Arkansas’ grocery sales tax will end on Jan. 1.
The same is true in Illinois.
In Kansas and Oklahoma, shoppers stopped having to pay a state sales tax on groceries in January and August, respectively. Now fewer and fewer U.S. states continue to charge the tax, including Missouri and South Dakota, and several states have proposed legislation to do away with it.
Some worry about the lost state revenue without the taxes. But supporters on both sides of the political spectrum say the cuts are needed — especially as shoppers face expensive prices at the grocery store.
“Even with inflation cooling off, every dollar counts, so I’m proud we’re doing what we can to make trips to the grocery store a little easier,” said Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, a Democrat, when he signed the state’s bill in August 2024. “It’s one more important part of lifting the burden on Illinois families.”
Republican Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders in Arkansas had a similar message earlier this year.
The amount of sales tax shoppers pay ranges from state to state. Arkansas’ state grocery tax is the nation’s lowest, at one eighth of a penny on the dollar. Meanwhile, Mississippi is one of the few states where groceries are taxed at the state’s full sales tax rate, in this case 7% – but legislation passed this year will lower that rate to 5% in July.
