The base sales tax rate in Illinois is 6.25% and this applies to the whole state of Illinois, but, the rate you pay or have to collect as a business may be different since there are a variety of different sales tax rates depending on the county you are in. So, the way Illinois’ sales tax is calculated is the base rate of 6.25% Illinois sales tax throughout the whole state plus the additional percentage rate each county charges, equals the total Illinois sales tax rate you will pay or have to collect from your customers if you are a business.
Any retail, furniture, electronics, convenience, or restaurant-related business you visit in Illinois should charge you the prevailing rate of Illinois’ sales tax according to the county they are located in, so you won’t need to ask them; what is Illinois’ sales tax rate? This may also include accommodations such as hotels and motels and some services. While paying sales tax is mostly applicable to the sale of products, it does also apply to some service-related businesses such as hotels, taxi and limo services, admissions charges to places of amusement, and cleaning/maintenance services. If you are unsure whether your business should collect Illinois sales tax, you may want to visit the Illinois Department of Revenue website.
Paying Illinois’ sales tax as a consumer is a seamless process that you do not need to worry too much about when visiting a restaurant or retail store, booking a hotel, or taking a taxi or limo ride. On the other hand, as a business owner or someone looking to start a business in Illinois, it is a whole different matter.
If you are responsible for collecting sales tax from your customers, you need to know exactly what your responsibilities are, and you need to follow the rules of Illinois sales tax collection, making sure you pay the State of Illinois each month for the total amount of Illinois sales tax you collect. In some instances, this may apply to online businesses, and if you participate in the Amazon FBA program, you may be subject to sales tax collection depending on where your products are warehoused and the volume of sales you have each month/year.
Illinois Sales Tax Rates
The base rate of sales tax in Illinois is 6.25%, but the range of Illinois sales tax, including the county sales tax rate, occupation tax, local tax, mass transit tax, etc. is 6.25%-11%. For your convenience, we have included a table below that lists the Illinois sales tax rates for each county within the state. The table combines the base Illinois sales tax rate of 6.25% and the local county rates to give you a total tax rate for each county.
Illinois has many different counties, 102 in total, which means that Illinois has the 7th most counties out of all 50 states! Illinois sales tax rates for most counties is 1-2%, which means that most counties, when combined with Illinois’ sales tax rate, charge a total of 7.25-8.25% sales tax.
What you will find in the U.S., which is different from some other countries, is that when you see the price of a product such as a t-shirt in a retail store, or food on a menu in a restaurant, it is usually plus state and county sales tax.
So, when you checkout your items in a store or request the check (bill) at a restaurant, you will likely pay the price you saw on the label or on the menu + state and county sales tax. This often takes foreigners and those not used to this system by surprise because, in many other countries, the price you see is the price you pay, and the price quoted includes any sales tax or value-added tax (VAT).
State of Illinois Sales Tax
To get a basic understanding of how Illinois imposes a state sales and use tax on most products and some services purchased in the state you can make a quick calculation of the amount of state of Illinois sales tax you will pay based on the product price and sales tax rate charged within the county you are purchasing from.
So, if you are paying Jackson County sales tax, the rate would be 7.25%. A $200 sports product purchase (as an example) would cost you $14.50 in sales tax and the price you pay would be $214.50, not the $200 it was labeled as in the store.
Illinois sales tax rates actually refer to several tax acts. Sales tax is a combination of “occupation” taxes that are imposed on sellers’ receipts and “use” taxes that are imposed on amounts paid by purchasers. Sellers owe the occupation tax to the department; they reimburse themselves for this liability by collecting use tax from their customers. “Sales tax” is the combination of all state, local, mass transit, home rule occupation and use, non-home rule occupation and use, park district, county public safety and facilities, county school facility tax, and business district taxes in Illinois.
State of Illinois Sales Tax for Businesses
There is specific terminology surrounding whether, as a business, you need to collect the state of Illinois sales tax. This is called “Sales Tax Nexus.” It basically means, does your business have a “significant presence” in the state.
Any of the following criteria may be considered by the state of Illinois as qualifying a seller/business to have sales tax nexus:
- If you operate out of an office, warehouse, or another place of business.
- If you have a state employee, contractor, salesperson, agent, or representative.
- If you have a third-party party affiliate operating in Illinois.
- Since October 1, 2018, Illinois considers vendors who make $100,000 in sales or more in the previous four quarters in Illinois or more than 200 transactions in the state to have economic nexus.
To learn exactly what the Illinois Department of Revenue determines to be sales tax nexus in Illinois, head over to their website and see what businesses this applies to and what you are expected to collect from your customers.
Sales Tax in Illinois by County
The table below lists the 102 Illinois counties that charge sales tax within the state. Illinois’ sales tax is based on the base rate plus the county rate and any other special exceptions, so the rates below are indicative of the total Illinois sales tax you will pay or have to collect from your customers. You should always enter your specific address into a database that specializes in sales tax rates since more granular local tax may apply in addition to just the county rate.
| Illinois Sales Tax Rates by County | Total Illinois Sales Tax Rate | Illinois State Sales Tax Rate |
|---|---|---|
| Adams County Sales Tax | 6.5% | 6.25% |
| Alexander County Sales Tax | 6.25% | 6.25% |
| Bond County Sales Tax | 7.25% | 6.25% |
| Boone County Sales Tax | 7.75% | 6.25% |
| Brown County Sales Tax | 7.5% | 6.25% |
| Bureau County Sales Tax | 7.25% | 6.25% |
| Calhoun County Sales Tax | 8% | 6.25% |
| Carroll County Sales Tax | 6.5% | 6.25% |
| Cass County Sales Tax | 8.25% | 6.25% |
| Champaign County Sales Tax | 7.5% | 6.25% |
| Christian County Sales Tax | 7.25% | 6.25% |
| Clark County Sales Tax | 7.25% | 6.25% |
| Clay County Sales Tax | 6.75% | 6.25% |
| Clinton County Sales Tax | 6.25% | 6.25% |
| Coles County Sales Tax | 7.25% | 6.25% |
| Cook County Sales Tax | 9% | 6.25% |
| Crawford County Sales Tax | 6.25% | 6.25% |
| Cumberland County Sales Tax | 7.25% | 6.25% |
| De Witt County Sales Tax | 6.25% | 6.25% |
| DeKalb County Sales Tax | 6.25% | 6.25% |
| Douglas County Sales Tax | 7.25% | 6.25% |
| DuPage County Sales Tax | 7% | 6.25% |
| Edgar County Sales Tax | 8.25% | 6.25% |
| Edwards County Sales Tax | 7.25% | 6.25% |
| Effingham County Sales Tax | 6.5% | 6.25% |
| Fayette County Sales Tax | 7.25% | 6.25% |
| Ford County Sales Tax | 6.25% | 6.25% |
| Franklin County Sales Tax | 8.25% | 6.25% |
| Fulton County Sales Tax | 7.75% | 6.25% |
| Gallatin County Sales Tax | 7.25% | 6.25% |
| Greene County Sales Tax | 7.25% | 6.25% |
| Grundy County Sales Tax | 6.25% | 6.25% |
| Hamilton County Sales Tax | 8.25% | 6.25% |
| Hancock County Sales Tax | 6.25% | 6.25% |
| Hardin County Sales Tax | 8.25% | 6.25% |
| Henderson County Sales Tax | 7.25% | 6.25% |
| Henry County Sales Tax | 7.75% | 6.25% |
| Iroquois County Sales Tax | 6.5% | 6.25% |
| Jackson County Sales Tax | 7.25% | 6.25% |
| Jasper County Sales Tax | 7.25% | 6.25% |
| Jefferson County Sales Tax | 6.75% | 6.25% |
| Jersey County Sales Tax | 8% | 6.25% |
| Jo Daviess County Sales Tax | 7.25% | 6.25% |
| Johnson County Sales Tax | 7.75% | 6.25% |
| Kane County Sales Tax | 7% | 6.25% |
| Kankakee County Sales Tax | 6.25% | 6.25% |
| Kendall County Sales Tax | 7.25% | 6.25% |
| Knox County Sales Tax | 7.75% | 6.25% |
| Lake County Sales Tax | 7% | 6.25% |
| LaSalle County Sales Tax | 6.5% | 6.25% |
| Lawrence County Sales Tax | 7.25% | 6.25% |
| Lee County Sales Tax | 7.75% | 6.25% |
| Livingston County Sales Tax | 7.25% | 6.25% |
| Logan County Sales Tax | 8.25% | 6.25% |
| Macon County Sales Tax | 7.75% | 6.25% |
| Macoupin County Sales Tax | 7.25% | 6.25% |
| Madison County Sales Tax | 6.85% | 6.25% |
| Marion County Sales Tax | 7.5% | 6.25% |
| Marshall County Sales Tax | 6.25% | 6.25% |
| Mason County Sales Tax | 7.25% | 6.25% |
| Massac County Sales Tax | 6.25% | 6.25% |
| McDonough County Sales Tax | 8% | 6.25% |
| McHenry County Sales Tax | 7% | 6.25% |
| McLean County Sales Tax | 6.25% | 6.25% |
| Menard County Sales Tax | 8.25% | 6.25% |
| Mercer County Sales Tax | 7.25% | 6.25% |
| Monroe County Sales Tax | 7.5% | 6.25% |
| Montgomery County Sales Tax | 7.25% | 6.25% |
| Morgan County Sales Tax | 7.25% | 6.25% |
| Moultrie County Sales Tax | 6.75% | 6.25% |
| Ogle County Sales Tax | 6.25% | 6.25% |
| Peoria County Sales Tax | 7.25% | 6.25% |
| Perry County Sales Tax | 7.75% | 6.25% |
| Piatt County Sales Tax | 7.25% | 6.25% |
| Pike County Sales Tax | 7.75% | 6.25% |
| Pope County Sales Tax | 6.25% | 6.25% |
| Pulaski County Sales Tax | 6.25% | 6.25% |
| Putnam County Sales Tax | 6.25% | 6.25% |
| Randolph County Sales Tax | 7.25% | 6.25% |
| Richland County Sales Tax | 7.75% | 6.25% |
| Rock Island County Sales Tax | 7.25% | 6.25% |
| Saint Clair County Sales Tax | 7.35% | 6.25% |
| Saline County Sales Tax | 8% | 6.25% |
| Sangamon County Sales Tax | 7.25% | 6.25% |
| Schuyler County Sales Tax | 7.25% | 6.25% |
| Scott County Sales Tax | 7.25% | 6.25% |
| Shelby County Sales Tax | 7.25% | 6.25% |
| Stark County Sales Tax | 7.5% | 6.25% |
| Stephenson County Sales Tax | 6.75% | 6.25% |
| Tazewell County Sales Tax | 6.75% | 6.25% |
| Union County Sales Tax | 8.5% | 6.25% |
| Vermilion County Sales Tax | 6.5% | 6.25% |
| Wabash County Sales Tax | 7.25% | 6.25% |
| Warren County Sales Tax | 7.25% | 6.25% |
| Washington County Sales Tax | 6.25% | 6.25% |
| Wayne County Sales Tax | 7% | 6.25% |
| White County Sales Tax | 7.25% | 6.25% |
| Whiteside County Sales Tax | 7.25% | 6.25% |
| Will County Sales Tax | 7% | 6.25% |
| Williamson County Sales Tax | 7.25% | 6.25% |
| Winnebago County Sales Tax | 7.75% | 6.25% |
| Woodford County Sales Tax | 8.25% | 6.25% |
Illinois Department of Revenue Contact Details
Most communication with the Illinois Department of Revenue can be conducted easily through their online services which are available 24/7, or via telephone which is possible between regular business hours of 8:30 am – 5:00 pm (central time) with the exception of Springfield, IL, Monday through to Friday (not including national and state holidays). Here are the main contact methods:
Illinois is home to multiple Department of Revenue offices, here are the addresses and contact details for each one:
Marion Office
2309 W. Main St. Suite 114
Marion, IL 62959-1196
Telephone: 800 732-8866 (when you call you will be directed to the specific Illinois sales tax section of the Department of Revenue).
Chicago Office
James R. Thompson Center – 7th Floor
100 West Randolph Street
Chicago, IL 60601-3274
Telephone: 800-732-8866 (when you call you will be directed to the specific Illinois sales tax section of the Department of Revenue).
Website: https://www2.illinois.gov/rev/research/taxinformation/sales/Pages/default.aspx
Des Plaines Office
Suburban North Regional Building
9511 Harrison Street
Des Plaines, IL 60016-1563
Telephone: 800-732-8866 (when you call you will be directed to the specific Illinois sales tax section of the Department of Revenue).
Website: https://www2.illinois.gov/rev/research/taxinformation/sales/Pages/default.aspx
Rockford Office
200 S. Wyman Street.
Rockford, IL 61101
Telephone: 800-732-8866 (when you call you will be directed to the specific Illinois sales tax section of the Department of Revenue).
Website: https://www2.illinois.gov/rev/research/taxinformation/sales/Pages/default.aspx
Fairview Heights Offices
15 Executive Drive – Suite 2
Fairview Heights, IL 62208-1331
Telephone: 800-732-8866 (when you call you will be directed to the specific Illinois sales tax section of the Department of Revenue).
Website: https://www2.illinois.gov/rev/research/taxinformation/sales/Pages/default.aspx
Springfield Offices
Willard Ice Building,
101 West Jefferson Street
Springfield, IL 62702
Telephone: 800 732-8866 or 217-782-3336 (when you call you you will be directed to the specific Illinois sales tax section of the Department of Revenue).
Website: https://www2.illinois.gov/rev/research/taxinformation/sales/Pages/default.aspx
Various online services are available 24/7 on the website, including electronically filing a return, making a payment, setting up payment plans, checking the status of a refund, or making a general inquiry on your account.
