdictions. The rest have state guides only.
  • Averages. Where a page shows an average combined rate, that is an average across the jurisdictions in this dataset. It is not an exact rate for any single transaction and not a figure published by the state.
  • Cohort wording. Where a page says “of the N cities in this dataset,” that cohort is exactly the jurisdictions this site holds data for, not every incorporated place in the state.

How the comparison figures are calculated

Rankings, averages, medians, percentiles, county spreads, and the tax-on-a-purchase tables are computed arithmetically from the stored rates. They are not sourced separately and are not official statistics.

Reporting a problem

If a rate, source link, or effective date looks wrong, please tell us. See the corrections policy for what to send and what never to send.

Before You Rely on This Information

Use this page as a starting point, then check the official state revenue agency or filing portal before taking action.

Helpful Next Steps

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