Anchorage does not have a general sales tax. Nothing extra is added at the register when you buy clothing, groceries, electronics, or most other everyday goods and services. The municipality does charge targeted taxes on a short list of specific products and services — marijuana, alcohol, tobacco, lodging, rental vehicles, and motor fuel — so depending on what you’re buying, you may still see a tax line on your receipt or baked into the price.
What Anchorage Actually Taxes
The taxes below are the full list of consumer-facing excise taxes the municipality collects. Everything else sold in Anchorage is untaxed at the local level.
Marijuana: 5%
Retail marijuana and marijuana products carry a 5% sales tax under AMC Chapter 12.50.1Municipality of Anchorage. Marijuana Retail Sales Tax You’ll see it added to the purchase price at licensed retail stores, the same way a sales tax works in other states.
Alcohol: 5%
Anchorage voters approved a 5% retail alcohol tax in April 2020, codified at AMC Chapter 12.65.2Municipality of Anchorage. Alcoholic Beverages Retail Sales Tax It applies to every bar, restaurant, liquor store, and other retailer selling alcohol within municipal boundaries.
Tobacco
Cigarettes and other tobacco products are taxed under AMC Chapter 12.40, but the structure differs from the retail taxes above. Cigarettes carry a mill rate per individual cigarette; other nicotine-containing tobacco products are taxed as a percentage of the wholesale price.3Municipality of Anchorage. Cigarette and Other Tobacco Products Excise Tax The rate schedule is updated annually, and the tax falls on distributors, wholesalers, and retailers who bring the products into the municipality rather than being added at the register. In practice, the cost is passed through in the shelf price.
Lodging (Room Tax): 12%
Short-term lodging carries a 12% room tax under AMC Chapter 12.20. It applies to any stay of fewer than 30 consecutive days, so if you book 30 nights or longer, you’re exempt.4Municipality of Anchorage. Room Tax The tax covers hotels, motels, bed and breakfasts, corporate suites, condominiums, vacation rentals, cabins, and short-term apartment rentals.
Airbnb, VRBO, and similar platforms are treated as “hosting platforms” under a 2019 ordinance. When the platform collects payment from the guest, the platform itself registers with the municipality, collects the 12% tax, and remits it directly, so you’ll see it on your booking confirmation.
Rental Vehicles: 8%
Renting a car or other motor vehicle triggers an 8% tax on the total fees and costs charged, applied to the first 30 days of the rental. The code is AMC Chapter 12.45.5Municipality of Anchorage. Rental Vehicle Tax Traditional rental companies collect it at the counter as a separate line item on your receipt.
Peer-to-peer platforms aren’t excluded. Turo, for instance, collects and remits the 8% tax on trips involving Anchorage-based vehicles when the host qualifies as a retail business, which generally means the host holds an Alaska business license or reports car-sharing income to the IRS.6Turo. Car Sharing Regulations
Motor Fuel
Anchorage charges a flat per-gallon excise tax on motor fuel under AMC Chapter 12.55. It took effect March 1, 2018, at $0.10 per gallon, and the code requires a rate review every five years. The municipality published a rate adjustment memo in 2023, so the current rate may differ from the original dime.7Municipality of Anchorage. Motor Fuel Tax Fuel dealers pay the tax and build it into the posted price per gallon, so you won’t see it broken out at the pump.
Why There’s No General Sales Tax
Alaska is one of only five states with no statewide sales tax, but unlike the other four, it lets local governments impose their own.8Tax Foundation. State and Local Sales Tax Rates, 2026 Juneau, the Fairbanks North Star Borough, and the Kenai Peninsula Borough all use that authority. Anchorage voters have repeatedly declined to adopt a broad-based sales tax, choosing to fund the municipality primarily through property taxes and the targeted excise taxes above.
As a unified home-rule municipality, Anchorage has broad power under Article X of the Alaska Constitution to create new tax categories or adjust rates by ordinance, with voter approval where required.9Justia Law. Alaska Constitution Article 10 – Local Government That’s how the alcohol tax arrived in 2020 and how the room tax rules for hosting platforms were added in 2019.
What Pays for the City Instead
Property taxes carry most of the municipal budget. The 2025 mill rate for the core Anchorage tax district is 15.790 mills, or roughly $15.79 per $1,000 of assessed value. Rates vary by service area across the municipality, from about 6.79 mills in some outlying areas up to nearly 15.94 mills in the most fully served districts. Eagle River residents pay 15.500 mills; Girdwood pays 12.210 mills.
That reliance on property taxes is the direct trade-off for no sales tax at the register. Homeowners shoulder a larger share of the municipal budget than they would in a city with diversified revenue, and renters pay it indirectly through rent. The excise taxes on marijuana, alcohol, tobacco, lodging, rental vehicles, and fuel supplement the property tax base rather than replace it.