What is the sales tax in Boise?

Boise charges no city sales tax, so most purchases pay Idaho's 6%. Hotel rooms and other short-term lodging are different: they pay the 6% sales tax, the 2% state travel and convention tax, and the Greater Boise Auditorium District tax, which the Tax Commission collects on Form 1250.

How much is an Idaho seller's permit?

It's free. You apply through Idaho Business Registration (IBR) on the State Tax Commission's website; online applications usually produce a permit in 10–15 business days. Free temporary permits cover one-off events, and people with gross sales of $5,000 or less a year may qualify for the small seller exemption instead.

Are groceries taxed in Idaho?

Yes. Idaho is one of the few states that taxes groceries at the full 6% rate. Residents get some of it back through the grocery credit on their income tax return. House Bill 231 of 2025 raised that credit to $155 per person, from $120, retroactive to January 1, 2025, according to news reports of the bill's signing.

Does Idaho charge sales tax on services?

Mostly not. Idaho taxes goods, short-term lodging, meals, admissions, recreation and production or fabrication labor, but not most services. Repair and installation labor isn't taxed if it's stated separately on the invoice, while the parts are taxed. Professional services such as accounting, legal work and consulting aren't taxable.

Sales tax

Idaho Sales Tax in 2026: 6% Rate, Resort City Taxes, Permits and Filing

Q: When are Idaho sales tax returns due?

Monthly returns and payments are due by the 20th of the following month, or the next workday if the 20th falls on a weekend or holiday. Retailers that owe less than $750 a quarter file quarterly, within 20 days after the quarter ends. Filing late costs 5% a month (max 25%) of the tax, with a $10 minimum.

Q: Do out-of-state sellers have to collect Idaho sales tax?

Yes, once their sales into Idaho exceed $100,000 in the current or previous calendar year. Idaho has no transaction-count test. Marketplace facilitators collect on sales they handle for third-party sellers. Remote sellers charge the 6% state rate; resort city taxes are administered by the cities, not the Tax Commission.

Idaho sales tax 2026: the flat 6% rate, resort city and lodging taxes, what's taxable, the free seller's permit, filing by the 20th and worked examples.

Edited by Sumeet YadavFounder & editor, MSMETOOLS · fact-checked against official sources

Updated October 2026 Verified against official sources 11 October 2026 15 min read

Contents (11)

1. How Idaho's sales tax works
2. Resort city local option taxes
3. Lodging: travel and convention tax and auditorium districts
4. What's taxable and what isn't
5. Groceries and the grocery credit
6. Worked examples in dollars
7. Getting an Idaho seller's permit
8. Filing returns, due dates and penalties
9. Remote sellers, marketplaces and use tax
10. Common mistakes and how to fix them
11. What to do next

Idaho's sales tax is simpler than most. There's one state rate, 6%, no county taxes, and no city sales tax in Boise, Meridian, Nampa, Idaho Falls or most other towns. The complications sit at the edges: resort cities that run their own local option taxes, extra taxes on hotel rooms and campgrounds, a full tax on groceries offset by an income tax credit, and specific rules about which labor charges are taxable. This guide is for retailers, restaurants, repair shops, short-term rental hosts and online sellers who need the 2026 rules, with dollar examples. We checked each figure against the Idaho State Tax Commission in October 2026.

Quick answer

Idaho's sales tax rate is 6% statewide, and there's no county or general city sales tax in Boise and most cities. About two dozen resort cities, such as McCall, Ketchum and Sandpoint, add their own local option taxes. Short-term lodging also pays a 2% travel and convention tax, plus an auditorium district tax in Boise, Nampa, Idaho Falls, Pocatello-Chubbuck and the McCall-area district.

Groceries are taxed at 6%; residents claim a grocery credit on their income tax return
Most services aren't taxed; separately stated repair and installation labor isn't taxed
A seller's permit is free through Idaho Business Registration
Returns are due the 20th of the following month
Remote sellers collect after $100,000 of Idaho sales

How Idaho's sales tax works

Idaho levies a 6% sales tax on retail sales, and a 6% use tax on taxable goods used or stored in Idaho when sales tax wasn't paid. Under Idaho Code 63-3612 and the Tax Commission's guidance, the tax applies to the sale, lease or rental of goods, and to a set list of transactions treated as sales: short-term lodging for 30 days or less, meals and drinks, admissions to events and places, the right to use property or facilities for recreation, production, fabrication, printing or imprinting labor, and digital books, videos, music or games the buyer gets a permanent right to use.

The flat structure is the big advantage. There are no county sales taxes and no general city sales taxes outside the resort cities. A shop in Boise, a contractor's supply yard in Nampa and an online seller shipping to Pocatello all charge the same 6%.

Use tax catches what sales tax misses. If you buy equipment from an out-of-state website that doesn't charge Idaho tax, or buy something in Oregon, which has no sales tax, and bring it home, you owe 6% use tax. If you paid at least 6% to another state, nothing more is due; if you paid less, you owe the difference. Businesses report use tax on their sales tax return; the same applies to items they pull from resale inventory for their own use.

Idaho sales tax at a glance (2026)

State sales and use tax

No county tax

Travel and convention tax

Short-term lodging and campgrounds

free

Seller's permit

$100,000

Remote seller threshold

$155

Grocery credit per person

Income tax credit, HB 231

Resort city local option taxes

Idaho lets certain resort cities ask voters to approve their own local sales taxes, often called local option taxes. The Tax Commission lists 23 cities that have one: Bellevue, Bonners Ferry, Cascade, Crouch, Donnelly, Driggs, Hailey, Harrison, Irwin, Kellogg, Ketchum, Lava Hot Springs, Mackay, McCall, Ponderay, Riggins, Salmon, Sandpoint, Stanley, Sun Valley, Swan Valley, Tetonia and Victor.

Each city decides what to tax and at what rate. Some apply their tax to everything subject to the state sales tax; others limit it to lodging, liquor by the drink and restaurant food. The key practical difference from other states is administration: the Tax Commission doesn't collect these taxes. You register with the city, collect its tax alongside the state tax, and file and pay the city directly. The Tax Commission tells businesses to contact each city for its rates and rules.

McCall shows how the layers work. Its local option tax page lists a 1% tax on retail sales within city limits, excluding groceries and motor vehicles, and an additional 6% on lodging, including short-term rentals. Half of that lodging tax funds streets through December 31, 2036, and the other half funds grants through December 31, 2028. A McCall gift shop therefore charges 7% in total, while a McCall hotel room pays the 6% state tax, the 2% travel and convention tax, and 7% to the city: 15%. Airbnb and VRBO collect and remit McCall's tax for hosts who book through them.

Snow-lined inlet to Payette Lake near McCall, Idaho, at sunrise — Resort cities such as McCall add their own local option taxes, collected by the city rather than the state.· Image: Knowles Gallery (CC BY 2.0)

Lodging: travel and convention tax and auditorium districts

Hotels, motels, short-term rentals and campgrounds carry extra state-administered taxes. The travel and convention tax is 2% on short-term lodging and campgrounds, on top of the 6% sales tax.

Auditorium districts can add a further tax on short-term lodging of 30 days or less, including non-sleeping rooms such as meeting rooms, but not campgrounds. The Tax Commission administers five districts in 2026: the Greater Boise Auditorium District (Form 1250), the Idaho Falls Auditorium District (Form 4150), the Pocatello-Chubbuck Auditorium District (Form 4250), the Nampa Auditorium District, collected from April 1, 2026 (Form 4350), and the Mountain Community Center District, collected from May 1, 2026 (Form 4450). Each district's boundaries are set by address, and the Tax Commission's page links to a lookup for each.

Hosts who rent only through marketplaces that collect and remit the taxes don't technically need their own permits. But if you take any direct bookings, charge separate cleaning or common fees, or rent through a site that doesn't collect, you need a seller's permit, a travel and convention tax permit, and an auditorium district permit if you're inside a district, plus a city permit in a resort city.

Where you stay	Sales tax	Travel and convention	Auditorium district	City	Total before district tax
Twin Falls hotel	6%	2%	None	None	8%
Boise hotel	6%	2%	GBAD tax	None	8% plus GBAD
Nampa hotel (from April 2026)	6%	2%	Nampa district tax	None	8% plus district
McCall hotel	6%	2%	Check MCCD boundary	7%	15% plus any district
Campground outside districts	6%	2%	Not applicable	Varies	8%

What's taxable and what isn't

Goods are taxable unless an exemption applies. That includes groceries: Idaho taxes food bought at the store at the full 6%. Prepared meals, drinks at a bar, movie and concert tickets, ski lift tickets, golf green fees and gym day passes are taxable too, because meals, admissions and recreation are on the list of taxable transactions.

Most services are not. Accounting, legal work, consulting, medical care, haircuts, cleaning and lawn care aren't on Idaho's list, so they're not taxed. The exception is labor that creates or changes a product: production, fabrication, printing and imprinting labor is taxable. A print shop's charge to print T-shirts is taxable; an accountant's fee isn't.

Labor on goods follows the invoice. The Tax Commission says installation labor and repair labor aren't taxable if they're separately stated, but the parts are. If a repair shop bills one lump sum for parts and labor, the whole amount is taxable. Shipping and handling charges for sending goods directly to the buyer aren't taxable when separately stated. Some charges stay taxable even when shown separately: freight the retailer paid to get goods in, manufacturer's excise taxes built into the price, assembly fees and alterations charged at the time of sale, card-processing surcharges, and environmental or disposal fees that aren't imposed directly by a government agency.

Trade-ins reduce the taxable price. The Tax Commission's own example: a customer buys an $800 range, gets $250 for the old one and pays $25 for delivery. Tax applies to $550; the delivery charge, if separately stated, isn't taxed.

Is it taxable in Idaho?

Charge	Taxable?	Why
Groceries	Yes, 6%	Food isn't exempt; residents get an income tax credit
Restaurant meal	Yes	Meals and drinks
Car repair parts	Yes	Goods
Car repair labor, separately stated	No	Repair labor
Custom T-shirt printing	Yes	Printing and imprinting labor
Bookkeeping or legal fees	No	Not a listed service
Ski lift ticket	Yes	Recreation and admissions
Shipping directly to the buyer, separately stated	No	Excluded delivery charge

Groceries

Taxable?: Yes, 6%
Why: Food isn't exempt; residents get an income tax credit

Restaurant meal

Taxable?: Yes
Why: Meals and drinks

Car repair parts

Taxable?: Yes
Why: Goods

Car repair labor, separately stated

Taxable?: No
Why: Repair labor

Custom T-shirt printing

Taxable?: Yes
Why: Printing and imprinting labor

Bookkeeping or legal fees

Taxable?: No
Why: Not a listed service

Ski lift ticket

Taxable?: Yes
Why: Recreation and admissions

Shipping directly to the buyer, separately stated

Taxable?: No
Why: Excluded delivery charge

Groceries and the grocery credit

Idaho is one of a small group of states that still taxes groceries at the full state rate. Instead of exempting food, it gives residents an income tax credit meant to offset the tax on a typical household's groceries. House Bill 231, signed in March 2025, raised the credit to $155 per person from $120 for most filers, with an emergency clause making it retroactive to January 1, 2025, according to news reports of the signing. A family of four gets $155 for each member on its return.

For retailers, nothing changes at the register: groceries are taxed at 6%. Purchases paid with SNAP benefits or WIC vouchers are exempt under federal rules. Resort cities can choose to exclude groceries from their local tax, as McCall does, so check each city's rules.

The Idaho State Capitol building in Boise in late afternoon light — Boise has no city sales tax, so most purchases there pay just Idaho's 6% state rate.· Image: Ken Lund (CC BY-SA 2.0)

Worked examples in dollars

A Boise electronics sale. A customer buys a $1,000 television. Tax at 6% is $60, for $1,060. If the store charges $80 to install it and lists that separately, the installation isn't taxed; lumped into one $1,080 price, all of it is taxable and tax rises to $64.80.

A repair shop invoice. A Meridian auto shop replaces brakes: $400 of parts and $300 of labor, listed separately. Tax is 6% of $400, or $24. The invoice totals $724.

A McCall gift shop. A visitor buys $200 of souvenirs. The state tax is $12 and McCall's 1% retail tax is $2. The shop reports the $12 to the Tax Commission and the $2 to the city.

A Twin Falls hotel. Two nights at $150 is $300. With the 6% sales tax and 2% travel and convention tax, the hotel collects $24.

A trade-in. A customer buys an $800 range, trades in an old one for $250 and pays $25 for delivery listed separately. Tax is 6% of $550, or $33.

A craft seller. A hobbyist sells $4,000 of handmade jewelry at local markets in a year. That's within the $5,000 small seller limit, so the seller may qualify for the exemption instead of getting a permit. Once sales pass $5,000, a seller's permit is required.

Try it — Idaho sales tax on $1,000

Purchase AmountState

Local / County Rate

Purchase Amount$1,000.00

State Tax (6.25%)$62.50

Local Tax (2%)$20.00

Combined Rate8.25%

Total Amount (Including Tax)$1,082.50

Open the full Sales Tax Calculator (PDF, save, compare)

Getting an Idaho seller's permit

Almost everyone selling goods or taxable services in Idaho needs a seller's permit, collects sales tax, files returns and forwards the tax to the Tax Commission. The permit is free. Apply through Idaho Business Registration (IBR) on the Tax Commission's website, where you can also register for withholding, the travel and convention tax and auditorium district taxes in one application. Online applications usually produce a permit in 10–15 business days.

Two shortcuts exist. Temporary seller's permits, also free, cover people selling at a one-time event such as a craft fair or trade show. And the small seller exemption covers individuals whose gross sales stay at or below $5,000 a calendar year. Neither works for a regular business with ongoing sales.

Idaho has no general state business license, but some cities license specific activities, and LLCs and corporations register with the Secretary of State. Our Idaho business license guide covers those steps and Boise's city licenses.

Before your first Idaho sale

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Filing returns, due dates and penalties

Idaho sales tax is reported on the accrual basis: you send the tax for the period in which you made the sale, even if the customer hasn't paid yet. The Tax Commission sets your filing frequency when you register. Most retailers file monthly, with returns and payments due by the 20th of the following month, or the next workday if the 20th is a weekend or holiday. Retailers that owe less than $750 a quarter in tax file quarterly, within 20 days after the quarter ends. Distributors and wholesalers with only a few retail sales can apply to file semiannually, by July 20 and January 20, or annually.

File a return for every period even with no sales. If you report $0 for 12 months in a row, the Tax Commission cancels your permit, and a cancelled permit can't be used to make sales or buy goods for resale.

Penalties are steep. Filing late costs 5% a month (max 25%) of the tax due. Filing on time but not paying costs 0.5% a month (max 25%). The minimum penalty is $10, and even one day late counts as a full month. Interest on overdue tax runs from the original due date at 6% a year for 2026. No penalty applies when no tax was due.

Idaho filing frequency (2026)

Your situation	Frequency	Due
Most retailers	Monthly	20th of the next month
Tax under $750 a quarter	Quarterly	20 days after the quarter
Wholesaler or distributor with few sales (on application)	Semiannual or annual	July 20 and January 20, or annually

Most retailers

Frequency: Monthly
Due: 20th of the next month

Tax under $750 a quarter

Frequency: Quarterly
Due: 20 days after the quarter

Wholesaler or distributor with few sales (on application)

Frequency: Semiannual or annual
Due: July 20 and January 20, or annually

Remote sellers, marketplaces and use tax

Out-of-state sellers must register and collect Idaho sales tax once their sales into Idaho exceed $100,000 in the current or previous calendar year. Idaho has no transaction-count test. Marketplace facilitators collect on sales they handle for third-party sellers, so a seller that sells only through such a platform doesn't collect on those sales itself.

Remote sellers charge the 6% state rate. Because the resort city taxes are administered by the cities, a remote seller shipping into Ketchum or Sandpoint should check the city's own rules rather than expect the Tax Commission to handle them.

Idaho buyers owe use tax on taxable purchases made without paying Idaho tax: online orders from sellers that don't collect, catalog purchases, and goods bought in Oregon or Montana, which have no sales tax. Businesses report it on their sales tax return; individuals report it on their income tax return.

Common mistakes and how to fix them

Exempting groceries. Idaho taxes them. Only SNAP and WIC purchases are exempt. Fix the tax code in your register and file amended returns for under-collected periods.

Lumping labor and parts together. A single price for a repair makes the whole charge taxable. Itemize labor and parts on every invoice.

Forgetting city taxes in resort towns. The Tax Commission doesn't collect them, so they're easy to miss. Register with the city and file with it directly.

Missing lodging taxes. Short-term rental hosts who take direct bookings need the 2% travel and convention tax and, in a district, the auditorium district tax, in addition to sales tax.

Not filing zero returns. Twelve months of $0 returns cancels your permit. File every period, and ask to switch to a less frequent schedule if your sales are small.

Assuming services are always exempt. Printing, imprinting and fabrication labor are taxable, as are admissions and recreation.

Official links

What to do next

Apply for your free seller's permit through IBR, decide whether your products, labor or lodging bring in extra taxes, and register with the city if you're in a resort town. Set your register to tax groceries, itemize labor and shipping on invoices, and put the 20th of the month on your calendar. Use the sales tax calculator to check a receipt at 6%, and our guide to calculating sales tax for tax-included prices. Starting a business? Read the Idaho business license guide. Selling into neighboring states? Compare our Utah, Nevada and Washington guides, and read about economic nexus.

This is general information, not legal or tax advice — confirm on the official source or with a professional.

Frequently asked questions

The state rate is 6%, and the use tax rate is the same. Idaho has no county sales tax and most cities, including Boise, Meridian, Nampa and Idaho Falls, add nothing, so 6% is the total for most purchases. About two dozen resort cities, such as McCall, Ketchum and Sandpoint, charge their own local option taxes on top.

Sources & verification

Figures on this page were checked against the sources below when it was last reviewed on 11 October 2026. Each rate and limit is stored once with its own official source and review date, and official update channels are monitored daily so changes are picked up. How we verify

1.Sales and Use Taxes: Basics Guide — Idaho State Tax Commission · accessed 11 October 2026
2.City Sales Taxes — Idaho State Tax Commission · accessed 11 October 2026
3.Auditorium District Taxes — Idaho State Tax Commission · accessed 11 October 2026
4.Travel and Convention Tax — Idaho State Tax Commission · accessed 11 October 2026
5.Sales/Use Tax Filing, Penalties and Due Dates — Idaho State Tax Commission · accessed 11 October 2026
6.Form 1250 Instructions (interest rate table) — Idaho State Tax Commission · accessed 11 October 2026
7.Online Sellers Take These Steps — Idaho State Tax Commission · accessed 11 October 2026
8.Local Option Tax — City of McCall · accessed 11 October 2026
9.Idaho governor signs bill increasing food tax credit — KIVI-TV (Idaho News 6) · accessed 11 October 2026

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We provide tools, guides and information for general educational purposes only. Always refer to official government websites for the latest and most accurate information.