The base sales tax rate in Arkansas is 6.5%, and this applies to the whole state. However, the rate you will likely pay as a consumer or have to collect as a business will differ depending on your specific location within the state, or where your customers are having their orders shipped to, we call these; local sales tax rates.
Sales tax in Arkansas is similar to other states in the sense that business owners are responsible to collect and convey the sales tax which the business collects over to the Arkansas Department of Finance and Administration, as “sales and use tax”.
So, the way in which Arkansas’ sales tax is calculated is the base rate of 6.5% throughout the whole state, with the additional percentage rate of each county, town, or district added on to it, this will equal the total Arkansas sales tax you will have to pay as a consumer or collect as a business. The sales and use tax rate in a specific Arkansas location has three parts: the state tax rate, the local tax rate, and any district tax rate that may be in effect.
What is the sales tax in Arkansas? It is 6.5%.
Any retail, gas station/convenience store, restaurant-related business, or similar business you visit in Arkansas should charge you the prevailing rate of sales tax in Arkansas according to the county, and or city they are located in.
While paying sales tax is mostly applicable to the sale of products, it may also apply to certain service-related businesses such as sales of gas, water, electricity, most solid waste disposal, telephone, and prepaid telecommunications and repair services. If you are unsure whether your business should collect Arkansas sales tax, you may want to visit the Arkansas Department of Finance and Administration.
As a consumer, paying the state sales tax for Arkansas is a seamless process that you do not need to worry about too much when dining out at a restaurant, going to do the shopping, or even taking your car in for a service. However, as a business owner or someone looking to start a business in Arkansas, it is a totally different matter.
If you are responsible for collecting sales tax from your customers, it is essential to know and understand exactly what your responsibilities entail. These include where you need to remit your businesses collected sales tax to, following the rules of Arkansas’ sales tax collection, and ensuring that you are paying the state of Arkansas the correct sales tax you collect and on time.
In some instances, this may apply to online businesses, and if you are a participant of the Amazon FBA program, or have an online business with a lot of your sales taking place in Arkansas, you will most likely be subject to sales tax collection depending on where your products are warehoused and the volume of your annual transactions. This is why it is crucial if you are unsure to check with the guidelines for online business owners on the Arkansas Department of Finance and Administration website.
State Sales Tax for Arkansas
The state sales tax in Arkansas is 6.5%, however, the range of sales tax you will have to pay with the state rate plus the county, town, or district rates is between 6.5%-11.5%, with the range of local sales tax rates being 0%-5%. To help, we have included a table (below) that lists the sales tax rate for each county within the state. The table combines the base rate of 5.6% and the local county rate to give you a total tax rate for each county within Arkansas.
Arkansas has a lot of different counties, 75 in total. The Arkansas sales tax rate for most counties is 2%-2.5%, which means that most counties, when combined with the statewide sales tax rate, charge a total of 8%-8.5%.
What you will find in the U.S., which is different from some other countries, is that when you see the prices of products such as clothes in a retail store, or food on a menu in a restaurant, it is usually that price plus state, county, and city sales tax.
So, when you checkout your items in a store or request the bill at a restaurant, you will likely pay the price you saw on the label or menu + state + county and sometimes + city or other local 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).
Example of Arkansas Sales Tax Rules in Little Rock
To get a basic understanding of how Arkansas sales tax rules are imposed on state, county, city, and other local sales and use tax on most products and some services purchased in the state are simplified as you can make a quick calculation of the amount of Arkansas 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 going out for a meal in Pulaski County, the sales tax is 1%. Usually, you would add this to the base rate of Arkansas sales tax, which is 6.5%, and you would expect to pay a total of 7.5% sales tax as the table below will suggest. However, because you are not just in Pulaski, but more specifically Little Rock, which is a city located in Pulaski, you must pay the Little Rock sales tax of 1.5% along with the Pulaski and Arkansas sales tax rates, 6.5% + 1% + 1.5% = 9%.
So, when you spend $250 in a Little Rock, AR restaurant, and ask for the check (bill), expect to see a further 9% added to the total, making the total amount you will pay $272.50 ($22.50 in Arkansas sales tax).
State of Arkansas Sales Tax Rules for Businesses
As a business owner selling taxable goods or services, you act as an agent of the state of Arkansas by collecting tax from purchasers and passing it over to the Arkansas Department of Finance and Administration.
You must be aware that any sales tax collected from Arkansas’ residents belongs to the Department, meaning that it is entirely your responsibility as a business owner who collects sales tax to manage the amount of tax you collect and convey to the Department of Finance and Administration, which will result in avoiding any penalties and accumulative interest.
There is a specific terminology surrounding whether, as a business, you need to collect Arkansas sales tax. This is called “Sales Tax Nexus.” It basically means, does your business have a “significant presence” in the state. It used to be that sales tax nexus only applied to businesses with a physical presence in the state, such as having employees, an office or warehouse, or a retail store.
Any of the following criteria may be considered by the state of Arkansas as qualifying a seller/business to have sales tax nexus:
- An office or place of business (owned or leased)
- A warehouse or agency in Arkansas (owned or leased)
- Real or personal property
Your business will qualify for sales tax nexus in Arkansas if, as a vendor, you turnover more than $100,000 in sales annually or more than 200 transactions within the state. This means that the state considers these vendors obligated to collect and remit sales tax from buyers within Arkansas.
To learn exactly what the Arkansas Department of Finance and Administration determines to be sales tax nexus in Arkansas, head over to the specific PDF provided on the website.
If you go to page 1 under, “doing business as”, you will see what Arkansas constitutes for your business as being eligible for collecting sales tax from your customers.
Check out the Avalara website that gives you the specific breakdown of various Arkansas sales tax rates, not just for counties, but for cities and towns in Arkansas. The rates you see below will often be higher than the flat-rate sales tax charges per county because each city and town charges more which drives up the overall Arkansas sales tax based on the zip code you are located in.
You can also visit the Arkansas Sales & Use Tax Rate Look Up page that allows you to enter a street address, city, and zip code to determine the exact tax jurisdiction and reporting criteria.
The table below lists the 75 Arkansas counties that charge sales tax within the state. Arkansas’ sales tax is based on the base rate plus the county/district rate, so the rates below are indicative of the total Arkansas sales tax you will pay or have to collect from your customers.
| Arkansas Sales Tax Rates by County | Total Arkansas Sales Tax Rate | Arkansas State Sales Tax Rate |
|---|---|---|
| Arkansas County Sales Tax | 7.5% | 6.5% |
| Ashley County Sales Tax | 8% | 6.5% |
| Baxter County Sales Tax | 7.75% | 6.5% |
| Benton County Sales Tax | 7.5% | 6.5% |
| Boone County Sales Tax | 7.75% | 6.5% |
| Bradley County Sales Tax | 8.5% | 6.5% |
| Calhoun County Sales Tax | 9% | 6.5% |
| Carroll County Sales Tax | 7% | 6.5% |
| Chicot County Sales Tax | 8.5% | 6.5% |
| Clark County Sales Tax | 8% | 6.5% |
| Clay County Sales Tax | 8% | 6.5% |
| Cleburne County Sales Tax | 8.13% | 6.5% |
| Cleveland County Sales Tax | 9.75% | 6.5% |
| Columbia County Sales Tax | 8% | 6.5% |
| Conway County Sales Tax | 8.25% | 6.5% |
| Craighead County Sales Tax | 7.5% | 6.5% |
| Crawford County Sales Tax | 8.25% | 6.5% |
| Crittenden County Sales Tax | 9.25% | 6.5% |
| Cross County Sales Tax | 9.5% | 6.5% |
| Dallas County Sales Tax | 8.5% | 6.5% |
| Desha County Sales Tax | 8% | 6.5% |
| Drew County Sales Tax | 8.75% | 6.5% |
| Faulkner County Sales Tax | 7% | 6.5% |
| Franklin County Sales Tax | 8.5% | 6.5% |
| Fulton County Sales Tax | 9.5% | 6.5% |
| Garland County Sales Tax | 8% | 6.5% |
| Grant County Sales Tax | 7.75% | 6.5% |
| Greene County Sales Tax | 7.88% | 6.5% |
| Hempstead County Sales Tax | 9.5% | 6.5% |
| Hot Spring County Sales Tax | 8% | 6.5% |
| Howard County Sales Tax | 9.25% | 6.5% |
| Independence County Sales Tax | 8% | 6.5% |
| Izard County Sales Tax | 7% | 6.5% |
| Jackson County Sales Tax | 8.75% | 6.5% |
| Jefferson County Sales | 7.75% | 6.5% |
| Johnson County Sales Tax | 7.5% | 6.5% |
| Lafayette County Sales Tax | 8.75% | 6.5% |
| Lawrence County Sales Tax | 9% | 6.5% |
| Lee County Sales Tax | 7.5% | 6.5% |
| Lincoln County Sales Tax | 8.5% | 6.5% |
| Little River County Sales Tax | 9.38% | 6.5% |
| Logan County Sales Tax | 8.5% | 6.5% |
| Lonoke County Sales Tax | 7.5% | 6.5% |
| Madison County Sales Tax | 8.5% | 6.5% |
| Marion County Sales Tax | 8.25% | 6.5% |
| Miller County Sales Tax | 7.75% | 6.5% |
| Mississippi County Sales Tax | 9% | 6.5% |
| Monroe County Sales Tax | 6.5% | 6.5% |
| Montgomery County Sales Tax | 9.5% | 6.5% |
| Nevada County Sales Tax | 8.5% | 6.5% |
| Newton County Sales Tax | 7.5% | 6.5% |
| Ouachita County Sales Tax | 9% | 6.5% |
| Perry County Sales Tax | 8.75% | 6.5% |
| Phillips County Sales Tax | 8.5% | 6.5% |
| Pike County Sales Tax | 8.5% | 6.5% |
| Poinsett County Sales Tax | 8.25% | 6.5% |
| Polk County Sales Tax | 8.5% | 6.5% |
| Pope County Sales Tax | 7.5% | 6.5% |
| Prairie County Sales Tax | 8% | 6.5% |
| Pulaski County Sales Tax | 7.5% | 6.5% |
| Randolph County Sales Tax | 7.75% | 6.5% |
| Saint Francis County Sales Tax | 9.5% | 6.5% |
| Saline County Sales Tax | 6.88% | 6.5% |
| Scott County Sales Tax | 9.13% | 6.5% |
| Searcy County Sales Tax | 8% | 6.5% |
| Sebastian County Sales Tax | 7.75% | 6.5% |
| Sevier County Sales Tax | 9.63% | 6.5% |
| Sharp County Sales Tax | 8.25% | 6.5% |
| Stone County Sales Tax | 8% | 6.5% |
| Union County Sales Tax | 8.5% | 6.5% |
| Van Buren County Sales Tax | 8.5% | 6.5% |
| Washington County Sales Tax | 8% | 6.5% |
| White County Sales Tax | 8.25% | 6.5% |
| Woodruff County Sales Tax | 8.5% | 6.5% |
| Yell County Sales Tax | 8.38% | 6.5% |
Arkansas Department of Finance and Administration Contact Details
Most communication with the Arkansas Department of Finance and Administration can be conducted through their online services which are available 24/7, or via telephone which is possible between the hours of 8:00 am – 5 pm (Central Daylight Time) Monday through Friday (except US holidays). Here are the main contact methods:
Here is the main address for the Arkansas Department of Finance and Administration:
Arkansas Department of Finance and Administration
1509 W 7th St,
Little Rock, AR 72201
United States
Website: https://www.dfa.arkansas.gov/excise-tax/sales-and-use-tax/
Phone Number: (501)-682-7104 (if calling from outside the U.S., dial 001-501-682-7104)
Email: Sales.tax@dfa.arkansas.gov
If you would like to email the Arkansas Department of Finance and Administration, you must use the specific email above as that is the section which deals with any sales tax queries or concerns. They can also be contacted on Twitter and Facebook.
