Washington State Sales Tax Rate in 2026: Seattle and Local Rates, Taxable Services and B&O Tax

If you sell goods or taxable services in Washington, or ship to customers there, this guide gives you the 2026 numbers and the rules behind them. You'll find the state rate, the Seattle total and how it rose in January, rates for other large cities, how destination sourcing works, which services became taxable under ESSB 5814, how sales tax sits alongside the business and occupation (B&O) tax, and how to register, file and avoid penalties. Rates come from the Department of Revenue's (DOR) official quarterly rate file for October to December 2026.

Quick answer

Washington's state sales tax rate is 6.5%. Cities and counties add local tax, so combined rates run from 7.6% to 10.7%. Inside Seattle the total is 10.55% (location code 1726). Washington is destination-based: you charge the rate where the customer receives the item or service.

• Seattle went up by 0.2 percentage points on January 1, 2026 (city and King County public safety taxes)

• Since October 1, 2025, advertising, IT, website development, temp staffing and some other services are taxable

• Retailers also pay B&O tax on gross receipts: 0.471% for retailing

• Remote sellers must register at more than $100,000 in Washington receipts

• Groceries are exempt; prepared food, soft drinks and dietary supplements are taxable

How Washington's sales tax rate is built

Washington's retail sales tax has two parts. The state portion is a flat 6.5% everywhere. On top of that, each city, county and special district can add its own local sales tax for things like transit, criminal justice, housing and roads. The Department of Revenue collects both parts on one return and sends the local share back to the jurisdictions.

Because local governments add their own pieces, Washington has hundreds of different rates. The DOR's quarterly rate table lists more than 400 location codes, and the combined rate in the October to December 2026 table runs from 7.6% to 10.7%. The lowest rates are in rural unincorporated areas such as Klickitat County. The highest, 10.7%, apply in Edmonds and Lynnwood in Snohomish County.

The local rate can change at the start of any calendar quarter, on January 1, April 1, July 1 or October 1. The DOR publishes the new table and change notices a few weeks before each quarter starts. If you run a point-of-sale system, the safest habit is to reload rates every quarter rather than once a year.

A lot of Puget Sound locations have two codes, a normal one and a "Non-RTA" one. RTA stands for Regional Transit Authority, the Sound Transit district. Parts of some cities sit outside the district and pay a lower rate. For example, the main Bellevue code carries 10.3%, while the Bellevue Non-RTA code is lower. That's why a ZIP code isn't enough to pick a rate in the Seattle area.

Seattle's sales tax rate in 2026

Inside Seattle city limits, the combined rate is 10.55%: 6.5% for the state and 4.05% in local taxes. Seattle's location code is 1726, and you need that code on your return for every sale delivered or handed over in the city.

The rate rose on January 1, 2026. The City of Seattle added a one-tenth of one percent tax for local law enforcement programs, and King County added another 0.1% countywide for the same purpose. The DOR's change notice shows the total increase as 0.2 percentage points, taking the city's rate from 10.35% to 10.55%. Plenty of rate websites and old receipts still show 10.35%, so check any rate you copied before January.

More change may be coming. Seattle's current transit measure, approved by voters in 2020, expires in April 2027. In July 2026 the City Council sent a replacement Seattle Transit Measure, funded by a 0.3% sales tax, to the November 2026 ballot. If voters approve it, the DOR will publish a change notice with the new Seattle rate and its start date. Until that notice appears, keep charging 10.55%.

Seattle sits inside King County, but the county's unincorporated areas use a different rate. Unincorporated King County inside the transit district is 10.3%. Suburbs close to Seattle vary too: Shoreline and Renton are at 10.5%, and Kent, Redmond, Kirkland, Burien, SeaTac and Federal Way are at 10.4%.

Seattle's January increase wasn't a one-off. The DOR's change notices for 2026 list dozens of cities and counties adding a local law enforcement programs tax in January, April and July, from Bellingham and Kent to Tacoma, Olympia and Pierce County. Several others added transportation benefit district or emergency communication taxes. If your business delivers across the state, 2026 is a year to reload rates every quarter without fail.

Destination sourcing: which rate to charge

Washington is a destination-based state. The DOR's rule is simple to state: you charge the rate for the place where the customer receives the goods or services. In practice there are three common cases.

Walk-in sales. If a customer buys in your shop and takes the item away, the sale is sourced to your shop. A Seattle bike shop charges 10.55% on everything sold over the counter, whether the customer lives in Seattle, Spokane or Portland.

Deliveries and shipments. If you deliver or ship the item, the sale is sourced to the delivery address. That same Seattle bike shop shipping a bike to a customer in Spokane charges the Spokane rate of 9.1% and reports it under Spokane's location code. Shipping to an address outside Washington is not a Washington retail sale at all, though you should keep proof of delivery.

Services performed on site. For services such as construction, repairs or installation, the sale is sourced to where the work is done. A contractor based in Everett who remodels a kitchen in Tacoma charges the Tacoma rate of 10.5%.

Picking the right rate for a sale

Step 1

Where does the customer receive it?

Step 2

Your shop → your shop's rate

Step 3

Delivered or shipped in WA → delivery address rate

Step 4

Shipped out of state → not a WA retail sale

Step 5

Report under the location code

Local Sales page of the return

The DOR's Tax Rate Lookup Tool takes a street address or map point and returns the location code and rate, and there's a free mobile app version for field staff. For high volumes, the DOR publishes downloadable rate and boundary files each quarter that most e-commerce and point-of-sale systems can import. Whatever tool you use, the location code on your return has to match the rate you charged, because the DOR reconciles the two.

The same destination rules apply to use tax. If your business buys equipment or supplies from a seller that didn't charge Washington sales tax, such as an out-of-state vendor below the nexus threshold, you owe use tax at the rate where you first use the item. Use tax is reported on the same excise tax return.

What's taxable: goods, food and the 2025 services expansion

Sales of tangible personal property to the final consumer are taxable unless an exemption applies. Washington has also taxed a wider range of services than most states for years, including construction and repairs to real property, landscaping, installing and repairing goods, some personal services, and digital products and digital automated services.

Groceries and prepared food

Food and food ingredients are exempt from retail sales tax. The exemption doesn't cover prepared food, soft drinks or dietary supplements. Food counts as prepared if the seller heats it, combines two or more ingredients into a single item, or provides utensils. Restaurants and delis face an extra rule: if prepared food makes up more than 75% of a business's food sales, it must generally charge tax on all its food sales, with narrow exceptions. Exempt food sales still count toward B&O tax.

Services newly taxable from October 1, 2025

The 2025 Legislature passed ESSB 5814, which brought several common business services into the retail sales tax from October 1, 2025. If you sell any of these to Washington customers, you charge sales tax at the customer's rate, just as you would on goods.

The same law narrowed the exclusions from "digital automated services," so some services delivered online with human involvement are now taxable too. The DOR has said that, from July 1, 2026, a later law added new exclusions for live presentations, a new exemption for schools and libraries buying certain of these services, and a revised temporary staffing exclusion for staff provided to hospitals. Parts of ESSB 5814 are being challenged in court, but the DOR's instruction is that businesses must report, collect and pay under current guidance while the cases run.

Sales tax and B&O tax: how they work together

Washington's business and occupation tax confuses newcomers because it looks like a second sales tax. It isn't. Sales tax is the customer's tax: you add it to the invoice, collect it and pass it to the state. B&O tax is your own tax on gross receipts, with no deduction for wages, rent or the cost of goods. You can't list B&O as a separate tax line for retail customers, so it comes out of your margin.

Most businesses that collect sales tax also pay B&O tax under the retailing classification, at 0.471% of gross retail sales. The sales tax you collect isn't part of the B&O base. Wholesalers selling to other businesses for resale pay wholesaling B&O at 0.484% and don't charge sales tax, as long as they keep the buyer's reseller permit on file. Professional services that aren't retail sales pay the service and other activities rate, which since October 2025 is tiered by the prior year's gross income: 1.5% under $1 million, 1.75% from $1 million to just under $5 million, and 2.1% at $5 million or more.

ESSB 5814 moved services across this line. The DOR's guidance treats the newly taxable services as retail sales, so they're reported under retailing B&O and also carry sales tax. For a small digital marketing agency, that means a lower B&O rate on its fees but a new duty to charge sales tax to its Washington clients, update contracts and invoices, and report the sales by location code.

Seattle adds its own layer. The city has a local B&O tax and a separate business license through FileLocal. From January 1, 2026, Seattle raised its B&O threshold to $2 million, so most small businesses there now owe no city B&O tax, though they still need the license. Our Washington business license guide covers the state and city licensing steps.

Worked examples in dollars

A Seattle clothing shop. A customer buys a $200 jacket at the counter. Tax at 10.55% is $21.10, so the customer pays $221.10. If the shop's gross retail sales for the year are $500,000, retailing B&O at 0.471% comes to $2,355, calculated on the $500,000 without the sales tax it collected.

The same shop shipping to Spokane. An online order for the same $200 jacket ships to a home in the City of Spokane. The shop charges the Spokane rate of 9.1%, which is $18.20, and reports the sale under Spokane's location code. Charging Seattle's rate here would overcharge the customer by $2.90 and put the tax under the wrong jurisdiction.

Try it — sales tax on a $200 purchase in Seattle

Purchase AmountState

Alabama (4%)Alaska (0%)Arizona (5.6%)Arkansas (6.5%)California (7.25%)Colorado (2.9%)Connecticut (6.35%)Delaware (0%)Florida (6%)Georgia (4%)Hawaii (4%)Idaho (6%)Illinois (6.25%)Indiana (7%)Iowa (6%)Kansas (6.5%)Kentucky (6%)Louisiana (5%)Maine (5.5%)Maryland (6%)Massachusetts (6.25%)Michigan (6%)Minnesota (6.875%)Mississippi (7%)Missouri (4.225%)Montana (0%)Nebraska (5.5%)Nevada (6.85%)New Hampshire (0%)New Jersey (6.625%)New Mexico (4.875%)New York (4%)North Carolina (4.75%)North Dakota (5%)Ohio (5.75%)Oklahoma (4.5%)Oregon (0%)Pennsylvania (6%)Rhode Island (7%)South Carolina (6%)South Dakota (4.2%)Tennessee (7%)Texas (6.25%)Utah (6.1%)Vermont (6%)Virginia (5.3%)Washington (6.5%)West Virginia (6%)Wisconsin (5%)Wyoming (4%)

Local / County Rate

Purchase Amount$200.00

State Tax (6.5%)$13.00

Local Tax (4.05%)$8.10

Combined Rate10.55%

Total Amount (Including Tax)$221.10

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

A web designer in Seattle. A sole proprietor signs an $8,000 custom website contract with a Seattle client in 2026. Because custom website development has been a retail sale since October 1, 2025, the invoice adds sales tax at 10.55%, or $844, for a total of $8,844. The $8,000 fee goes on the return under retailing B&O at 0.471%, which is $37.68. Before October 2025 the same work would have carried no sales tax and B&O at the service rate.

An Oregon online seller crossing the threshold. A Portland store had $70,000 of Washington sales in 2025, below the line. On August 10, 2026, its Washington receipts for the year pass more than $100,000. Thirty days later is September 9, so its first required collection day is October 1, 2026, the first month starting at least 30 days after it crossed. It must then keep collecting through the rest of 2026 and all of the following year.

Remote sellers and marketplace sales

Out-of-state businesses with no physical presence in Washington must register when their combined gross receipts sourced to Washington are more than $100,000 in the current or prior calendar year. The test counts all Washington receipts, not just retail sales, and the old 200-transaction test no longer applies. A business organized or commercially domiciled in Washington registers regardless of volume.

Once you cross the threshold, you collect and report for the rest of that year and the whole of the following calendar year. If you didn't meet the threshold in the prior year, collection starts on the first day of the month that begins at least 30 days after you crossed it, as in the Oregon example above.

Marketplace facilitators such as large online marketplaces collect Washington sales tax on the sales they facilitate. Those sales still count toward your own more than $100,000 threshold. On your return you report them under retailing B&O and then take the deduction for gross sales collected by a facilitator; you don't list them on the Local Sales page. Sales through your own website you must tax and report yourself, with the delivery address rate.

Registering, filing and paying

From registration to your first return

1. 1

   Apply for a business license

   Apply online through the DOR's Business Licensing Service. You get a Unified Business Identifier (UBI) and an excise tax account.

   Washington business license guide
2. 2

   Set up rates by location code

   Load the current quarter's local rates into your till or online shop, by address, not ZIP code.

   Tip: Reload every January, April, July and October.

3. 3

   Collect resale paperwork

   Keep reseller permits from business customers who buy for resale, so you can treat those sales as wholesale.

4. 4

   File in My DOR

   Report gross income by B&O class, deductions, and taxable sales by location code on the Local Sales page.

5. 5

   Pay by the due date

   Monthly returns are due the 25th of the following month; quarterly returns the last day of the month after the quarter; annual returns April 15.

To collect sales tax you need a Washington business license and a tax account with the DOR, which come from the same Business Licensing Service application. Remote sellers apply the same way. After you register, you file excise tax returns in My DOR, the DOR's online portal, which covers sales tax, use tax and B&O tax together.

The DOR assigns your filing frequency. New businesses are placed using estimated income: in the standard retail, service, manufacturing and wholesale bands, annual filing applies at $60,000 or less, quarterly at $60,001 to $100,000, and monthly at more than $100,000. Once you have a history, the DOR reviews your actual tax liability and may move you. Due dates that fall on a weekend or holiday move to the next business day. You must file for every period, even when you had no sales.

If you pay late, the penalty is 9%, rising to 19% and then 29% of the tax due. The 9% applies the day after the due date, 19% after the last day of the month following the due date, and 29% after the last day of the second month following it, with a $5 minimum. On $3,000 of tax paid a week late, that's a $270 penalty. The DOR can waive a penalty for circumstances beyond your control, or once in a 24-month period if you filed and paid every return on time for the previous 24 months.

A quarterly filer's year

January 1

New local rates take effect; reload rate tables

January 31

Q4 return due (October–December)

April 30

Q1 return due (January–March)

July 31

Q2 return due (April–June)

October 31

Q3 return due (July–September)

Common mistakes and how to fix them

Using an old Seattle rate. Anything printed before January 2026 probably shows 10.35%. If you undercharged, you still owe the difference; the DOR expects the tax at the correct rate whether or not you collected it. Fix the rate and pay the shortfall on the return for that period, or file an amended return for past periods.

Charging by ZIP code. Seattle-area ZIP codes cross city lines and transit district boundaries. Use the address-based lookup or a rate file that geocodes addresses.

Missing the services change. Agencies, IT consultants, staffing firms and web developers that sold to Washington clients after October 1, 2025 without charging tax may have a backlog. Review invoices from October 2025 onward, start charging now, and consider the DOR's Voluntary Disclosure Program if you're an out-of-state firm that never registered.

Treating B&O as optional. Even sales that are exempt from sales tax, such as groceries or out-of-state shipments, usually still belong on your B&O lines. Report gross income first, then take the specific deductions.

Not keeping reseller permits. If you sell to a business without sales tax because it says it's reselling, keep its reseller permit. Without it, the DOR can treat the sale as a taxable retail sale in an audit.

Official links

• DOR — Retail sales taxState rate and sourcing rules
• DOR — Local sales & use tax ratesQuarterly rate files and change notices
• Tax Rate Lookup ToolRate and location code by address
• Services newly subject to retail sales taxESSB 5814 guidance
• Remote sellersEconomic nexus and collection start
• Filing frequencies & due datesWhen returns are due

What to do next

If you haven't registered yet, start with our Washington business license guide, which covers the UBI, endorsements and Seattle's FileLocal license. Then load the current quarter's rates by location code and set a reminder for each quarterly update. Use the sales tax calculator to check invoices, and our how to calculate sales tax guide for tax-inclusive pricing. Selling into other West Coast states as well? Compare the rules in our California sales tax guide.

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

Frequently asked questions

What is the sales tax rate in Seattle in 2026?

The combined rate inside Seattle city limits is 10.55%: the 6.5% state rate plus 4.05% in local taxes. It rose by 0.2 percentage points on January 1, 2026, when Seattle and King County each added a 0.1% local law enforcement tax. Nearby cities differ, so look up each delivery address rather than assuming the Seattle rate.

What is the Washington state sales tax rate?

The state rate is 6.5%. Every city and county adds a local rate on top, so the rate customers actually pay ranges from 7.6% to 10.7% depending on the address, according to the Department of Revenue's rate table for October to December 2026. The highest combined rate is 10.7%, in Edmonds and Lynnwood.

Is Washington sales tax based on the delivery address?

Yes. Washington is a destination-based state. You charge the rate where the customer receives the goods or services. For walk-in sales that is your shop's address; for deliveries and shipments it is the delivery address. Each location has a four-digit code that you report on the Local Sales page of your excise tax return.

Are services subject to sales tax in Washington?

Many are. Construction, repairs, landscaping, some personal services and digital automated services were already taxable. From October 1, 2025, ESSB 5814 added advertising, IT support and consulting, custom website development, custom software, temporary staffing, live presentations, and investigation and security services. Most professional services, such as legal and accounting work, remain outside sales tax but pay B&O tax.

What is the difference between B&O tax and sales tax in Washington?

Sales tax is charged to the customer and passed through to the state. B&O tax is a tax on your own gross receipts that you can't add as a line item for the customer. A retailer pays both: it collects sales tax at the customer's rate and pays 0.471% retailing B&O on its gross sales, not counting the sales tax collected.

When does an out-of-state seller have to collect Washington sales tax?

When its combined gross receipts sourced to Washington are more than $100,000 in the current or prior calendar year. Sales made through a marketplace count toward the threshold. Collection starts on the first day of the month beginning at least 30 days after the threshold is crossed, and continues for the rest of that year and the following year.

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. 1.Retail sales tax — Washington State Department of Revenue · accessed 9 October 2026
2. 2.Local Sales & Use Tax Rates, effective October 1 – December 31, 2026 (Excel) — Washington State Department of Revenue · accessed 9 October 2026
3. 3.Local sales tax change — City of Seattle, Local Law Enforcement Programs, effective January 1, 2026 — Washington State Department of Revenue · accessed 9 October 2026
4. 4.Local sales & use tax change notices — previous quarters — Washington State Department of Revenue · accessed 9 October 2026
5. 5.Services newly subject to retail sales tax (ESSB 5814) — Washington State Department of Revenue · accessed 9 October 2026
6. 6.Interim guidance statement regarding changes made by ESSB 5814 for advertising services — Washington State Department of Revenue · accessed 9 October 2026
7. 7.Remote sellers — Washington State Department of Revenue · accessed 9 October 2026
8. 8.Filing frequencies & due dates — Washington State Department of Revenue · accessed 9 October 2026
9. 9.Penalty waivers — Washington State Department of Revenue · accessed 9 October 2026
10. 10.Restaurants and retailers of prepared food — Retail sales tax — Washington State Department of Revenue · accessed 9 October 2026
11. 11.B&O tax classifications — Washington State Department of Revenue · accessed 9 October 2026
12. 12.City Council sends updated Seattle Transit Measure to November ballot — Seattle City Council · accessed 9 October 2026