Although Illinois’s state sales tax rate is 6.25%, businesses and buyers in Illinois typically pay a combined rate that includes county, municipal, and district taxes. Depending on where a transaction takes place, that combined rate can fluctuate anywhere from 6.25% in low-tax rural areas to more than 10.00% in major cities.

Below, we’ll explain how the Illinois sales tax rate works, which local taxes combine with the state base, and how to calculate what you actually owe.

Highlights

• Illinois’s base state sales tax rate is 6.25%, but combined rates with local taxes reach over 10.00% in many cities.

• Illinois uses origin-based sourcing for in-state sellers and destination-based sourcing for remote sellers.

• Groceries and qualifying drugs are taxed at a reduced state rate, separate from the standard rate that applies to most goods.

What is the Illinois sales tax rate?

Illinois’s base state sales tax rate is 6.25%. It applies to the retail sale of tangible personal property (e.g., physical goods sold to end consumers) and to digital goods. Services are generally exempt in Illinois, though some, such as certain telecommunications services and computer-related services, are taxable.

Illinois also taxes certain items at reduced rates. These items, such as groceries and prescription and nonprescription drugs, are taxed at 1.00% at the state level. Reduced rates only apply to the state portion, which means you’re still responsible for local taxes.

How does Illinois’s sales tax rate work?

Illinois uses an origin-based sourcing rule for in-state sellers. If your business has a physical location in Illinois and sells to a customer also in Illinois, the sale is taxed at the rate of your business’s location.

Businesses without a physical presence in Illinois (e.g., remote sellers) are taxed using destination-based sourcing. Tax is calculated based on the buyer’s location. Illinois also enforces economic nexus: if you exceeded $100,000 in sales into the state during the previous calendar year, you’re required to register and collect, regardless of physical presence.

What are the local sales tax rates in Illinois?

In addition to the 6.25% state rate, Illinois allows counties, municipalities, and special-purpose districts to impose their own sales taxes. The numbers can get complicated if you don’t track them carefully.

2026 Illinois sales tax range

Illinois’s average combined rate is among the highest in the US. After June 2026, Chicago’s combined sales tax rate will become 10.50%, making it the highest combined rate of any major US city. Outside of Chicago, high-tax suburbs Calumet City, Oak Forest, Glenwood, and Indian Head Park now have the highest combined rate in Illinois at 11.00%.

What are Illinois’s sales tax rates by city?

The table below shows the minimum combined sales tax rate for major Illinois cities. Actual rates within city limits can vary by district or specific location.

Rates shown above are minimums. Some areas within city boundaries might have additional district taxes.

What are Illinois’s sales tax rates by county?

Illinois has 102 counties, each with its own sales tax. The county-level addition to the state’s 6.25% base ranges from 0.25% in some downstate counties to 1.75% in Cook County.

Here are the minimum combined rates for counties with the highest populations in Illinois:

County rates shown above are the base county-level addition to the state rate. Municipal and district taxes within each county can raise combined rates.

How do you calculate Illinois’s sales tax rate?

To calculate Illinois’s sales tax rate, multiply the taxable sale amount by the applicable combined rate. For example, a $150 purchase in Springfield at an 8.75% combined rate results in $13.12 of sales tax. Reduced-rate items might include a rate of 1.00% depending on the municipality, plus any applicable local rates on those specific categories.

It can be difficult to find the proper rate, especially across multiple locations or product types. You can use Stripe’s sales tax calculator to check rates for specific Illinois locations based on the address.

What do Illinois’s sales tax rates mean for your business?

Illinois’s rate structure poses a few concrete compliance challenges that show up most clearly in these scenarios.

Here’s what to know:

Multilocation selling

If you operate physical locations across Illinois (e.g., one in Schaumburg and one in Aurora), you’ll collect 10.00% at one and 8.25% at the other. Your point-of-sale (POS) system and accounting records should reflect that difference so your remittances are accurate.

Remote selling into Illinois

Once you hit economic nexus thresholds and become responsible for destination-based sourcing, you have to determine the correct combined rate for each customer’s location. In Illinois, this can mean parsing out city, county, and district layers. Automated tax calculation tools can help substantially with this.

Reduced-rate products

If you sell a mix of general merchandise and grocery or pharmacy items, you can’t apply a single rate across the board. Illinois’s tiered rate system for food and drugs requires you to distinguish transactions at the product level in addition to the location level.

Home-rule municipalities

Because places such as Chicago set and administer their own taxes independently, rate changes don’t always flow through the Illinois Department of Revenue on the same schedule as other local changes. If you’re selling in Chicago, you need to monitor the city’s tax updates separately.

How Stripe Tax can help

Stripe Tax reduces the complexity of tax compliance so you can focus on growing your business. Stripe Tax helps you monitor your obligations and alerts you when you exceed a sales tax registration threshold based on your Stripe transactions. In addition, it automatically calculates and collects sales tax, VAT, and GST on both physical and digital goods and services—in all US states and in more than 100 countries.

Start collecting taxes globally by adding a single line of code to your existing integration, clicking a button in the Dashboard, or using our powerful API.

Stripe Tax can help you:

• Understand where to register and collect taxes: See where you need to collect taxes based on your Stripe transactions. After you register, switch on tax collection in a new state or country in seconds. You can start collecting taxes by adding one line of code to your existing Stripe integration or add tax collection with the click of a button in the Stripe Dashboard.

• Register to pay tax: Let Stripe manage your global tax registrations and benefit from a simplified process that prefills application details—saving you time and simplifying compliance with local regulations.

• Automatically collect tax: Stripe Tax calculates and collects the right amount of tax owed, no matter what or where you sell. It supports hundreds of products and services and is up-to-date on tax rules and rate changes.

• Simplify filing: Stripe Tax seamlessly integrates with filing partners, so your global filings are accurate and timely. Let our partners manage your filings so you can focus on growing your business.

Learn more about Stripe Tax, or get started today.