Illinois doesn’t have a law called the campfire tax, but campers pay one in pieces: 6.25% state sales tax on firewood plus any local add-ons, a state lodging tax of roughly 5.64% on campsite and cabin rentals (with local lodging taxes often stacked on top), nightly state park camping fees, and quarantine rules that push you toward buying wood near where you burn it. On a modest weekend trip, those pieces add up to somewhere around $8 to $12 in government charges before gas, food, or gear.
Sales Tax on the Firewood Itself
Firewood is taxed as general merchandise. Whether you grab a bundle at a gas station on the way up or a full cord from an outdoor retailer, the state rate is a flat 6.25% under the Illinois Retailers’ Occupation Tax.1Illinois Department of Revenue. Retailers’ Occupation and Use Tax Rates in Illinois There is no reduced rate. Firewood doesn’t qualify as food or medicine, and the January 1, 2026 elimination of the 1% state grocery tax applies only to qualifying food, not general merchandise.2Illinois Department of Revenue. Illinois Grocery Tax Changes Effective January 1, 2026
That 6.25% is only the floor. Municipalities and counties impose their own retailers’ occupation taxes under a patchwork of authorizing statutes, with home rule and non-home rule bodies drawing from different provisions of the Illinois Municipal Code and Counties Code.3Illinois Department of Revenue. Home Rule and Non-home Rule Sales Taxes Those local increments stack on top of the state rate, so the total on a bundle of firewood depends on the address of the store selling it. A rural campground store might charge only 6.25%. A convenience store in a larger municipality can push the combined rate above 9%. If you shop on the drive up, the tax on the same product changes town by town. The Illinois Department of Revenue publishes a rate lookup that returns the combined rate for any address.
Lodging Tax on Campsites and Cabins
The tax reach extends to where you sleep. Illinois imposes a Hotel Operators’ Occupation Tax on any operator renting living quarters or sleeping accommodations to transient guests staying fewer than 30 consecutive days.4Illinois General Assembly. Illinois Compiled Statutes 35 ILCS 145 – Hotel Operators Occupation Tax Act The definition of “hotel” in the Illinois Administrative Code sweeps in camps and cabins along with inns, motels, and lodging houses.5Illinois General Assembly. 86 Illinois Administrative Code 480 – Hotel Operators Occupation Tax Act
The state rate has two components: 5% of 94% of gross rental receipts, and an additional 1% of 94% of gross rental receipts.4Illinois General Assembly. Illinois Compiled Statutes 35 ILCS 145 – Hotel Operators Occupation Tax Act That works out to roughly 5.64% of what you actually pay for the site. Campground operators pass this through as a line item on your reservation or check-in receipt. Many municipalities layer their own lodging tax on top, and those local additions vary widely. On a $25-per-night site, the combined lodging tax runs somewhere between $1.40 and a few dollars a night depending on where the campground sits.
Stays of 30 consecutive days or longer are exempt from the hotel operators’ tax because the statute reaches only transient rentals.5Illinois General Assembly. 86 Illinois Administrative Code 480 – Hotel Operators Occupation Tax Act That threshold matters for seasonal or long-term campground residents; weekend campers won’t come near it.
Illinois State Park Camping Fees
Illinois state parks charge no vehicle entrance fee, which sets them apart from parks in many other states.6Illinois Department of Natural Resources. Camping at Illinois State Parks The main cost is the nightly camping fee, which depends on the site class:7Illinois Department of Natural Resources. Camping Fee Information Sheet
- Class AA (showers, electric, sewer, vehicle access): $25 per night standard, $35 on holiday weekends
- Class A (showers, electric, vehicle access): $20 per night standard, $30 on holiday weekends
- Class B/E (electric, vehicle access): $18 per night standard
- Class C (vehicle access without showers, or walk-in with shower access): $10 per night
- Class D (tent or primitive, no vehicle access): $6 per night
Illinois residents who are seniors or have disabilities pay reduced rates on most site classes. A $5-per-reservation fee applies on top of the first night’s camping fee at sites that accept reservations. These are government-imposed charges rather than taxes in the statutory sense, but they add to the total cost of every campfire built on state land.
Firewood You Can Legally Bring
This one isn’t a tax, but it drives what you spend. The entire state of Illinois sits under federal quarantine for the emerald ash borer, and moving hardwood firewood out of Illinois violates federal quarantine regulations.8Illinois Department of Agriculture. Firewood Regulations Within the state, an interior quarantine zone adds further restrictions on moving firewood from certain areas unless the wood has been treated through one of four approved methods: bark removal, kiln drying, fumigation, or heat treatment.
The practical rule for campers is short: buy the wood near where you plan to burn it. Hauling a truck bed of firewood from home to a campground across the state can violate quarantine rules if you cross interior zone boundaries. Campground stores and nearby gas stations exist for exactly this reason, and the convenience markup is effectively a hidden cost of the quarantine system. The Illinois Department of Agriculture urges that confirmed infested ash firewood be burned at or near where it was cut.8Illinois Department of Agriculture. Firewood Regulations
When a Firewood Sale Is Tax-Free
Not every firewood transaction triggers sales tax. Buying a few armloads from a neighbor clearing a downed tree usually doesn’t. Under the Illinois Administrative Code, people who make isolated or occasional sales of tangible personal property and are not in the business of selling it do not incur retailers’ occupation tax liability.9Legal Information Institute. Illinois Administrative Code tit. 86, 130.110 – Occasional Sales The question is whether the seller is holding themselves out as a retail business. A homeowner selling wood from one storm-damaged tree is clearly on the exempt side. Someone who advertises firewood every fall and keeps a regular supply starts to look like a business, storefront or not.
If you’re the camper buying from a private individual, you won’t see a tax charge and you don’t owe one. If you’re the one selling, the exemption only protects genuinely isolated sales; regular selling makes you a retailer who owes tax whether you registered or not.
What a Typical Trip Actually Costs in Tax
Put the pieces together with a two-night stay at a Class A state park site and two bundles of firewood bought nearby. The site runs $20 per night, so $40 total, plus a $5 reservation fee. State lodging tax at roughly 5.64% adds about $2.26 across the two nights, and local lodging taxes can add more. Two bundles of firewood at $7 each come to $14, with combined sales tax between roughly $0.88 and $1.40 depending on local rates. The government’s share of that weekend lands somewhere around $8 to $12. No single line looks large. Added together, they are the campfire tax Illinois campers actually pay.