How Phoenix's 8.6% rate is built
Arizona levies a Transaction Privilege Tax (TPT) rather than a classic sales tax: 5.60% state + 0.70% Maricopa County + city tax. Groceries are exempt at the state level and Phoenix does not tax groceries, though some Arizona cities do.
What you pay in Phoenix — worked examples
| Purchase | Tax at 8.6% | Total |
|---|---|---|
| $25 | $2.15 | $27.15 |
| $100 | $8.60 | $108.60 |
| $500 | $43.00 | $543.00 |
| $1,000 | $86.00 | $1086.00 |
| $10,000 | $860.00 | $10860.00 |
Phoenix vs the Arizona average
The average combined rate across Arizona is about 8.4%, so Phoenix at 8.6% is above the state norm by roughly 0.2 percentage points. On a $30,000 car (where vehicle tax rules allow the general rate), that gap alone is about $60 — one reason big purchases are planned around exact addresses, not state averages.
Phoenix vs other major US cities
Phoenix is the Arizona city we track in detail. Against the extremes of the 30-city dataset:
| City | Combined rate | Tax on $1,000 |
|---|---|---|
| Phoenix (this page) | 8.6% | $86.00 |
| Seattle — among the highest | 10.35% | $103.50 |
| Chicago — among the highest | 10.25% | $102.50 |
| Portland — among the lowest | 0% | $0.00 |
| Louisville — among the lowest | 6% | $60.00 |
| Average of the 30 tracked cities | 7.93% | $79.30 |
What this means in Phoenix
The rate bites hardest on large, planned purchases. At 8.6%, a $10,000 purchase carries $860.00 of tax — $20.00 more than the same purchase at the Arizona average rate of 8.4%, and $199.00 more than at the all-state average of 6.61%. On everyday spending the difference is cents; on vehicles, appliances and furniture it decides where people choose to buy.
Day-to-day, groceries in Arizona are taxed at a reduced rate rather than the full 8.6%, so the food shop carries less tax than general merchandise bought in Phoenix — see the grocery note in the FAQs for the current treatment.
Calculate with your exact rate
District boundaries inside Phoenix can shift the rate street by street. For an exact figure — or to extract tax from a tax-inclusive total — use the full calculator with your precise local rate: