What is the meals tax in Maine?

Prepared food is taxed at 8%, wherever it's sold: restaurants, food trucks, caterers, and hot food or deli platters at grocery and convenience stores. Alcoholic drinks served in licensed bars and restaurants are also taxed at 8%. Groceries are exempt. Tips that go wholly to staff aren't taxable, but mandatory service charges kept by the business are.

What is the lodging tax in Maine?

Rentals of living quarters are taxed at 9%. That covers hotels, motels, inns, campgrounds, cottages, condos and vacation homes rented for under 28 days in a row. Cleaning, pet and resort fees the guest must pay are taxed too. An owner who rents a single property for fewer than 15 days days a year doesn't need to register, though a rental agent or platform still collects.

How much does it cost to register for Maine sales tax?

Nothing. Maine Revenue Services issues a retailer certificate free through the Maine Tax Portal at revenue.maine.gov. You need a separate certificate for each place of business. Certificates don't expire; they stay valid until you cancel them or MRS revokes them. Retailers reporting at least $3,000 of annual sales also receive a resale certificate.

When are Maine sales tax returns due?

Returns and payment are due by the 15th of the month after the reporting period, or the next business day if the 15th falls on a weekend or holiday. Most retailers file monthly. If your average tax is under $600 a month, you can ask MRS to let you file less often. Returns must be filed electronically through the Maine Tax Portal unless you have a waiver.

Do out-of-state sellers have to collect Maine sales tax?

Yes, once gross revenue from sales delivered into Maine exceeds $100,000 in the current or previous calendar year. Maine no longer uses a transaction-count test. Marketplace facilitators that pass the same threshold collect on the sales they handle for third-party sellers. Remote sellers charge the same rates as Maine retailers, since there are no local taxes.

Is the Maine service provider tax still in effect?

No. Maine repealed the service provider tax on January 1, 2026. Cable and satellite TV, telecommunications, fabrication services, telecom equipment installation and repair, ancillary services, and digital audio and audiovisual services moved to the 5.5% sales tax. Rentals of video equipment and rent-to-own furniture are now taxed as rentals of tangible goods.

Sales tax

Maine Sales Tax in 2026: 5.5% Rate, 8% Meals, 9% Lodging, Registration and Filing

Maine sales tax 2026: the 5.5% general rate, 8% on prepared food, 9% on lodging, free registration, filing by the 15th, the SPT repeal and worked examples.

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

Updated October 2026 Verified against official sources 11 October 2026 17 min read

Contents (11)

1. How Maine's sales tax works
2. The 2026 change: the service provider tax is gone
3. Prepared food and the 8% meals rate
4. Lodging, vacation rentals and the 9% rate
5. What else is taxable, and what isn't
6. Worked examples in dollars
7. Registering for a Maine retailer certificate
8. Filing returns, due dates and penalties
9. Remote sellers and marketplaces
10. Common mistakes and how to fix them
11. What to do next

Maine runs one of the simpler sales tax systems in the country. There's a single statewide rate, 5.5%, and no city or county add-ons, so a sale in Portland is taxed exactly like one in Presque Isle. The complexity comes from Maine's tiered rates for meals, lodging, car rentals and cannabis, and from a big change on January 1, 2026, when the old service provider tax was folded into the sales tax. This guide is for shop owners, restaurants, inns, vacation rental hosts and online sellers who need the 2026 rules with dollar examples. We checked each figure against Maine Revenue Services (MRS) in October 2026.

Quick answer

Maine's general sales tax rate is 5.5%, with no local sales taxes anywhere in the state. Higher rates apply to prepared food (8%), lodging (9%), short-term car rentals (10%) and adult-use cannabis (14%). Registration is free through the Maine Tax Portal, and returns are due on the 15th.

Grocery staples and prescription drugs are exempt
Most services aren't taxed; separately stated repair and installation labor is exempt
The service provider tax ended on January 1, 2026; those services now pay 5.5% sales tax
Late filing costs $25 or 10% of the tax due, whichever is greater
Remote sellers register after $100,000 of Maine sales

How Maine's sales tax works

Maine imposes its sales tax on retail sales, leases and rentals of tangible personal property, on products transferred electronically such as downloaded software, music and e-books, and on a short list of services the law names. The state collects every dollar itself: Maine has no county or municipal sales taxes, no special district taxes and no resort taxes. That makes the rate a seller charges depend only on what is being sold, never on where.

The tiers are set out in 36 M.R.S. §1811. The general rate of 5.5% covers most goods. Prepared food, and liquor sold for drinking on the premises of a licensed establishment, are taxed at 8%. Rentals of living quarters in hotels, rooming houses, tourist camps and trailer camps, which in practice includes vacation homes and campgrounds, are taxed at 9%; that rate has applied since January 1, 2016. Short-term rentals of automobiles and certain loaner vehicles pay 10%. Adult-use cannabis rose to 14% for sales on or after January 1, 2026, from 10% before that.

Use tax is the other half. When a Maine business buys taxable goods from a seller that doesn't charge Maine tax, it owes use tax at the rate that would have applied to the sale. MRS lists office supplies, janitorial supplies, computers, software, copiers and reference books as common items. Goods a retailer takes out of its own inventory to use are subject to use tax too. MRS gives a restaurant example: a free meal given to an employee, not as part of pay, means use tax at 8% on the cost of the food.

Maine sales tax at a glance (2026)

5.5%

General rate

No local taxes

Prepared food and on-premises liquor

Lodging and vacation rentals

10%

Short-term car rentals

14%

Adult-use cannabis

From Jan 1, 2026

The 2026 change: the service provider tax is gone

Until the end of 2025, Maine taxed a handful of services through a separate service provider tax (SPT), with its own account and return. The SPT was repealed effective January 1, 2026. MRS's repeal notice lists the services that moved into the regular 5.5% sales tax: cable and satellite television or radio; fabrication services; telecommunications services; installation, maintenance or repair of telecommunications equipment; ancillary services related to telecom; and digital audio and audiovisual services. Two former SPT items, rentals of video media and equipment and rent-to-own furniture and audio equipment, are now taxed as ordinary rentals of goods.

For businesses this is mostly an administrative change. Sales of these services on or after January 1, 2026 go on the sales and use tax return, on the line for sales subject to 5.5%. A business that already had a sales tax account under the same federal employer identification number can use it, add a branch, or open a new account. One that had only an SPT account had to register for sales tax before the start of 2026. If you sell any of these services and haven't moved them over, do it now and amend any returns that left them out.

Former SPT services from January 1, 2026

Step 1

Cable, satellite, telecom, fabrication, digital audio and video

Step 2

SPT repealed

Step 3

Sales tax at 5.5%

Reported on the sales and use tax return

Prepared food and the 8% meals rate

Maine taxes prepared food at 8% wherever it's sold. MRS Bulletin 27 says the rate applies whether the food is eaten on site or taken away, and whether it's sold by a restaurant, a food truck, a caterer, a sandwich shop or a grocery store. Prepared food includes all meals, food from self-serve areas such as salad bars and coffee nooks, hot items such as pizza or rotisserie chicken, bakery items made by the seller, and deli or bakery platters. Heating a product only so it tastes better can be enough to make it prepared food.

Grocery staples are exempt. Slicing a pound of ham at the deli counter and wrapping it doesn't turn it into prepared food. Maine's definition of grocery staples leaves out prepared food and some other products, such as soft drinks, candy and alcohol, which a grocery store taxes at the general 5.5% rate.

Restaurants and bakeries face a stricter test. A seller whose own prepared food makes up 75% or more of its total gross receipts must charge 8% on all food and drink that needs no further preparation: chips, milk, soda, juice, pastries, ice cream and candy, whether or not there's seating. A coffee shop that mostly sells drinks it makes therefore charges 8% on a bottle of juice that a supermarket would tax at 5.5%. Bulk sales of grocery staples, such as a whole loaf of bread from a bakery, stay exempt and are left out of the 75% calculation.

Tips and service charges follow the money. A tip left at the customer's discretion is not part of the sale and isn't taxed, as long as the full amount goes to staff. A charge the business adds and calls a service charge is untaxed only if it's paid out to employees as wages; otherwise it's taxable.

A boiled Maine lobster with fries and coleslaw on a restaurant tray — Restaurant meals, takeout included, are taxed at Maine's 8% prepared food rate rather than the 5.5% general rate.· Image: Bernt Rostad (CC BY 2.0)

Lodging, vacation rentals and the 9% rate

Maine taxes rentals of living quarters at 9%. Bulletin 32, updated in March 2026, defines the term broadly: hotels, motels, inns, rooming houses, apartments, single-family houses, cottages, camps, condos, vacation homes, campgrounds and trailer camps, and even watercraft or vehicles rented for sleeping. The rate is the same whether the booking is made online, by phone or at the desk.

Most owners renting short-term must register. The key exception is the casual renter with one unit: a person who rents a single room, camp or condo for fewer than 15 days days in a calendar year isn't treated as a retailer and doesn't register or collect. Rent the same property for 15 days days or more, and you must register with MRS even if every booking goes through an agent or platform. If a real estate agent or other intermediary handles the rental, the intermediary collects regardless of how few days are booked.

Transient rental platforms and room remarketers, such as online travel companies, must register and collect the 9% tax on the bookings they handle. An owner who is registered reports those platform bookings as gross sales and then deducts them as exempt sales, so the tax isn't paid twice. Anything the owner charges directly, such as an extra night, a cot or a resort fee billed at check-in, is the owner's to tax.

Fees count. If a guest has no choice about a charge, it's part of the rent: mandatory resort fees, pet fees, cleaning fees and smoking penalties are all taxed at 9%. Bulletin 32's example is a cottage rented for $800 with a $10 crib and a $50 mid-week cleaning: tax applies to $860. Long stays are exempt once a guest has stayed 28 days days in a row and has no primary residence elsewhere, or is away from home for work or school. Tax collected during the first 28 days days must then be refunded; MRS Form ST-A-105 documents the claim.

Report lodging in the period the guest stays, not when the deposit arrives. A deposit taken in November 2025 for a July 2026 stay belongs on the July 2026 return.

Vacation rental owner checklist

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What else is taxable, and what isn't

Goods are taxable unless an exemption applies. Maine's main product exemptions include grocery staples, prescription medicines for people, certain medical equipment, and farm, fishing and aquaculture inputs that qualify. Sales to the federal government, the State of Maine and many nonprofits that hold an MRS exemption certificate are exempt too.

Services generally aren't taxed. The MRS business guide lists haircuts, massages, dry cleaning, pet grooming, carpentry, landscaping and house cleaning as examples of untaxed services. Taxable services are the ones the law names, including the former SPT services described above.

Labor connected with a sale is where invoices matter. Charges for installation, application or repair are excluded from the taxable price if stated separately, even when sold with goods. MRS gives this example: a car repair billed as $80 of labor and $120 of parts is taxed only on the $120; billed as a single $200 repair, all $200 is taxable. Services that are part of selling the item stay taxable even when itemized: engraving a watch at purchase is taxed along with the watch. Repairing or installing telecom equipment is now taxable labor after the SPT repeal.

Shipping is excluded only if three things are true: the goods go directly to the customer, they're sent by common or contract carrier or the U.S. mail, and the shipping charge is listed separately from the price and any handling fee. Goods shipped to an address outside Maine aren't subject to Maine tax.

Is it taxable in Maine?

Sale	Rate	Why
Clothing, furniture, electronics	5.5%	Tangible goods
Groceries (staples)	Exempt	Grocery staples exemption
Restaurant meal or takeout	8%	Prepared food
Hotel room or vacation rental	9%	Rental of living quarters
Rental car for a week	10%	Short-term auto rental
Cable TV or phone service	5.5%	Former SPT service, from Jan 1, 2026
Car repair labor, itemized	Exempt	Separately stated repair labor
Haircut, lawn care, cleaning	Not taxed	Untaxed services

Clothing, furniture, electronics

Rate: 5.5%
Why: Tangible goods

Groceries (staples)

Rate: Exempt
Why: Grocery staples exemption

Restaurant meal or takeout

Rate: 8%
Why: Prepared food

Hotel room or vacation rental

Rate: 9%
Why: Rental of living quarters

Rental car for a week

Rate: 10%
Why: Short-term auto rental

Cable TV or phone service

Rate: 5.5%
Why: Former SPT service, from Jan 1, 2026

Car repair labor, itemized

Rate: Exempt
Why: Separately stated repair labor

Haircut, lawn care, cleaning

Rate: Not taxed
Why: Untaxed services

Worked examples in dollars

A Portland gift shop. A visitor buys $250 of souvenirs and a $40 sweater. Tax at 5.5% on $290 is $15.95, for a total of $305.95.

A Bar Harbor restaurant. A dinner bill is $120 of food and $30 of wine. Both are taxed at 8%: $12 of tax, for $162. A voluntary $30 tip on top isn't taxed. If the restaurant instead adds a mandatory 18% service charge and keeps part of it, that charge is taxable.

A grocery store with a deli. A shopper buys $60 of grocery staples, a $9 hot rotisserie chicken and a $3 bottle of soda. The staples are exempt, the chicken is taxed at 8% ($0.72) and the soda at 5.5% ($0.17).

A Rangeley lake cottage. A family rents a cottage for a week at $1,400 with a $150 cleaning fee they must pay. Tax at 9% applies to $1,550: $139.50. If the booking came through a platform that collects Maine tax, the owner reports the rent as gross and exempt sales and taxes only charges billed directly.

An auto shop. A brake job is invoiced as $300 of parts and $250 of labor. Tax is 5.5% of $300, or $16.50. Lumped into one $550 price, tax would be $30.25.

A rental car at the Portland Jetport. A five-day rental at $60 a day is $300; tax at 10% is $30.

Try it — Maine sales tax on $290

Purchase AmountState

Local / County Rate

Purchase Amount$290.00

State Tax (6.25%)$18.13

Local Tax (2%)$5.80

Combined Rate8.25%

Total Amount (Including Tax)$313.93

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

Registering for a Maine retailer certificate

You must register before you make taxable sales. MRS's list of who must register includes every seller with a business location in Maine, sellers with a substantial physical presence, anyone renting living quarters including casual rentals of a cottage or vacation home above the 15 days-day line, transient rental platforms and room remarketers, car and camper rental businesses, consignment sellers, wine direct shippers, out-of-state lessors whose equipment is in Maine, and remote sellers above the threshold.

Registration is free. Apply on the Maine Tax Portal at revenue.maine.gov; first-time users create a username and then use the "Registering a New Business" guide. You'll get a retailer certificate for each place of business, which must be available for inspection by MRS or municipal officials. Certificates can't be transferred to a new owner and don't expire, but they can be cancelled or revoked.

Resale certificates work differently from most states. MRS issues them itself to active retailers reporting annual gross sales of $3,000 or more, and reissues them for each qualifying period. Retailers below that level don't get one; they pay tax on purchases for resale and claim a credit on a later return. A seller should accept a resale certificate only in good faith and only for the kind of goods the buyer normally resells. Our resale certificate guide explains the general rules.

Wharves and tall ships on the Portland, Maine waterfront beside the Old Port district — Portland's Old Port shops and restaurants charge the same rates as the rest of Maine, because the state has no local sales taxes.· Image: *rboed* (CC BY 2.0)

Filing returns, due dates and penalties

Retailers file monthly by default. If your average total tax is under $600 a month, you can ask MRS for permission to file less often. Returns are due on the 15th of the month after the period ends; when the 15th falls on a weekend or holiday, the due date moves to the next business day. MRS Rule 104 requires electronic filing through the Maine Tax Portal, and a retailer granted a waiver must still file paper returns on time, even when no tax is due.

Each rate is reported on its own line. The return separates sales taxed at 5.5%, 8%, 9%, 10% and 14%, plus exempt sales such as sales for resale, sales to exempt organizations, out-of-state sales, nontaxable labor and bad debts. Your point-of-sale system should keep the categories apart; MRS says purchases taxed at different rates must be totaled separately when one receipt includes several items.

Tax you collect is held in trust for the state. Penalties are real. Filing late can cost $25 or 10% of the tax due, whichever is greater, rising to $25 or 25% if you still haven't filed 60 days after a formal demand. Paying late adds 1% of the unpaid tax a month, up to 25% of the unpaid tax. Interest runs from the due date at 9% a year for 2026, compounded monthly.

A Maine filing year (2026)

January 1, 2026

Service provider tax repealed; cannabis rate rises to 14%

15th of every month

Monthly sales and use tax return and payment due

When a guest stays

Report lodging in the month of occupancy, not the deposit month

Each quarter or year

Less frequent filers report if MRS has approved it

Remote sellers and marketplaces

Out-of-state sellers must register once gross revenue from sales delivered into Maine exceeds $100,000 in the previous or current calendar year. Maine dropped its 200-transaction test for sales from 2022 on, so only the dollar test applies. Marketplace facilitators above the same threshold collect on sales they make or facilitate for third-party sellers, including the $1 recycling assistance fee on new tires and lead-acid batteries.

Because Maine has no local taxes, remote compliance is simple: charge 5.5% on taxable goods and the higher rates where they apply. Delivery outside Maine is not taxed by Maine. Read our economic nexus guide to compare thresholds across states.

Common mistakes and how to fix them

Charging 5.5% on takeout. Prepared food is 8% whether eaten in or taken out. Fix the tax codes in your register and file amended returns for the shortfall.

Missing the 75% rule. A bakery or café whose own prepared food is 75% or more of sales must charge 8% on packaged drinks and snacks too. Recalculate the ratio each year.

Forgetting cleaning and resort fees. Mandatory fees on a rental are part of the rent and taxed at 9%.

Lumping labor and parts. A single price makes repair or installation labor taxable. Itemize every invoice.

Leaving former SPT services off the sales tax return. Since January 1, 2026, cable, telecom, fabrication and digital audio services belong on the 5.5% line.

Skipping zero returns. File every period through the portal, even with no sales, to avoid failure-to-file penalties.

Official links

What to do next

Register for a free retailer certificate on the Maine Tax Portal, set up separate tax codes for 5.5%, 8% and 9% sales, and put the 15th of each month on your calendar. If you sold any former SPT services, make sure they're now on your sales tax return. Use the sales tax calculator to check receipts at any of Maine's rates, and our guide to calculating sales tax for tax-included prices. Selling across New England? Compare our Massachusetts, Vermont and New York guides.

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

Frequently asked questions

The general rate is 5.5%. Maine also charges higher rates on certain sales: 8% on prepared food and liquor served in licensed establishments, 9% on rentals of living quarters such as hotels and vacation homes, 10% on short-term car rentals and 14% on adult-use cannabis. There are no city or county sales taxes, so the rate is the same in Portland, Bangor and every other town.

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.Business Guide to Sales and Use Tax (revised December 2025) — Maine Revenue Services · accessed 11 October 2026
2.36 M.R.S. §1811, Sales tax — Maine Legislature · accessed 11 October 2026
3.Instructional Bulletin No. 32: Rentals of Living Quarters (March 2026) — Maine Revenue Services · accessed 11 October 2026
4.Instructional Bulletin No. 27: Sales of Prepared Food — Maine Revenue Services · accessed 11 October 2026
5.Notice: Service Provider Tax Repealed Effective January 1, 2026 — Maine Revenue Services · accessed 11 October 2026
6.Interest Rates — Maine Revenue Services · accessed 11 October 2026
7.Sales, Use and Service Provider Tax Bulletins — Maine Revenue Services · accessed 11 October 2026
8.36 M.R.S. §1754-B, Registration of sellers — Maine Legislature · accessed 11 October 2026

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