Naperville Grocery Tax: What the 1% Covers and Why It Stayed

The Naperville grocery tax is a local 1% sales tax on food bought for home consumption, in effect since January 1, 2026. It replaces the statewide 1% grocery tax that Illinois eliminated on the same day, and because the rates match exactly, the amount you pay at the register on qualifying groceries is the same as it was in 2025.¹

What the 1% Applies To

The tax covers “groceries” as Illinois law defines them: food for human consumption that you take home rather than eat on the premises where it’s sold.² In practice, that’s the staples: fresh produce, raw meat and poultry, dairy, eggs, canned vegetables, boxed pasta, rice, bread, packaged tortillas, and similar items you’ll store or prepare at home.¹

The dividing line is whether the food leaves the store in a state that still needs preparation. A loaf of bread you’ll slice at home counts. A rotisserie chicken kept hot under a heat lamp does not. The ordinance also does not apply to paper products, cleaning supplies, or other non-food items you might pick up in the same trip.

What Falls Outside the 1% Rate

Several items you might toss in the same cart are taxed differently because Illinois law carves them out of the grocery definition:

Alcoholic beverages. Beer, wine, and spirits are taxed under separate state and local rates and were never part of the 1% grocery category.
Soft drinks. Illinois defines these as non-alcoholic beverages with natural or artificial sweeteners. Drinks containing milk or milk substitutes, or more than 50% fruit or vegetable juice by volume, aren’t soft drinks and stay in the grocery category.³
Candy. The state defines candy as a preparation of sugar, honey, or other sweeteners with chocolate, fruits, nuts, or other flavorings in the form of bars, drops, or pieces. If the product contains flour or requires refrigeration, it isn’t candy and stays taxable as a grocery.³
Prepared food. Hot deli items, made-to-order sandwiches, salad bar selections, and self-service soup are taxed at the higher general merchandise rate.
Cannabis-infused food. Edibles containing adult-use cannabis are explicitly excluded from the grocery definition.³

The candy and soft drink rules catch people off guard. A Kit Kat contains flour, so it’s taxed as a grocery rather than candy. A sweetened iced tea is a soft drink; a smoothie with more than half juice is not. The retailer is responsible for applying the correct classification at the register.

Medicine is also separate. Prescription and nonprescription drugs, medical appliances, insulin, and diabetic testing supplies continue to carry their own 1% state sales tax rate, which Public Act 103-0781 did not eliminate.⁴ Naperville’s local grocery ordinance does not apply to those items.¹

What You’ll See on Your Receipt

Because the local 1% is a direct swap for the state 1%, the total tax on qualifying food has not changed. A $100 grocery trip still carries $1 in grocery tax, just as it did in 2025.¹ What changed is where the money goes: it now stays with Naperville’s General Fund rather than being collected by the state and sent back.

Receipts may display the charge differently from one store to the next. Some break it out as a local tax; others roll it into a combined sales tax line. The dollar amount on qualifying groceries is the same either way.

Why Naperville Kept the Tax

For roughly three decades, Illinois levied a 1% statewide tax on groceries and sent a portion of the revenue back to municipalities. When the state eliminated that tax effective January 1, 2026, the same law gave cities and counties the option to adopt their own 1% local grocery tax by ordinance.⁵

Naperville faced a projected $6.5 million General Fund shortfall starting in 2026 without the replacement revenue, which affects day-to-day city operations but not electric and water utilities or capital projects.¹ The city council weighed continuing the grocery tax at 1% against raising the broader home rule sales tax, and chose the grocery tax by a 5-to-4 vote on September 16, 2025.⁶

Shopping Outside Naperville

Not every Illinois municipality adopted a local grocery tax. Each city and county decided on its own, and some let the tax lapse entirely, giving residents a small reduction on food purchases. If you shop at stores in neighboring towns, you may pay a different grocery tax rate depending on whether that municipality opted in. The map of local rates can also shift over time, because ordinances filed by April 1 take effect the following July 1 and ordinances filed by October 1 take effect the following January 1.⁵

1
City of Naperville. City of Naperville Legislation Text
2
Illinois Department of Revenue. PIO-115, Tax Rate Information for Retail Sales of Food and Medicine
3
Illinois General Assembly. 35 ILCS 120/2-10
4
Illinois Department of Revenue. What Is Significant About Retail Sales of Qualifying Drugs and Medical Appliances
5
Illinois Department of Revenue. Illinois Grocery Tax Changes Effective January 1, 2026
6
NCTV17. Naperville Will Continue Grocery Tax in 2026