Article — Ohio Sales Tax Calculator
The Ohio Sales Tax Calculator, by county
Ohio charges a 5.75% state sales tax plus a county add-on of 0.75% to 2.25%, with regional transit authorities (mainly COTA in Columbus and RTA in Cleveland) sometimes layering on another 1.00%. Combined rates run from 6.50% in Greene and Stark counties to 8.00% in Franklin and Cuyahoga, the two highest in the state.
Ohio uses destination-based sourcing: the rate is set by where the buyer takes delivery, not where the seller is located. A book mailed from a Cleveland warehouse to a buyer in Cincinnati pays Hamilton County's 7.80% rate, not Cuyahoga's 8.00%.
What is the Ohio sales tax rate?
The state portion of Ohio sales tax is a flat 5.75%, unchanged since 2013. Counties add a local rate ranging from 0.75% (Greene, Stark) up to 2.25% (Cuyahoga). In Franklin County, the Central Ohio Transit Authority (COTA) adds a 1.00% transit levy on top of the county's 1.25%, taking Columbus to 8.00%. In Cuyahoga, the RTA portion is built into the 2.25% county rate.
Ohio funds its public transit largely through sales tax — one of the few states to do so. COTA gets 100% of its dedicated revenue from the Franklin County levy that 87% of voters renewed in 2006, with an increase approved in 2024.
The Ohio sales tax formula
Sales tax in Ohio stacks: the state rate plus the local rate, applied to the pre-tax purchase amount.
Combined = 5.75% + County + TransitTax = Price × CombinedTotal = Price + TaxPre-tax = Total / (1 + Combined)Worked example. A $1,000 appliance in Columbus (Franklin County, 8.00%): tax = $1,000 × 0.08 = $80.00; final price = $1,080. The same appliance in Beavercreek (Greene County, 6.50%) costs $1,065 final — a $15 swing on a $1,000 ticket from a one-county move.
Ohio sales tax by county
Ohio has 88 counties and the combined rate spans a 150-basis-point range. The two highest are tied at 8.00%, the lowest pair at 6.50%.
- Franklin = 8.00% (Columbus, COTA transit)
- Cuyahoga = 8.00% (Cleveland)
- Hamilton = 7.80% (Cincinnati)
- Lucas = 7.75% (Toledo)
- Montgomery = 7.50% (Dayton)
- Mahoning = 7.50% (Youngstown)
- Summit = 7.00% (Akron)
- Butler = 7.00% (Hamilton)
- Greene = 6.50% (Beavercreek/Xenia)
- Stark = 6.50% (Canton)
Ohio sales tax exemptions
Most personal essentials are exempt. Groceries (unprepared food for home consumption) carry no Ohio sales tax. Prescription drugs and many durable medical goods are exempt. Residential utilities — electricity, gas, water — are exempt for owner-occupied homes.
The line between exempt and taxable food trips up shoppers. A rotisserie chicken from the deli case is taxable because it's prepared; a raw chicken from the cold case is not. Candy and soda are taxable even though they are food. Dietary supplements are taxable; vitamins prescribed by a doctor for a deficiency are not.
Cold deli sandwiches, hot rotisserie chicken, salad-bar plates, and food eaten on-premises are taxable at the full combined rate. Only unprepared groceries sold for home consumption are exempt.
Ohio use tax and online purchases
Use tax is the mirror of sales tax. When you buy something out-of-state and the seller did not collect Ohio sales tax, you owe the same combined rate as if you had bought it locally. Since the Supreme Court's 2018 Wayfair decision, most online retailers with more than $100,000 in Ohio sales (or 200+ transactions) collect Ohio sales tax automatically.
Buyers who owe unreported use tax can settle up on the Ohio individual income tax return (form IT 1040, line 21) or through the Department of Taxation's consumer use-tax form. The state has run periodic amnesty programs for use-tax debts but does enforce against large balances.
Ohio sales tax changes in 2025
The biggest 2025 change came in Columbus. On April 1, 2025, the Central Ohio Transit Authority levy in Franklin County rose from 0.50% to 1.00% after voters approved Issue 47 in November 2024. The increase pushed Franklin County's combined rate from 7.50% to 8.00%, tying Cuyahoga for the state's highest. The half-point bump generates roughly $200 million per year in dedicated transit funding for the LinkUS bus-rapid-transit program.
Outside Columbus, county rates were largely stable through 2025. A handful of counties run rate-renewal ballots in odd-year elections; check the Ohio Department of Taxation rate file at the start of each quarter (January, April, July, October) for changes. Sales tax holidays are also a moving target: Ohio held a back-to-school holiday in August 2024 with an expanded scope, and the legislature has discussed making it permanent.
If you run a business that ships across Ohio counties, automate destination-based rate lookups against the Department of Taxation's monthly rate file. Manual entry is the fastest way to underpay (or overcharge) sales tax.
Common Ohio sales tax mistakes
Treating the 5.75% state rate as the final answer is the most common error. The combined rate is what the customer pays; in major metros it is closer to 8%. For a $500 ticket, that's the difference between $28.75 and $40 in tax — a $11.25 miss on a routine purchase.
Shoppers also miss the rotisserie-chicken trap and the supplement trap. If the item is prepared (heated, sliced, or assembled for immediate consumption), it's taxable. Multivitamins and protein powders are taxable. Energy drinks too, even when shelved with the soda exemption-eligible bottled water. Soft drinks with more than 50% real juice content are exempt; the rest are not.
Businesses sometimes apply origin-based sourcing (the seller's rate) instead of destination-based. Ohio has used destination sourcing for nearly all intra-state sales since 2010; using the wrong county rate will surface on a state audit. The Ohio Department of Taxation publishes a monthly rate file by ZIP code that point-of-sale systems can import to avoid manual lookups.
A fourth trap is the casual seller exemption. Ohio exempts occasional sales by an individual (a yard sale, a one-off Craigslist transaction), but the moment those sales become a regular activity the seller owes a vendor's license and tax collection. The threshold is qualitative — frequency and intent matter more than a dollar number.