Is food taxed in Kansas in 2026?

Not by the state. The state rate on food and food ingredients fell from 6.5% to 4% in 2023, 2% in 2024 and 0% on January 1, 2025. City and county sales taxes still apply to groceries. Prepared food, such as restaurant meals and hot deli items, is taxed at the full 6.5% state rate plus local taxes.

What is the sales tax rate in Wichita, Kansas?

Most of Wichita charges 7.5%: 6.5% state plus Sedgwick County's 1% countywide tax, which dates from 1985. Wichita itself doesn't levy a city sales tax. Some shopping areas inside the city sit in community improvement or STAR bond districts that add more, so check the exact address in the Kansas Department of Revenue's rate lookup.

Does Kansas charge sales tax on services?

Yes, on several kinds. Kansas taxes labor to repair, service, alter or maintain tangible property, installation labor (with exemptions for original construction and work on homes), service contracts covering that labor, admissions, hotel rooms, equipment rentals, cable TV and prewritten software. Professional services such as accounting, legal and medical work aren't taxed.

When do out-of-state sellers have to collect Kansas sales tax?

Remote sellers must collect once their cumulative gross receipts from sales to Kansas customers exceed $100,000 in the current or previous calendar year, under K.S.A. 79-3702. Kansas has no transaction-count test. Marketplace facilitators collect for their sellers on sales made through the platform.

Sales tax

Kansas Sales Tax Rate in 2026: 6.5% State Rate, 0% on Groceries, Local Taxes and Filing

Q: How often do I file Kansas sales tax?

Kansas sets your frequency from your yearly tax. If it's $1,000 or less, you file annually by January 25. Up to $5,000, you file quarterly, by the 25th of the month after each quarter. Above $5,000, you file monthly by the 25th of the following month. New businesses are placed using their estimate.

Kansas sales tax rate 2026: the 6.5% state rate, 0% state tax on food since 2025, local add-ons, Wichita's 7.5%, taxable labor services, filing dates and examples.

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

Updated October 2026 Verified against official sources 9 October 2026 15 min read

Kansas sales tax rate — MSMETOOLS guide cover

Contents (11)

1. How the Kansas rate is built
2. Groceries at 0%: what counts as food
3. Wichita and local rates
4. Which services are taxable in Kansas
5. Worked examples in dollars
6. Registering to collect Kansas sales tax
7. Filing frequency and due dates
8. Remote sellers and marketplaces
9. Exemption certificates and resale
10. Common mistakes and how to fix them
11. What to do next

Kansas changed its sales tax more in the last four years than in the previous decade. The state rate on groceries fell in three steps to zero, filing thresholds were raised, and remote sellers now have a clear dollar test. The general state rate, though, has stayed at 6.5%, and local taxes still decide what a customer actually pays at the register. This guide is for retailers, restaurants, contractors, repair shops and online sellers who need the 2026 rules: the state and local rates, what Wichita charges, how food is taxed now, which labor services are taxable, and how to register and file. We checked every figure against the Kansas statutes in October 2026. The Kansas Department of Revenue's own site blocked our automated checks, so we say where a figure comes from a secondary rate table.

Quick answer

The Kansas state sales tax rate is 6.5%. Cities, counties and special districts add local taxes, so most of Wichita pays 7.5% (state plus Sedgwick County's 1%). Since January 1, 2025, the state rate on groceries is 0%, but local sales taxes still apply to food.

Prepared food and restaurant meals pay the full 6.5% plus local tax
Repair, servicing and most installation labor is taxable in Kansas
File annually up to $1,000 of tax a year, quarterly up to $5,000, monthly above that; returns are due the 25th
Remote sellers collect after $100,000 of Kansas sales in a year
Registration certificates are needed for each place of business

How the Kansas rate is built

Kansas levies a retailers' sales tax of 6.5% on retail sales of goods and on a list of taxable services, set by K.S.A. 79-3603. The matching compensating use tax applies when a Kansas buyer gets taxable goods without paying Kansas sales tax, usually from an out-of-state seller. The two taxes share the same rate and the same base.

Local governments add their own taxes. Counties can levy a countywide sales tax, cities can add a city tax, and special taxing districts such as community improvement districts, transportation development districts and STAR bond areas can add more within their boundaries. That's why a store in one shopping center can charge a different rate from a store across the street. Local rates usually change at the start of a calendar quarter.

Which local rate applies depends on where the customer receives the item. Under K.S.A. 79-3670, a sale picked up at your store is sourced to the store. A sale shipped or delivered is sourced to where the customer, or someone they designate, receives it. So a Wichita shop delivering a sofa to a customer in another county charges that county's and city's rates, not its own.

Kansas sales tax at a glance (2026)

6.5%

State sales tax rate

State rate on groceries

Since January 1, 2025

7.5%

Wichita total

State + Sedgwick County

$100,000

Remote seller threshold

Groceries at 0%: what counts as food

The food tax cut came from a 2022 law, now K.S.A. 79-3603d. It set the state rate on food and food ingredients at 4% from January 1, 2023, 2% from January 1, 2024, and 0% from January 1, 2025. The law changed only the state rate. City, county and district sales taxes still apply to groceries, so a Wichita shopper's grocery bill carries Sedgwick County's 1%.

Kansas defines food and food ingredients broadly. The statute's definition specifically includes bottled water, candy, dietary supplements, food sold through vending machines and soft drinks. Many states tax candy and soda at the full rate even when they exempt groceries, but in Kansas those items fall inside the definition and get the 0% state rate. Alcoholic beverages and tobacco aren't food.

Prepared food is the main exception. Restaurant meals, food you heat, food you mix from two or more ingredients and sell as one item, and food sold with eating utensils you provide are prepared food, taxed at the full 6.5% plus local rates. The statute carves some items back out when they're sold without utensils: bakery items such as bread, cakes, cookies, donuts and tortillas; food sold unheated by weight or volume as a single item, such as deli salad by the pound; food made by a food manufacturer; and food that needs further cooking by the customer. A grocery store with a deli and a bakery has to code each type correctly.

State tax on food in Kansas (2026)

Item	State rate	Local tax?
Bread, milk, meat, produce	0%	Yes
Candy and soft drinks	0%	Yes
Bakery cookies sold without utensils	0%	Yes
Deli salad sold by the pound, no utensils	0%	Yes
Hot rotisserie chicken	6.5%	Yes
Restaurant meal	6.5%	Yes
Beer and liquor	6.5%	Yes

Bread, milk, meat, produce

State rate: 0%
Local tax?: Yes

Candy and soft drinks

State rate: 0%
Local tax?: Yes

Bakery cookies sold without utensils

State rate: 0%
Local tax?: Yes

Deli salad sold by the pound, no utensils

State rate: 0%
Local tax?: Yes

Hot rotisserie chicken

State rate: 6.5%
Local tax?: Yes

Restaurant meal

State rate: 6.5%
Local tax?: Yes

Beer and liquor

State rate: 6.5%
Local tax?: Yes

Wichita and local rates

In most of Wichita, the total rate is 7.5%: the 6.5% state rate plus a 1% Sedgwick County countywide sales tax. Voters approved the county tax in 1985, and the city receives a share of it, which it uses for property tax relief and roads. The City of Wichita doesn't levy its own sales tax; a 2014 proposal for one was voted down. We confirmed the 7.5% figure from several published rate tables because the Department of Revenue's lookup wasn't reachable during our checks.

Some Wichita addresses pay more. Shopping districts that use community improvement district financing, and areas with other special taxes, add their own percentage to sales inside the district, so a few Wichita addresses run above 7.5%. Suburbs with their own city taxes, such as Andover, also charge more. Before you set up a register or an online checkout, look up each location and delivery address in the Department's rate lookup, which works from a full street address.

Elsewhere in Kansas, totals vary widely because counties and cities layer their own rates on top of the state's, and district taxes can apply to a single block. Don't rely on one rate for a whole metro area, and recheck your rate table at the start of each quarter, when local changes usually take effect.

Century II convention and performing arts center on the Arkansas River in downtown Wichita, Kansas — Downtown Wichita pays 7.5% in most places: the 6.5% state rate plus Sedgwick County's 1%.· Image: FUBAR007 (CC BY-SA 3.0)

Which services are taxable in Kansas

Kansas taxes more services than many of its neighbors, mostly labor connected to physical property. Under K.S.A. 79-3603, three kinds of labor are taxable. The first is repairing, servicing, altering or maintaining tangible personal property, whether or not parts change hands, including property fastened to or built into real estate. Car repair, appliance repair, computer repair and equipment maintenance all fall here. The second is installing or applying tangible personal property. The third is service or maintenance contracts that cover those taxable services.

The installation tax has important exemptions. No tax applies to installation labor for the original construction of a building or facility, which the statute defines as the first construction of a new building, and also the addition of a whole room or floor, finishing an unfinished part of a building, or rebuilding after fire, flood, tornado and other listed disasters. Installation labor for the original construction, reconstruction, restoration, remodeling, renovation, repair or replacement of a residence is also exempt. So a roofer replacing a homeowner's roof doesn't charge tax on labor, while the same work on a strip mall is taxable. Contractors pay tax on the materials they buy.

Is the labor taxable in Kansas?

Job	Labor taxed?	Why
Repairing a car, appliance or computer	Yes	Repair of tangible property
Servicing a furnace in an office	Yes	Servicing property built into real estate
Building a new warehouse	No	Original construction
Remodeling a kitchen in a home	No	Residential remodeling
Installing new shelving in a store	Yes	Installation, not original construction
Accounting or legal work	No	Not a taxable service

Repairing a car, appliance or computer

Labor taxed?: Yes
Why: Repair of tangible property

Servicing a furnace in an office

Labor taxed?: Yes
Why: Servicing property built into real estate

Building a new warehouse

Labor taxed?: No
Why: Original construction

Remodeling a kitchen in a home

Labor taxed?: No
Why: Residential remodeling

Installing new shelving in a store

Labor taxed?: Yes
Why: Installation, not original construction

Accounting or legal work

Labor taxed?: No
Why: Not a taxable service

Other taxed services and transactions include admissions to places of amusement, entertainment and recreation, including fairs; hotel room rentals; rentals and leases of equipment and other personal property; cable and satellite television; fees for participating in sports and recreation at clubs and businesses; and prewritten software and the service of updating or maintaining it, whether delivered on disk or downloaded. Gas, electricity and heat sold to businesses are taxable, but gas, electricity and heat delivered to homes for residential use, and for agricultural use, get a 0% state rate. Professional and personal services that aren't on the list, such as legal, accounting, consulting and medical care, aren't taxed.

Worked examples in dollars

A Wichita TV sale. A customer buys a $1,000 television in a Wichita store with the standard 7.5% rate. Tax is $75, for a total of $1,075. If the store delivers it to an address in a city with a higher local rate, the store charges that location's rate instead.

A grocery run. A shopper spends $200 on groceries, including $20 of soda and candy, at a Wichita supermarket. The state rate on all of it is 0%, and Sedgwick County's 1% applies, so tax is $2. Adding a $12 hot rotisserie chicken from the deli adds $0.90 at the full 7.5%.

A car repair. An auto shop bills $350 in labor and $250 in parts to fix a customer's car. Both are taxable, so tax at 7.5% on $600 is $45. Kansas taxes the labor because it's repair of tangible personal property.

A roof replacement. A roofer replaces a house roof for $9,000 of labor and buys $6,000 of shingles and materials. The labor isn't taxed because it's repair or replacement work on a residence. The roofer pays sales tax on the $6,000 of materials when buying them. On a commercial building, the roofer would also charge tax on the labor.

Try it — Wichita 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)

Registering to collect Kansas sales tax

Under K.S.A. 79-3608, it's unlawful to sell taxable goods or services in Kansas without a registration certificate from the Director of Taxation. You apply to the Kansas Department of Revenue, online through its Customer Service Center or on its business tax application, and give your business name, owners and the addresses where you'll sell. The registration statute doesn't set an application fee.

You need a separate certificate for each place of business, and it must be displayed there. Sellers registering through the Streamlined Sales and Use Tax Agreement's central system are treated as registered in Kansas, which helps remote sellers registering in several states at once. Get your federal EIN first if you have employees or are an LLC or corporation.

The Department can suspend or revoke a certificate if you're at least 60 days behind on paying tax or filing a return, after giving 30 days' notice of a hearing. Selling after a suspension or revocation is itself unlawful, so treat late returns seriously.

Before your first Kansas sale

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Filing frequency and due dates

Your filing frequency depends on how much Kansas sales tax you owe in a calendar year. The thresholds changed on January 1, 2024. If your total tax is $1,000 or less, you file one annual return by January 25 of the next year. If it's more than that but no more than $5,000, you file quarterly, by the 25th of the month after each quarter: April 25, July 25, October 25 and January 25. Above $5,000, you file monthly, by the 25th of the following month.

The Department decides your frequency from your liability in the previous year, or from your estimate if you're new, and can change it when the original estimate turns out wrong. A business that expects $300 of tax a month, or $3,600 a year, files quarterly. One collecting $600 a month, or $7,200 a year, files monthly.

When you fill in the return, report sales by the local jurisdiction where each sale was sourced, so the Department can pass local tax to the right city, county or district. Keep invoices, exemption certificates and records of where you delivered goods; they're what an auditor will ask for if your local tax reporting doesn't match your sales.

Most businesses file and pay online. Sellers registered through Streamlined in certain models must file electronically. File a return for every period even when you had no sales, because a missing return can count toward the 60-day default that puts your certificate at risk.

Remote sellers and marketplaces

Kansas's economic nexus rule is in K.S.A. 79-3702. An out-of-state retailer must collect when its cumulative gross receipts from sales to Kansas customers exceed $100,000 in the current or immediately preceding calendar year. There's no 200-transaction test. A seller crossing the threshold for the first time partway through a year must collect on its Kansas sales above $100,000 in that year.

Marketplace facilitators collect on the sales they facilitate, so a seller using only a large marketplace may have nothing to collect directly. A seller with its own website as well needs to watch total Kansas receipts. Remote sellers collect at the combined state and local rate for each delivery address, so they need address-level rates, not just the state rate.

Kansas businesses also owe compensating use tax on taxable goods bought from out-of-state sellers that didn't charge Kansas tax, at the rate for the location where the goods are used. Office equipment, tools and supplies ordered online are the usual culprits. Report them on your return or on a consumer use tax return.

The dome of the Kansas State Capitol in Topeka — The Legislature set the state food rate's path to 0% in a 2022 law; local governments kept their food taxes.· Image: Adam Jones (CC BY 2.0)

Exemption certificates and resale

Not every sale to a business is taxable. Goods bought to resell, and ingredients or component parts that become part of a product made for sale, are exempt under K.S.A. 79-3606. So are sales to the State of Kansas and its political subdivisions, to public and private elementary and secondary schools and nonprofit educational institutions, and prescription drugs. Each exemption has conditions, and the burden is on you as the seller to show why you didn't charge tax.

In practice, that means collecting a completed exemption certificate from the buyer at the time of sale and keeping it with your records. If an auditor finds an exempt sale with no certificate or other proof, expect to owe the tax yourself. Nonprofit organizations are a frequent source of confusion: being a 501(c)(3) doesn't by itself make an organization's purchases exempt in Kansas, so ask for the specific exemption the buyer is relying on.

Before you skip tax on a sale

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Common mistakes and how to fix them

Still charging 2% or 4% state tax on groceries. The state food rate has been 0% since January 1, 2025. Point-of-sale systems that weren't updated over-collect. Fix the tax code right away and ask the Department how to correct any tax you over-collected; collected tax isn't yours to keep.

Dropping local tax on food. The opposite error is removing all tax from groceries. Local sales taxes still apply, so a Wichita grocery receipt should show 1%.

Treating candy and soda as fully taxable. Kansas's food definition includes them, so they get the 0% state rate unless sold as prepared food.

Not charging tax on repair labor. Repair shops coming from states that tax only parts often under-collect. In Kansas, labor to repair or service tangible property is taxable.

Taxing exempt residential labor. Contractors sometimes charge tax on installation labor for home repairs and remodels. That labor is exempt; tax the materials when you buy them instead.

Using the wrong local rate for deliveries. Delivered goods are taxed where the customer receives them. Look up each delivery address.

Official links

What to do next

Register for a certificate for each location, look up the state and local rate for every store and delivery address, and set your register to charge 0% state tax on groceries but the full rate on prepared food. Work out whether your labor is taxable repair or exempt residential work, then set reminders for the 25th. Use the sales tax calculator to check receipts at 7.5% or your local rate, and our guide to calculating sales tax for tax-included prices. Selling across state lines? Compare our Missouri, Oklahoma and Colorado sales tax guides.

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 6.5% under K.S.A. 79-3603. Cities, counties and special districts add their own sales taxes, so the total you pay depends on where you take delivery. In Wichita it's 7.5%, the state rate plus Sedgwick County's 1%. Groceries carry a 0% state rate, though local taxes still apply to them.

Sources & verification

Figures on this page were checked against the sources below when it was last reviewed on 9 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.K.S.A. 79-3603 — Retailers' sales tax; rate; taxable sales and services — Kansas Office of Revisor of Statutes · accessed 9 October 2026
2.K.S.A. 79-3603d — Tax on food and food ingredients; rate — Kansas Office of Revisor of Statutes · accessed 9 October 2026
3.K.S.A. 79-3602 — Definitions — Kansas Office of Revisor of Statutes · accessed 9 October 2026
4.K.S.A. 79-3607 — Returns and payment — Kansas Office of Revisor of Statutes · accessed 9 October 2026
5.K.S.A. 79-3608 — Registration certificates — Kansas Office of Revisor of Statutes · accessed 9 October 2026
6.K.S.A. 79-3702 — Compensating tax definitions (retailer doing business in this state) — Kansas Office of Revisor of Statutes · accessed 9 October 2026
7.K.S.A. 79-3670 — Sourcing rules — Kansas Office of Revisor of Statutes · accessed 9 October 2026
8.Wichita, Kansas sales tax rates (secondary — Kansas DOR site blocked automated access) — SalesTaxHandbook · accessed 9 October 2026
9.Kansas' sales tax on food drops to zero on Jan. 1 — KWCH 12 News · accessed 9 October 2026

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