The Bristol, VA sales tax is 5.3% on most retail purchases: 4.3% goes to the state and 1.0% stays with the city. Bristol does not add the 0.7% regional transportation tax that pushes rates to 6.0% or 6.3% in some other parts of Virginia, so if you’ve seen those higher figures quoted, they don’t apply here. Prepared meals and hotel stays carry their own separate local taxes on top of the base rate, and groceries for home consumption are no longer taxed at all.
What the 5.3% Covers and What Doesn’t
The 5.3% combined rate applies to retail sales, rentals, and storage of tangible personal property within Bristol city limits. The state portion comes from Virginia Code § 58.1-6031Virginia Code Commission. Virginia Code 58.1-603 – Imposition of Sales Tax; the 1% local piece is authorized under § 58.1-606.2Virginia Code Commission. Virginia Code 58.1-606 – Local Use Tax The matching use tax, charged at the same combined rate, covers items purchased out of state and brought into Bristol.3Virginia Code Commission. Virginia Code 58.1-604 – Imposition of Use Tax
Three categories work differently:
- Groceries: Food purchased for home consumption carries no state or local sales tax. Virginia reduced the grocery rate to 1% on January 1, 2023, and later legislation eliminated the remaining 1% entirely. The exemption covers staple grocery items and certain essential personal hygiene products. It does not cover prepared meals.4Virginia Tax. Grocery Tax Reduced to 1% Beginning Jan. 1, 2023
- Prepared meals: Bristol levies a 6% meals tax on prepared food and beverages sold by restaurants and similar food-service businesses, under the authority of Virginia Code § 58.1-3840. This is on top of the 5.3% sales tax, so a restaurant bill in Bristol carries both. Mandatory gratuities up to 20% of the sales price are excluded from the meals tax base, as are discretionary tips.5Virginia Code Commission. Virginia Code 58.1-3840 – Certain Excise Taxes Permitted
- Lodging: Hotel, motel, and short-term rental stays of fewer than 30 consecutive days carry a 7% transient occupancy tax, administered by the Commissioner of the Revenue’s office.6City of Bristol, Virginia. Commissioner of the Revenue
When You Owe Use Tax as an Individual
If you buy something from out of state and the seller doesn’t charge Virginia sales tax, you owe the equivalent use tax yourself at the same 5.3%. This comes up most often with online purchases from retailers that lack Virginia nexus, mail-order catalogs, and items bought during trips to other states.
If you file a Virginia individual income tax return, you report use tax directly on that return.7Virginia Tax. Consumer’s Use Tax Enter zero on the use tax line if you have nothing to report. If you don’t file a Virginia income tax return but still owe consumer use tax, you can file and pay using Form CU-7.
Registering a Business to Collect
Before making any taxable sales in Bristol, you need to register with the Virginia Department of Taxation. Since 2024, Virginia requires new businesses to register online. The paper Form R-1 remains available only for narrow situations, such as when the business does not yet have an EIN or when the applicant’s Social Security Number is already associated with another account.8Virginia Department of Taxation. Business Registration Form R-1
You’ll need the following to complete registration:
- Federal Employer Identification Number. Partnerships, corporations, and any business with employees must have one; sole proprietors without employees can use their Social Security Number.9Internal Revenue Service. Get an Employer Identification Number
- Legal name and any trade or “doing business as” names.
- Physical and mailing addresses.
- NAICS code for your business activity.
- The date you’ll begin making taxable sales, which sets when your collection obligation starts.
Filing Schedule and Deadlines
Virginia assigns you either a monthly or quarterly filing schedule based on your tax liability.10Virginia Tax. Retail Sales and Use Tax Higher-volume businesses file monthly; lower-volume ones file quarterly. Every return, on either schedule, is due by the 20th of the month following the close of the reporting period. A monthly return for April is due May 20. Quarterly filers follow this calendar:
- January through March: due April 20
- April through June: due July 20
- July through September: due October 20
- October through December: due January 20
You must file even when you had no sales. A zero-sales return that gets skipped triggers the same penalties as a late return with tax owed. Payments go through Virginia’s online tax portal by ACH debit or credit card.
Penalties for Late Returns
Missing a deadline gets expensive. Virginia charges 6% of the tax owed per month late, up to a 30% maximum. The minimum penalty for a late return is $10 even if you owe nothing. Interest runs on unpaid tax at the federal underpayment rate plus 2% until the balance is paid.
Bristol’s local meals tax has its own separate penalty: 10% of the tax for the first month late, plus 5% for each additional month, capped at 25%. A restaurant that falls behind on both state sales tax and local meals tax can face penalties from the state and the city for the same period.
Remote Sellers and Online Businesses
If you sell into Bristol from out of state, Virginia’s economic nexus rules decide whether you have to register. Any remote seller or marketplace facilitator that exceeds $100,000 in annual gross retail sales to Virginia customers, or completes 200 or more transactions with them, must register and begin collecting.11Virginia Tax. Remote Sellers, Marketplace Facilitators, Economic Nexus Once you cross either threshold, you collect at the rate for the buyer’s location. For Bristol customers that means 5.3% on most goods.
Marketplace facilitators like Amazon and Etsy handle collection and remittance for their third-party sellers once the facilitator itself crosses the state’s nexus threshold. If you sell exclusively through those platforms, you typically do not need to register separately in Virginia for marketplace sales. Direct sales through your own website still count toward your personal nexus calculation.
Buying Inventory Tax-Free With a Resale Certificate
If you buy inventory to resell, you can purchase it tax-free by giving your supplier a completed Form ST-10, Virginia’s Sales and Use Tax Certificate of Exemption. The certificate covers goods purchased for resale, items bought for taxable lease or rental, and packaging materials like boxes and bags that become the buyer’s property.12Virginia Department of Taxation. Form ST-10 Sales and Use Tax Certificate of Exemption A supplier only needs one completed ST-10 on file per dealer, and it stays in effect until the dealer revokes it in writing. Construction contractors using materials in their own projects cannot use this certificate, even if they hold a dealer registration.
Virginia exempts a range of other purchases across categories including agricultural supplies, certain industrial equipment, medical devices, and purchases by qualifying nonprofits.13Virginia Tax. Sales Tax Exemptions If you think a purchase might qualify, confirm the specific exemption category before you rely on it; the resale exemption is the one most retailers use day to day.