St. Paul Sales Tax: Rate Breakdown, Exemptions, and Capital Projects Tax

The sales tax rate in St. Paul, Minnesota is 9.625 percent. That total applies to most retail purchases, prepared food, and a specific set of taxable services within the city, and it is built from four separate taxes stacked on top of one another: the state rate, a Ramsey County transit tax, a metro-area transportation tax, and the city’s own local tax.

How the 9.625 Percent Breaks Down

Four taxing authorities each add a slice to the rate you see at the register:

Minnesota state sales tax: 6.875 percent. The general state rate of 6.5 percent plus a 0.375 percent constitutional amendment approved by voters in 2008.¹
Ramsey County transit tax: 0.50 percent, funding transportation capital projects in the county’s transit plan.²
Metro area transportation tax: 0.75 percent, a regional tax across the seven Twin Cities counties (Anoka, Carver, Dakota, Hennepin, Ramsey, Scott, and Washington) for housing and transportation needs.³
City of St. Paul local tax: 1.50 percent, made up of a 0.50 percent tax that has funded the Sales Tax Revitalization (STAR) program since 2000 and a 1.00 percent capital-improvements tax approved by voters in November 2023.⁴

The statewide base is 6.875 percent, so buying something in St. Paul costs about 2.75 percentage points more in tax than buying it in a Minnesota city with no county, metro, or local add-ons.

What Gets Taxed

Most physical goods carry the full 9.625 percent. Electronics, furniture, appliances, sporting goods, and home improvement supplies all qualify. Minnesota also taxes a defined list of services that catches some shoppers off guard: lawn and garden care, building and commercial cleaning, laundry and dry cleaning, pet grooming and boarding, and admissions to amusement and recreation venues.⁵ A Saints game ticket, a round of golf, or a dog grooming appointment all include the combined tax.

Prepared food is taxable. A sandwich handed to you with utensils, or food meant for immediate consumption, counts as prepared food and gets taxed. The same ingredients bought packaged from the grocery aisle do not.⁶ Candy, soft drinks, and dietary supplements are pulled out of the grocery exemption and taxed at the full rate.

What’s Exempt

Several everyday categories are exempt from the full 9.625 percent, and the exemption applies uniformly across the state, county, metro, and city portions. You will not find a situation where groceries are state-exempt but locally taxed.

Clothing for general wear. Minnesota is one of the states that does not tax clothing, and that holds in St. Paul.⁶
Groceries sold for home preparation: produce, dairy, meat, bread, and similar staples. Candy, soft drinks, dietary supplements, and prepared food are not included in the exemption.⁶
Prescription drugs, over-the-counter medications, hearing aids, prosthetics, and medical devices.⁶

Hotel Stays

If you are booking a St. Paul hotel room, the receipt will show more than the 9.625 percent general rate. The city adds a separate lodging tax on top. Properties with 50 or fewer rooms pay a 3 percent lodging tax. Larger properties pay more after a 2019 change that raised the tax on the portion attributable to properties with more than 50 rooms from 3 percent to 4 percent.⁴ For a downtown stay, the stacked tax on a nightly rate adds up quickly.

Online and Out-of-State Purchases

Buying something outside the city or online does not end your St. Paul tax obligation. If no sales tax (or less than the full rate) was collected at checkout, you owe a use tax at the same 9.625 percent on items used at your St. Paul home. The metro-area transportation portion works the same way for items used anywhere in the seven metro counties.³

In practice, most large online retailers now collect the full combined rate at checkout. Minnesota requires out-of-state sellers to collect sales tax, including the local components, once they pass more than $100,000 in Minnesota sales or more than 200 transactions delivered into the state in any 12-month period. Marketplace platforms like Amazon, eBay, and Etsy generally collect the correct St. Paul rate on third-party sales under the same statute.⁷ Use tax mostly comes up with smaller out-of-state sellers that do not collect.

The 1 Percent Capital Projects Tax and When It Ends

The biggest piece of the city’s local portion is new. St. Paul voters approved a 1 percent capital-improvements tax in November 2023, and it took effect on April 1, 2024. The city expects it to raise roughly $1 billion over its lifetime, with $738 million earmarked for street improvements and $246 million for parks and recreation facilities.⁸

The Legislature authorized the tax in the 2023 omnibus tax bill at Minnesota Session Laws 2023, Chapter 64, Article 10, allowing the city to impose the extra penny with voter approval.⁹ The City Council set a 20-year window: the tax runs through 2043, or until collections cover the approved projects and related debt costs, whichever comes first.¹⁰ The penny is not permanent, but two decades is a long horizon for anyone shopping in the city today.

1
Minnesota House of Representatives. Minnesota Sales and Use Tax
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Minnesota Department of Revenue. Ramsey County 0.5 Percent Transit Sales and Use Tax
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Minnesota Department of Revenue. Metro Area Transportation Sales and Use Tax
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City of Saint Paul. Sales and Use Tax
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Minnesota House of Representatives. The Minnesota Sales Tax Base
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Minnesota Office of the Revisor of Statutes. Minnesota Code 297A.67 – General Exemptions
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Minnesota Office of the Revisor of Statutes. Minnesota Code 297A.66 – Jurisdiction to Require Collection and Remittance of Tax
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City of Saint Paul. Common Cent
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Minnesota Office of the Revisor of Statutes. Minnesota Session Laws 2023 Chapter 64
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City of Saint Paul. Legislation Details – Sales Tax Resolution