Rhode Island Sales Tax Calculator

One 7% rate, from Westerly to Woonsocket

Rhode Island charges a flat 7% sales tax everywhere in the state, and no city or town adds its own general sales tax. That makes the calculator above exact for most purchases: the rate on a receipt in Providence is the same as in Newport or on Block Island. It is still one of the higher state rates in New England, above Massachusetts at 6.25% and Connecticut at 6.35%.

Local add-ons in Rhode Island apply only to meals, drinks and hotel rooms (covered below), not to ordinary shopping. So you do not need an address lookup to price a sofa, a laptop or a set of tyres. What you do need to know is which items are exempt, and that list is longer than in many states.

The $250 clothing rule, with worked examples

Clothing and footwear in Rhode Island are tax-free up to $250 per item. Only the part of the price above $250 is taxed. This is set out in Division of Taxation regulation 280-RICR-20-70-6, in force since October 1, 2012. The threshold applies to each item, not to the whole receipt, so five shirts at $60 each are all exempt even though the bill comes to $300.

Worked example: a $400 winter coat is taxed on $150, the amount over the threshold. At 7% that is $10.50, not the $28.00 you would pay if the whole price were taxed. The regulation’s own example is a $275 suit, which is taxed on $25 for $1.75.

Alterations charged on a garment count as part of its sales price for the $250 test. In the regulation’s examples, a suit that comes to $285 with alterations is taxed on $35, which is $2.45 of tax. An item priced just under $250 can therefore become partly taxable once alterations are added.

• Exempt up to $250: everyday apparel such as coats, shoes, socks, underwear and uniforms.
• Always taxable, as clothing accessories: cosmetics, handbags, jewelry, sunglasses, umbrellas and watches.
• Always taxable, as sports or protective equipment: baseball gloves and cleated shoes, hard hats and safety glasses.

Groceries and prescriptions are exempt; restaurant meals carry an extra 1%

Food and food ingredients bought to eat at home are exempt from Rhode Island sales tax. The Division of Taxation’s definition leaves out candy, soft drinks, dietary supplements, alcoholic beverages, tobacco, vending machine food and prepared food, so those are taxed in full even at a supermarket. Prepared food includes anything heated by the seller, food the seller has mixed from two or more ingredients, and food sold with utensils.

Drugs sold on a prescription are exempt under regulation 280-RICR-20-70-47. Insulin and medical oxygen are exempt whether or not they are sold on a prescription.

Restaurants, bars and other eating places charge a 1% local meals and beverage tax on top of the 7% sales tax, which has applied since August 1, 2003. A $60 dinner bill therefore carries $4.80 of tax at 8%, not $4.20.

Hotel rooms and short-term rentals: 14% since January 2026

A hotel room in Rhode Island is taxed at 14% in total: the 7% sales tax, a 5% state hotel tax and a 2% local hotel tax. The local hotel tax went up from 1% to 2% on January 1, 2026. A new 5% tax on short-term rentals of whole homes (houses, condos and other dwellings rented in their entirety) started on the same date. It replaces the 5% state hotel tax for those stays rather than adding to it: the Division of Taxation says no single stay pays both.

For a three-night stay at $220 a night ($660), the tax is $92.40, made up of $46.20 of sales tax, $33.00 of state hotel tax and $13.20 of local hotel tax. That is why online booking sites often show a much higher final price than the nightly rate suggests.

Use tax on online and out-of-state purchases

If you buy something taxable from a seller that does not charge Rhode Island tax, you owe use tax at the same 7% rate. This applies if you use, store or consume the item in Rhode Island. The same exemptions apply, so a $200 pair of boots ordered from out of state owes nothing, while a $900 television does ($63.00).

Large marketplaces collect the tax at checkout, so use tax mostly comes up with smaller out-of-state sellers. It also applies to goods bought in person in states with no sales tax, such as New Hampshire, and brought home. Rhode Island has required sellers that do not collect the tax to send notices reminding customers that use tax may be due.

Rhode Island tax on everyday purchases at a glance

Because exemptions and add-on taxes do more to change your bill than the single rate does, here is what common purchases actually cost in tax.

Reversing Rhode Island tax out of a receipt

Because there is a single rate, you can work backwards from any fully taxable total by dividing it by 1.07. A $53.50 receipt is $50.00 of goods plus $3.50 of tax.

Mixed receipts need more care. If a $320 shopping trip includes a $280 jacket and $40 of groceries, the only taxable amount is the $30 of the jacket over the threshold. That is $2.10 of tax. Dividing the total by 1.07 would wrongly suggest about $20.93.