What Items Are Exempt From Sales Tax in Maryland?

Maryland’s 6% sales tax skips a lot of what fills a household budget. Items exempt from sales tax in Maryland include most groceries, prescription and over-the-counter medicine, diapers, feminine hygiene products, residential electricity and heating fuel, farm supplies, and clothing under $100 during the state’s August tax-free week. The exemptions below reflect current law, including changes that took effect in mid-2025 under Chapter 604 of the Acts of 2025.

Groceries and Food for Home Preparation

Most food you buy to cook or eat at home is exempt, but only when the seller runs a “substantial grocery or market business” at that location. A store qualifies if grocery-type food makes up at least 10% of its food sales there.¹ Supermarkets, most convenience stores with grocery sections, and similar retailers meet that bar.

Several things get taxed even at a qualifying grocery store:

Prepared food: heated items, ready-to-eat sandwiches, salad and soup bar selections, party platters, and single-serving frozen desserts under one pint.²
Candy, confectionery, and carbonated soft drinks. Maryland’s tax code does not treat these as “food,” so they are taxable wherever sold.¹
Bottled water, taxed under the same rule as soft drinks.¹
Alcoholic beverages, always taxable and subject to additional alcohol-specific taxes.

Preparation is the dividing line. Raw potatoes from the produce aisle are exempt. Hot french fries from the deli counter in the same store are taxable. A cold wrapped sandwich from a refrigerated case is usually taxable as food for immediate consumption.

One change worth flagging: as of July 1, 2025, snack foods sold through vending machines, including chips, pretzels, popped popcorn, cheese puffs, pork rinds, and nuts, lost their previous exemption and are now taxable.³

Medicine and Medical Equipment

Maryland’s medical exemption is broad. Prescription drugs, over-the-counter medicine, and disposable medical supplies are all exempt from the 6% tax, whether purchased at a pharmacy, hospital, or physician’s office.⁴ You do not need a prescription for the medicine exemption to apply; the statute simply refers to “a sale of medicine.”

Qualifying medical equipment and assistive devices include:

Wheelchairs, crutches, hospital beds, and oxygen tents.
Artificial limbs, artificial eyes, corrective eyeglasses, and orthopedic appliances prescribed by a physician.
Hearing devices with their batteries, chargers, and custom earmolds, captioned television decoders, and products adapted for blindness such as braille slates.
Equipment installed in a motor vehicle to provide wheelchair access or allow a person with a disability to drive.
Durable medical equipment that serves an exclusively medical purpose, can withstand repeated use, and would not be useful to a healthy person, provided it is used at home or on the person.⁴

Several related products also qualify. FDA-approved tobacco cessation products such as nicotine patches and gum are exempt.⁴ Oral hygiene products including toothpaste, toothbrushes, dental floss, and mouthwash are exempt. Diabetic care products like glucose meters, insulin pumps, and testing supplies qualify, as do medical wigs and hairpieces needed after surgical or medical treatment.⁵

Diapers, Baby Products, and Feminine Hygiene

Maryland exempts a broad range of baby and family care products. Diapers for both babies and adults, diaper rash cream, and baby wipes are tax-free. Baby bottles, baby oil, baby powder, and infant formula are exempt.⁵ Infant car seats and infant breathing monitors also qualify.

Breastfeeding supplies get wide coverage: breast pumps, pump kits, breast shields, breast milk storage bags, supplemental nursing systems, and related accessories.⁴

Feminine hygiene products including tampons, pads, and similar menstrual care items are exempt. Maryland eliminated its so-called “tampon tax” before most states, and that exemption remains in effect.

Clothing During Tax-Free Week

Regular clothing and footwear are taxable at 6% year-round in Maryland. There is no permanent clothing exemption. The one window of relief is Shop Maryland Tax-Free Week, which runs for seven days starting at 12:01 a.m. on the second Sunday in August through midnight the following Saturday. In 2026, that falls on August 9 through August 15.⁶

During that week:

Clothing and footwear priced at $100 or less per item are exempt. Each item is evaluated individually, so two $80 shirts both qualify even though the receipt total exceeds $100.⁷
Backpacks and bookbags get a partial exemption on the first $40 of the purchase price.⁶

Some items stay taxable even that week. Accessories like jewelry, watches, handbags, umbrellas, and scarves are not covered. Protective sports equipment such as football pads does not qualify. Alterations and tailoring charges are taxable even when the garment itself is exempt. And if an item costs more than $100, the whole price is taxable; the exemption does not apply to the first $100 of a pricier item.⁷

Residential Energy and ENERGY STAR Appliances

Electricity, natural gas, steam, and heating oil delivered to a home under a residential rate schedule are exempt. The exemption applies only to residential use. Commercial and industrial energy consumption is treated differently and may be taxable.

Running a business from home does not automatically disqualify you. If your home runs on a residential rate, the residential exemption still applies. A commercial operation with a separate meter on a commercial rate does not get the exemption on that usage.

Maryland also runs a Shop Maryland Energy tax-free event for qualifying ENERGY STAR products. Eligible appliances include air conditioners, washers, dryers, furnaces, heat pumps, boilers, standard-size refrigerators, dehumidifiers, programmable thermostats, and compact fluorescent light bulbs. Solar water heaters are exempt year-round, not just during the event.⁶ Dates are announced annually on the Comptroller’s website.

Farm Supplies and Equipment

Farmers get a targeted set of exemptions. Feed, bedding for livestock, seed, fertilizer, and pest-control products like herbicides and insecticides are exempt when bought for farming purposes.⁸ Livestock purchases, fuel for farm equipment, and specific farm machinery used for planting, harvesting, irrigating, or transporting crops also qualify.

Farmers can buy containers for transporting their own products to market tax-free, along with farm vehicles (as defined by the Transportation Article) and milking machines used in farming operations.⁸ The item has to actually be used for agricultural work. Buying a pickup truck and calling it a farm vehicle does not qualify it on its own.

Nonprofit and Government Purchases

Qualifying nonprofits, including charitable, educational, and religious organizations, volunteer fire companies and rescue squads, nonprofit cemetery companies, qualifying veterans’ organizations, credit unions, and government agencies, can buy goods tax-free for mission-related use.⁹ The organization must apply through the Maryland Tax Connect portal and receive an exemption certificate from the Comptroller before claiming the exemption. The certificate does not cover items for personal use by members or employees, and does not apply to an unrelated trade or business as defined by federal tax law. Eligibility is limited by statute to organizations located in Maryland or in adjacent jurisdictions: Delaware, Pennsylvania, Virginia, West Virginia, and Washington, D.C.

Free Newspapers

Newspapers that the publisher distributes free of charge are exempt, as long as the publication comes out at least monthly and meets criteria set by the Comptroller.¹⁰ Community papers and advertising circulars with editorial content delivered free to readers are the usual beneficiaries.

What People Assume Is Exempt but Isn’t

A few categories trip up Maryland shoppers who expect them to be tax-free.

Digital products and streaming are taxable. Since March 2021, Maryland has charged 6% on digital products and digital codes delivered electronically, including music and movie downloads, e-books, streaming audio and video subscriptions, and software-as-a-service products obtained electronically. Monthly charges for services like Netflix, Spotify, or cloud-based software are taxable. Enterprise computer software purchased solely for commercial use in an enterprise system, whether hosted locally or in the cloud, is excluded from the digital product definition and not subject to the tax.¹¹

Chapter 604 of the Acts of 2025 pulled several previously exempt categories into the tax, including certain precious metal bullion and coins, photographic materials, and custom computer software.¹² The same law expanded the list of taxable services. If you buy or sell in any of these areas, checking the Comptroller’s updated guidance before assuming an old exemption still applies is worth the time.

1
Maryland Comptroller. Information About Sales of Food
2
Maryland General Assembly. Maryland Code Tax-General 11-206 – Food
3
Maryland Comptroller. Sales and Use Tax Updates 2025 – 2026
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Maryland General Assembly. Maryland Code Tax-General 11-211
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Maryland Comptroller. Sales and Use Tax List of Tangible Personal Property and Services
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Maryland Comptroller. Comptroller of Maryland Programs
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Library of Maryland Regulations. COMAR 03.06.01.37 – Tax Free Week for Qualifying Clothing and Footwear Items
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Maryland General Assembly. Maryland Code Tax-General 11-201 – Agricultural Purposes and Products
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Comptroller of Maryland. Nonprofit Organizations
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Maryland General Assembly. Maryland Code Tax-General 11-215 – Printing Use and Publications
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Comptroller of Maryland. Business Tax Tip 29 – Sales of Digital Products and Digital Code
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Maryland General Assembly. Chapter 604 House Bill 352