Tax-Free States

Washington State Is Not Sales-Tax-Free

2026-09-19 · 3 min read

One frequent mix-up: which "tax-free"?

In the US, "tax-free state" means two completely different things: no state sales tax (the checkout price equals the shelf price) and no state income tax (no state slice taken from your paycheck). Large numbers of articles conflate the two — which is exactly how Washington State, Texas, and Florida keep getting mislabeled as shopping-tax-free states.

Three taxes, three different questions

Tax	Levied by	Relation to the address
Sales tax	State + city/county	Charged at checkout based on shipping/billing location
Income tax	State	Based on residence/filing; affects paychecks and returns
Property tax	City/county	Based on where the property sits; irrelevant to shopping

On this site, "tax-free states" always means the sales tax list — it is the one that changes checkout amounts and test assertions.

Sales-tax-free states: only five

State	Abbr.	Footnote
Alaska	AK	Some municipalities add local tax
Delaware	DE	None
Montana	MT	Resort districts up to 3%
New Hampshire	NH	Meals & rooms 8.5%
Oregon	OR	None

Mnemonic, alphabetical: A-DE-MT-NH-OR. Anything outside the list should be assumed to have sales tax.

Income-tax-free states: nine — a different list

Washington, Texas, Florida, Nevada, South Dakota, Tennessee, Wyoming, Alaska, New Hampshire — and only AK and NH overlap with the sales-tax-free five. WA/TX/FL still collect sales tax on every purchase: Washington's combined state + local rate is among the highest in the country (around 10% in some cities), Texas starts at 6.25% plus local, Florida at 6% plus local.

Where the confusion bites

Buying devices "tax-free". A WA billing address saves nothing — Washington still charges roughly 10% sales tax. DE or OR is what people actually want.
Incorporating a company. WY/TX/FL appear in "tax-free incorporation" articles because of income/franchise framing — nothing to do with sales tax.
Interstate online shopping. Since 2018, US e-commerce collects sales tax based on the shipping address (economic nexus). The old "no tax across state lines" folklore is dead.

How to verify a state in seconds

Check the five-state list above — inside or outside A-DE-MT-NH-OR.
Outside the list, look up "sales tax rate" on the state's revenue department site, and watch for local add-ons.
For test flows, just use the tax-free states generator so amount assertions don't need a tax line at all.

One-line summary: for shopping, the ADEMT five; for income tax, the nine-state list — and the two lists share only AK and NH.

Frequently asked questions

Doesn't Washington have no sales tax?

No — Washington has no state income tax. Its combined sales tax is among the highest in the country, around 10% with local add-ons in some cities.

What about Texas and Florida?

Same confusion, different tax: they appear on income-tax lists. Sales tax still applies — Texas from 6.25% plus local, Florida from 6% plus local.

Why do so many articles call them tax-free?

Authors copy income-tax lists into shopping contexts. The two lists share only Alaska and New Hampshire; every other state on them still collects sales tax.

What's the fastest way to check a state?

Five-state list first: A-DE-MT-NH-OR. Outside it, check the state revenue department's sales tax page — and note local add-ons on top of the state rate.

→ Generate a Washington-state address to compare