Sales tax
Missouri Sales Tax Rate in 2026: The 4.225% State Rate, Local Taxes, Food and Filing
Missouri sales tax rate 2026: the 4.225% state rate explained, local taxes, Kansas City and St. Louis totals, the food rate, bonds, filing and the 2% discount.
Edited by Sumeet YadavFounder & editor, MSMETOOLS · fact-checked against official sources
Contents (11)
- 1. Why the state rate is 4.225%
- 2. Local sales taxes: counties, cities and districts
- 3. Food at the reduced rate
- 4. What's taxable
- 5. Worked examples in dollars
- 6. The retail sales license and the bond question
- 7. Filing frequencies and due dates
- 8. Out-of-state sellers
- 9. Use tax and local use tax
- 10. Common mistakes and how to fix them
- 11. What to do next
Missouri's state sales tax looks unusual at first glance: 4.225%, not a round number. Add a dense patchwork of local taxing jurisdictions and you get some of the most varied rates in the Midwest, from single-digit totals in rural counties to more than 11% in some city development districts. This guide is for anyone who sells in Missouri, from a Kansas City boutique to a St. Louis restaurant or an online store shipping in. It explains where the 4.225% comes from, how local taxes stack on top, the reduced food rate, registration and bonds, filing deadlines and the 2% discount for paying on time. Rules were checked against the Revised Statutes of Missouri in October 2026.
Quick answer
Missouri's state sales tax rate is 4.225%: a 4% general tax plus 0.225% for conservation and state parks. Cities, counties and special districts add local taxes, so St. Louis city is 9.679% and most of Kansas City is about 9.975%. Food is taxed at a reduced 1.225% state rate plus local tax.
The retail sales license costs nothing (Free ($0)) and is issued within 10 working days
Bonds are required only from sellers in default or itinerant and temporary sellers
Monthly returns are due by the 20th; on-time payment earns a 2% allowance
Remote sellers register once Missouri sales are more than $100,000 a year
Rates change quarterly, so use the Department of Revenue's address lookup
Why the state rate is 4.225%
Missouri's state rate is three taxes added together. RSMo 144.020 sets the general sales tax at 4% of the price of taxable goods and services. The Missouri Constitution adds two more. The conservation sales tax, one-eighth of one percent (0.125%), funds the Department of Conservation. The parks, soils and water sales tax, one-tenth of one percent (0.1%), is split between state parks and historic sites and soil and water conservation districts.
The parks and soils tax has to be renewed by voters every ten years. It was on the ballot as Amendment 1 at the August 4, 2026 primary, and voters approved it by a wide margin, according to Associated Press results reported on election night. Without renewal it would have expired in 2028. Nothing changes for sellers: the 4.225% state rate stays the same.
The same 4.225% applies as use tax when a Missouri business or resident buys taxable goods without paying Missouri sales tax, typically from an out-of-state seller. Local governments can levy a matching local use tax, though not all have adopted one.
Missouri sales tax at a glance (2026)
4.225%
State rate
4% + 0.125% + 0.1%
1.225%
State rate on food
SNAP-eligible items
2%
Timely payment allowance
No cap
9.679%
St. Louis city base rate
More in some districts
Local sales taxes: counties, cities and districts
On top of the state rate, Missouri counties and cities can levy general sales taxes and a long list of special-purpose taxes for things such as capital improvements, transportation, parks, public safety and emergency services. Voters must approve each one, which is why rates vary so much from one town to the next.
A third layer comes from special districts. Transportation development districts (TDDs) and community improvement districts (CIDs) are common in shopping centers, entertainment districts and redevelopment areas. A store inside one charges an extra percentage point or more that the shop across the street doesn't. In the City of St. Louis, special districts can take the total to about 11.679%, and some Kansas City addresses reach about 11.975%.
The Department of Revenue updates local rates every quarter, on January 1, April 1, July 1 and October 1, as new voter-approved taxes start and old ones expire. It publishes rate tables and an address-based lookup. Because district boundaries don't follow ZIP codes, look up the full street address of each location rather than relying on a ZIP code table.
Kansas City and St. Louis
| Place | State | Local and district | Typical combined rate |
|---|---|---|---|
| City of St. Louis (base) | 4.225% | 5.454% | 9.679% |
| City of St. Louis, inside some CIDs and TDDs | 4.225% | up to 7.454% | up to about 11.679% |
| Kansas City, Jackson County part (most common) | 4.225% | 5.75% | 9.975% |
| Kansas City, Clay and Platte county parts | 4.225% | from 4.5% | from about 8.725% |
The City of St. Louis is independent of St. Louis County, so its rate is set separately; suburbs such as Clayton, Kirkwood and Chesterfield sit in St. Louis County with their own combinations of county and city taxes. Kansas City spreads across four counties, Jackson, Clay, Platte and Cass, and the county share changes at each line. The Kansas City figures come from September 2026 address-level rate data because the Department of Revenue's own tables couldn't be retrieved for this update; confirm any address in the department's lookup before you rely on it.
Food at the reduced rate
Since October 1, 1997, RSMo 144.014 has taxed food at a reduced general rate of 1% instead of 4%. Add the 0.225% constitutional taxes and food pays 1.225% in state tax. Local taxes generally still apply to food at their full rates, so the total on a grocery bill is usually several points higher than the state rate alone.
What counts as food follows the federal SNAP program: items that can be bought with SNAP benefits qualify, along with food sold through vending machines. Hot prepared food, alcohol, tobacco and household goods don't. Restaurants, fast food outlets, delis and cafés where prepared food for immediate consumption makes up more than 80% of gross receipts can't use the reduced rate on any of their food and drink sales, so a coffee and pastry at a café pay the full rate.
The rule creates splits within a single shop. A supermarket charges 1.225% state tax on bread and milk but 4.225% on paper towels, pet food and beer. Make sure your point-of-sale system tags each product correctly.
What's taxable
Missouri taxes retail sales of tangible personal property and a limited list of services. The taxable services include meals and drinks at restaurants, hotel and motel rooms, admissions and fees for places of amusement, entertainment and recreation, intrastate telephone service, and utilities such as electricity, gas and water for non-residential use. Most professional and personal services, including legal, accounting, consulting, haircuts and repairs labor, aren't taxed, though parts sold during a repair are.
Missouri has also held a back-to-school sales tax holiday each year from 12:01 a.m. on the first Friday in August through midnight on the following Sunday. Under RSMo 144.049, it exempts clothing up to $100 per item, school supplies up to $50 per purchase, computers and peripherals up to $1,500, software up to $350 and graphing calculators up to $150. Retailers where qualifying items are less than 2% of merchandise can opt out and offer refunds instead.
Worked examples in dollars
A St. Louis furniture store. A customer at a store in the City of St. Louis buys an $800 bed. At the base rate of 9.679%, tax is $77.43, for a total of $877.43. The state's share is $33.80 and the rest goes to the city and other local taxes.
A Kansas City grocery bill. A shopper spends $150 on groceries in the Jackson County part of Kansas City. The state food tax at 1.225% is $1.84. Local taxes are added at the local rate, which is why the receipt shows much more than $1.84 in tax.
The timely payment allowance. A Springfield hardware store collects $3,000 of sales tax in a month and pays by the 20th. RSMo 144.140 lets it keep 2%, or $60, and send $2,940. Unlike many states, Missouri doesn't cap the allowance, so a store collecting $40,000 a month keeps $800, about $9,600 a year. Paying a day late forfeits it.
Back-to-school weekend. A parent buys four $45 shirts, a $120 coat and a $900 laptop on the holiday weekend. The shirts and laptop are exempt. The coat is over $100, so it's taxed in full.
Try it — St. Louis city sales tax on $800
The retail sales license and the bond question
Before you make retail sales in Missouri, you need a retail sales license from the Department of Revenue, as the RSMo 144.083 rules require. There is no charge for the license (fee: Free ($0)). Once your application is complete, the department must issue it within 10 working days. Display it at your place of business. Each location needs its own license.
Local business licenses depend on it. Cities and counties must see your retail sales license and a statement of no tax due, dated within 90 days, before they issue or renew a local business license. If the state revokes your retail license for unpaid tax, your local license becomes void too. Our Missouri business license guide covers the city licenses in Kansas City and St. Louis.
Many older guides say every new Missouri seller must post a sales tax bond. The current RSMo 144.087 is narrower. The Director of Revenue may require a bond from a licensee in default, meaning one that has fallen behind on returns or payments, and itinerant or temporary businesses that move between events must post one before selling. The bond can't exceed two times the average monthly tax liability, and the requirement must be lifted after one year of satisfactory compliance. A new shop or online seller that files and pays on time won't normally be asked for one.
Before your first Missouri sale
0/6Filing frequencies and due dates
RSMo 144.080 sets your filing frequency based on the tax you collected in the previous year. If your tax is more than $500 a month, you file monthly, with the return and payment due by the 20th day of the following month. If it's $500 or less a month but at least $200 a quarter, you file quarterly, due by the last day of the month after the quarter ends. If it's less than $200 a quarter, you file once a year, due by January 31.
These thresholds are newer than many guides suggest. Before SB 153 of 2021, a business with as little as $250 of tax in the first or second month of a quarter filed monthly, and only businesses under $45 a quarter filed annually. The higher thresholds mean more small sellers now file quarterly or once a year, which cuts paperwork but makes it easier to forget a deadline.
New businesses are usually assigned a frequency based on the sales estimate in their application, and the department reviews it as your actual figures come in. File a return for every period, even if you made no sales, because a missing return can put you in default and trigger a bond requirement or a refusal of your no-tax-due statement.
Missouri sales tax calendar for late 2026
October 1
Quarterly local rate changes take effect
October 20
September return due for monthly filers
November 2
July–September quarterly returns due (October 31 is a Saturday)
January 1, 2027
Next quarterly local rate update
January 31, 2027
Annual returns for 2026 due
Out-of-state sellers
Missouri was one of the last states with a general sales tax to adopt economic nexus, under Senate Bill 153 of 2021. Since January 1, 2023, a remote seller must register and collect once its gross receipts from deliveries into Missouri are more than $100,000 in the previous or current calendar year. There is no transaction-count test. Remote sellers collect state tax and the local use tax for the delivery address, which is why the department offers address-based rate data.
Marketplace facilitators such as Amazon and Etsy collect on the sales they facilitate once they cross the same threshold. A seller whose Missouri sales all go through a collecting marketplace doesn't need its own registration for those sales. Anyone with a physical presence in Missouri, such as a warehouse, employees or inventory, must register regardless of sales volume.
Do you need to collect Missouri tax?
Step 1
Store, staff or inventory in Missouri? → register and collect
Step 2
No presence: Missouri deliveries of more than $100,000? → register and collect
Step 3
All sales through a collecting marketplace? → the marketplace collects
Step 4
Buying untaxed items for your own use?
Report use tax
Use tax and local use tax
Use tax is the counterpart to sales tax. When your business buys taxable equipment, supplies or inventory it uses itself from a seller that didn't charge Missouri tax, you owe 4.225% state use tax on the purchase, plus local use tax if the city or county where you use it has adopted one. You report it on your sales and use tax return, or on a consumer's use tax return if you don't hold a retail sales license.
Local use tax became more important after 2021. Senate Bill 153 set up economic nexus for remote sellers and marketplace facilitators from January 1, 2023, and required every county and city with a local use tax to publish a notice by early November 2021 that out-of-state purchases would become subject to it. The same law repealed the option for cities and counties to opt out of the back-to-school and Show Me Green sales tax holidays, so the holiday now applies to state and local tax alike.
For a Missouri business, the practical step is to check each supplier invoice for missing tax. Purchases from out-of-state suppliers that didn't collect are the most common use tax finding in a sales tax audit, and the tax is the same as if you'd paid it at the register.
Common mistakes and how to fix them
Using a ZIP code rate. Kansas City and St. Louis addresses in the same ZIP code can sit in different districts. Look up the street address and recheck every quarter.
Charging full tax on groceries, or reduced tax on everything. Only SNAP-eligible food gets the 1.225% state rate. Restaurants with more than 80% prepared food sales can't use it at all.
Paying late and losing the allowance. The 2% allowance has no cap, so a late payment can cost a busy store hundreds of dollars on top of penalties and interest. Schedule payments a few days early.
Ignoring the holiday. On back-to-school weekend, charging tax on qualifying items under the limits means over-collecting. Program your system ahead of the first Friday in August.
Letting returns lapse. An unfiled return can block the no-tax-due statement your city needs to renew your business license.
Official links
- Missouri Department of Revenue — Sales and use taxRate tables, address lookup, forms
- Missouri DOR — Register a businessRetail sales license and no-tax-due statements
- RSMo 144.020 — Sales tax rateThe 4% general rate
- RSMo 144.014 — Food rateWhat counts as food
- RSMo 144.087 — Sales tax bondWho must post a bond
What to do next
Get your free retail sales license, look up the exact combined rate for every location, tag grocery items for the food rate, and schedule payments to keep the 2% allowance. Use the sales tax calculator to check receipts and our how to calculate sales tax guide for tax-included prices. For the city and county licenses you'll also need, see our Missouri business license guide. Selling across the river too? Compare our Illinois and Tennessee 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 4.225%: a 4% general sales tax plus two small constitutional taxes for conservation and for state parks and soil and water programs. Counties, cities and special districts add local taxes, so combined rates commonly run from about 7% to over 10%. The City of St. Louis base rate is 9.679%.
Because it's three taxes added together. RSMo 144.020 sets the general sales tax at 4%. The Missouri Constitution adds a one-eighth of one percent (0.125%) conservation tax and a one-tenth of one percent (0.1%) parks, soils and water tax. Voters renewed the parks and soils tax for another ten years on August 4, 2026.
It depends on the address. Rate data from September 2026 puts the most common combined rate at 9.975% in the Jackson County part of the city: 4.225% state, 1.375% county, 3.25% city and 1.125% in district taxes. Parts of Kansas City in Clay and Platte counties start lower, at about 8.725%, and some development districts add more. Check the Department of Revenue's address lookup.
Yes, at a reduced state rate of 1.225% instead of 4.225%, plus local taxes. The lower rate applies to food items that can be bought with SNAP benefits. It doesn't apply at restaurants and other places where more than 80% of sales are prepared food for immediate consumption, so restaurant meals pay the full rate.
Not for most new businesses. Under RSMo 144.087, the Department of Revenue can require a bond from a licensee that falls behind on returns or payments, and itinerant or temporary sellers must post one before selling. The bond can't exceed two times the average monthly tax liability, and it's released after one year of satisfactory compliance. The retail sales license itself has no fee (Free ($0)).
Monthly filers, those with more than $500 a month in tax, pay by the 20th of the following month. Quarterly filers pay by the last day of the month after the quarter, and annual filers, with less than $200 a quarter in tax, pay by January 31. Paying on time lets you keep a 2% timely payment allowance.
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.RSMo 144.020 — Rate of sales tax — Revised Statutes of Missouri (FindLaw reproduction) · accessed 9 October 2026
- 2.RSMo 144.014 — Food taxed at reduced rate — Revised Statutes of Missouri (FindLaw reproduction) · accessed 9 October 2026
- 3.RSMo 144.080 — Returns and filing frequencies — Revised Statutes of Missouri (FindLaw reproduction) · accessed 9 October 2026
- 4.RSMo 144.140 — Timely payment deduction — Revised Statutes of Missouri (FindLaw reproduction) · accessed 9 October 2026
- 5.RSMo 144.083 and 144.087 — Retail sales license and bond — Revised Statutes of Missouri (FindLaw reproduction) · accessed 9 October 2026
- 6.RSMo 144.605 — Remote sellers — Revised Statutes of Missouri (FindLaw reproduction) · accessed 9 October 2026
- 7.RSMo 144.049 — Back-to-school sales tax holiday — Revised Statutes of Missouri (FindLaw reproduction) · accessed 9 October 2026
- 8.Kehoe, Missouri Department of Natural Resources celebrate renewal of parks, soils and water sales tax — KCTV5 · accessed 9 October 2026
- 9.Kansas City, MO Sales Tax Rate (2026) — Kintsugi · accessed 9 October 2026
- 10.St. Louis's Ridiculously High Sales Taxes — Show-Me Institute · accessed 9 October 2026
- 11.Missouri's Unique Conservation Legacy — Missouri Department of Conservation · accessed 9 October 2026
- 12.SB 153 (2021) — Truly agreed bill summary — Missouri House of Representatives · accessed 9 October 2026
MSMETOOLS is an independent platform and is not affiliated with any government agency, ministry or department.
Tools for this
Sales Tax Calculator (US)
Calculate sales tax for all US states and cities.
Invoice Generator
Create professional invoices with tax, logo and custom details.
Related guides
Missouri Business License 2026: State, City & Sales TaxRead guide 
Tennessee Sales Tax Rate 2026: 7% State, Nashville 9.75%Read guide 
Kansas Sales Tax Rate 2026: 6.5% State, 0% on FoodRead guide 
Mississippi Sales Tax 2026: 7% Rate, 5% on GroceriesRead guide Official links open the government site in a new tab.