Idaho sales tax is a flat 6% on most retail purchases, collected by the seller and sent to the Idaho State Tax Commission. A small number of resort cities add 1% to 3% on top, but everywhere else in the state the rate is just the 6%. The tax reaches tangible goods, lodging, admissions, and a short list of other items; most professional services and streaming subscriptions fall outside it.
The 6% Rate and the Resort-City Add-On
Idaho Code 63-3619 sets the statewide rate at 6% and applies it uniformly in every county.1Legal Information Institute. Idaho Admin Code r 35.01.02.068 – Collection of Tax Counties and ordinary cities cannot add their own sales tax. The only local add-ons come from voter-approved levies in resort cities with 10,000 or fewer residents, authorized by Idaho Code 50-1044.2Idaho State Legislature. Idaho Code 50-1044 – Authority for Resort City Residents to Approve Local-Option Nonproperty Taxes
The rates and categories vary by city. Ketchum adds 3% on lodging and liquor by the drink and 2% on most other retail sales.3City of Ketchum. Local Option Tax (LOT) Bonners Ferry adds a flat 1%.4City of Bonners Ferry. Local Option Tax If you sell in one of these cities, you collect both the state and local amounts at the register and remit them separately: the 6% to the Tax Commission, the local portion to the city.
What Idaho Taxes
The tax base is tangible personal property, meaning things you can see, weigh, or touch. Clothing, furniture, electronics, appliances, building materials, and motor vehicles all qualify. Groceries are taxed at the full 6% rate; Idaho handles the regressive hit through an income-tax credit rather than an exemption at the register.
Digital Goods
Software sold on a physical disc is taxable. Software delivered electronically, accessed remotely, or installed by the vendor without transferring a copy is not. Digital music, books, videos, and games sit in their own category: taxable when you buy permanent ownership, exempt when access depends on an ongoing subscription.5Idaho State Legislature. Idaho Code 63-3616(b) – Tangible Personal Property Buying an album through a download platform triggers tax; paying a monthly music streaming fee does not.
The Few Taxable Services
Idaho does not broadly tax services. The ones it does pull in are specific. Hotel, motel, and short-term vacation rental lodging is taxable. Admissions to sporting events, concerts, plays, and similar entertainment carry the 6% rate.6Idaho State Tax Commission. Taxable Sales – Recreation and Admissions Participation fees for golf, bowling, fitness facilities, and other recreational activities are also taxed.
Services That Are Not Taxed
Legal fees, accounting work, architectural design, veterinary services, and most other professional work fall outside the sales tax entirely.7Idaho State Tax Commission. Idaho Sales and Use Tax Administrative Rules (IDAPA 35.01.02) The professional owes sales or use tax on the supplies they buy to do the job, but the client’s bill is not taxable. For mixed jobs that produce both a service and a product, Idaho applies an “object of the transaction” test. When a transaction has substantial elements of both and the invoice separates them, the property portion is taxable and the service portion is not.
Common Exemptions
Several categories of transactions are exempt from the 6% rate. To claim most exemptions at the point of sale, the buyer gives the seller a completed Form ST-101, the Sales Tax Resale or Exemption Certificate, which the seller keeps on file.8Idaho State Tax Commission. Form ST-101 – Sales Tax Resale or Exemption Certificate
Resale and Government
Goods bought for resale, rather than for the buyer’s own use, are exempt as long as the buyer presents a valid resale certificate. Sales to federal, state, and local government entities are also exempt.
Production
Materials that become part of a finished product manufactured for sale are exempt, and so is equipment primarily and directly used in manufacturing, processing, mining, farming, or fabricating.9Idaho State Legislature. Idaho Code 63-3622D – Production Exemption Repair parts, lubricants, coolants, chemicals that trigger a physical or chemical change in the product, agency-required safety gear, and grain-storage structures all qualify. The item must be necessary or essential to production, so office furniture and break-room supplies at a plant do not qualify.
Prescriptions and Medical Equipment
Prescription medications, insulin, syringes, eyeglasses, contact lenses, hearing aids, braces, and dental prostheses are exempt under Idaho Code 63-3622N, along with a long list of durable medical equipment.10Idaho State Legislature. Idaho Code 63-3622N – Prescriptions Wheelchairs, hospital beds, oxygen tanks, and patient lifts qualify when they serve a medical purpose and are appropriate for home use. The exemption applies to items prescribed or distributed by a licensed practitioner.
Occasional Sales
If you sell tangible personal property no more than twice in a 12-month period and are not holding yourself out as being in the business of selling, those sales are exempt. There is a big exception. Licensed motor vehicles are never treated as occasional sales and are always taxable, with narrow carve-outs for transfers between close family members who already paid tax on the vehicle. Snowmobiles, ATVs, motor homes, travel trailers, and boats are also excluded from the occasional-sale exemption.11Legal Information Institute. Idaho Admin Code r 35.01.02.099 – Occasional Sales
The Grocery Credit
Because groceries are taxed at the full 6% rate, Idaho offers an offsetting credit on your annual income tax return. For 2026, the credit is $155 per person, or up to $250 per person if you submit receipts documenting the sales tax you actually paid on food.12Idaho State Tax Commission. Idaho Food Tax Credit Every Idaho resident can claim it regardless of income, and you do not have to itemize. A ballot initiative to eliminate the grocery tax has been proposed for the November 2026 election, but the 6% currently still applies to food purchases.
Use Tax on Out-of-State Purchases
Idaho’s use tax mirrors the sales tax at the same 6% rate and applies to items you buy from out-of-state sellers that don’t collect Idaho tax.13Idaho State Tax Commission. Use Tax Basics Guide If you order equipment from a vendor that doesn’t charge Idaho tax, or bring goods back from another country, you owe the use tax directly to the state. Out-of-state sellers themselves must register and collect once their Idaho sales exceed $100,000 in the current or previous calendar year.14Idaho State Tax Commission. Online Sellers Guide Idaho uses only a dollar threshold, not a transaction-count threshold. Marketplace facilitators like Amazon and Etsy take over the collection obligation for third-party sellers on their platforms once the facilitator crosses the same $100,000 line.15Idaho State Legislature. Idaho Code 63-3620E – Collection of Tax by Marketplace Facilitators
If You Sell: Permit, Filing, and Deadlines
You need a seller’s permit before making any taxable sale in Idaho. Register using Form IBR-1 on the Tax Commission’s website, either as a fillable PDF or through online submission.16Idaho State Tax Commission. Form IBR-1 Business Registration Form You will supply identification numbers for owners and officers, business information matching your Secretary of State registration, your expected monthly sales, and the date you plan to begin.
The Tax Commission no longer mails paper returns. Everyone with a regular seller’s permit files electronically through the Taxpayer Access Point (TAP) portal, including months with zero sales.17Idaho State Tax Commission. Sales Tax Filing and Paying Filing frequency depends on volume:
- Monthly filers are the default. Tax collected in a month is due by the 20th of the following month.
- Quarterly filing is available if you owe less than $750 per quarter. Payment is due within 20 days after quarter end.
- Semi-annual filing (due July 20 and January 20) and annual filing (due January 20) are available to distributors and wholesalers with very few taxable sales, on application.
When the 20th falls on a weekend or holiday, the deadline moves to the next business day.
Penalties, Interest, and Records
A late return triggers a penalty of 5% of the tax due for each month the return is late, capped at 25%. Unpaid balances also accrue interest, set at 6% per year for 2026.18Idaho State Tax Commission. Interest Rates The penalty and the interest stack on the same balance. Willful tax fraud is a different matter. Idaho Code 63-3634 incorporates the criminal penalty provisions from the state’s income tax act, which can rise to felony charges.19Idaho State Legislature. Idaho Code 63-3634 – Additions and Penalties
Keep sales and use tax records for at least four years. If you failed to file returns, extend that to seven.20Idaho State Tax Commission. Recordkeeping for Printing and Publishing Exemption certificates from your buyers should be kept for as long as you do business with that customer, plus four years after the relationship ends. In an audit, missing records tend to be treated roughly the same as wrong records.
Buying an Existing Business
Unpaid sales tax can follow a business to its new owner. Under Idaho Code 63-3628, a buyer must send a written inquiry to the Tax Commission before closing and withhold from the purchase price whatever amount the seller still owes.21Idaho State Legislature. Idaho Code 63-3628 – Successors Liability Skip the step and pay the full price, and you become personally liable for the seller’s unpaid tax up to the amount you paid.
The inquiry goes to the Commission’s Boise office with the business name, location, seller’s permit number, and a copy of any purchase agreement.22Legal Information Institute. Idaho Admin Code r 35.01.02.119 – Successors Liability The Commission has 30 days to respond, or 60 if it needs access to the seller’s records. If it does not respond in time, the withholding obligation drops.