How Seattle's 10.35% rate is built
Includes Sound Transit (RTA) at about 1.40% plus King County and city taxes — among the highest big-city rates in the US. Groceries are exempt in Washington, and the state has no income tax: the high sales tax is the trade-off.
What you pay in Seattle — worked examples
| Purchase | Tax at 10.35% | Total |
|---|---|---|
| $25 | $2.59 | $27.59 |
| $100 | $10.35 | $110.35 |
| $500 | $51.75 | $551.75 |
| $1,000 | $103.50 | $1103.50 |
| $10,000 | $1035.00 | $11035.00 |
Seattle vs the Washington average
The average combined rate across Washington is about 9.38%, so Seattle at 10.35% is above the state norm by roughly 0.97 percentage points. On a $30,000 car (where vehicle tax rules allow the general rate), that gap alone is about $291 — one reason big purchases are planned around exact addresses, not state averages.
Seattle vs other major US cities
Seattle is the Washington city we track in detail. Against the extremes of the 30-city dataset:
| City | Combined rate | Tax on $1,000 |
|---|---|---|
| Seattle (this page) | 10.35% | $103.50 |
| Chicago — among the highest | 10.25% | $102.50 |
| Portland — among the lowest | 0% | $0.00 |
| Louisville — among the lowest | 6% | $60.00 |
| Average of the 30 tracked cities | 7.93% | $79.30 |
What this means in Seattle
The rate bites hardest on large, planned purchases. At 10.35%, a $10,000 purchase carries $1035.00 of tax — $97.00 more than the same purchase at the Washington average rate of 9.38%, and $374.00 more than at the all-state average of 6.61%. On everyday spending the difference is cents; on vehicles, appliances and furniture it decides where people choose to buy.
Day-to-day, the grocery exemption keeps the weekly food shop outside this rate in Washington — the 10.35% applies to general merchandise, electronics and prepared food. Budget the rate into non-food spending, not the food bill.
Calculate with your exact rate
District boundaries inside Seattle can shift the rate street by street. For an exact figure — or to extract tax from a tax-inclusive total — use the full calculator with your precise local rate: