Maine runs one of the simplest sales-tax systems in the United States — one statewide rate, zero local add-ons — but it hides a detail that trips up both tourists and short-term-rental hosts: the rate depends on what you are buying. General goods pay 5.5%, restaurant and prepared food 8%, a hotel bed or Airbnb night 9%, and a rental car 10%, while grocery staples and prescription medicine pay nothing. This calculator applies the correct rate for the category you pick, in either add-tax or remove-tax direction.
The full rate table
| Category | Maine rate | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| General tangible goods | 5.5% | Clothing, electronics, furniture |
| Prepared food | 8% | Restaurant meals, deli hot food, catering |
| Lodging | 9% | Hotels, motels, short-term vacation rentals, nightly campsites |
| Short-term auto rental (< 1 year) | 10% | Rental cars, car-share by the day |
| Grocery staples | Exempt | Unprepared food for home consumption |
| Prescription drugs | Exempt | Pharmacy prescriptions |
The rates are set in statute (36 M.R.S. §1811) and published by Maine Revenue Services; because no municipality may add its own sales tax, they apply identically in Portland, Bangor, and the smallest township.
The arithmetic, both directions
add-tax mode: tax = price × rate total = price + tax
remove-tax mode: pre-tax = total ÷ (1 + rate) tax = total − pre-taxRemove mode is the one bookkeepers reach for: given a $216 receipt for a catered lunch, dividing by 1.08 recovers the $200 pre-tax price and $16 of tax for the expense report.
Worked examples
- $200 restaurant bill (prepared food, 8%): tax $16.00 → total $216.00
- $200 television (general, 5.5%): tax $11.00 → total $211.00
- $200/night hotel room (lodging, 9%): tax $18.00 → total $218.00
- $200 weekend car rental (10%): tax $20.00 → total $220.00
- $200 of grocery staples: exempt → total $200.00
Same money, five different outcomes — the category, not the amount, is the decision that matters in Maine.
Where the category lines actually fall
Prepared food vs. groceries. The boundary is readiness to eat. A supermarket deli’s hot sandwich is prepared food at 8%; the same store’s packaged cold cuts are exempt staples. Catering is prepared food. Candy, soft drinks, and many snack items fail the “staple” definition and are taxable even though they are sold in a grocery aisle — Maine’s staple-food exemption is narrower than most shoppers assume.
Lodging. The 9% rate covers hotels, motels, B&Bs, nightly campsites, and — significantly since the Airbnb era — casual short-term rentals: private hosts renting out a cottage or spare room must register and collect the 9% just like a hotel, unless a marketplace platform collects it for them. Continuous stays beyond 28 days generally fall out of the lodging tax.
Auto rentals. The 10% rate applies to passenger-vehicle rentals of under one year. Loaner arrangements and peer-to-peer car-sharing platforms fall under the same rate.
Digital goods and streaming. Maine extended its 5.5% tax to many digital products and streaming services in recent legislation — sellers of digital subscriptions into Maine should check the current guidance rather than assume the pre-digital exemption still holds.
Use tax: the mirror image
Buy a taxable item from a seller who does not collect Maine tax — a small out-of-state web shop, a private import — and you owe use tax at the same rate, reportable on your Maine income tax return (the return includes a convenient safe-harbor table based on income). Since the Wayfair decision, remote sellers above Maine’s economic-nexus threshold must register and collect, so most large online purchases already arrive taxed.
Notes for businesses
Registered retailers collect at the point of sale and remit to Maine Revenue Services on a monthly, quarterly, or annual schedule assigned by volume. Maine offers no vendor collection discount — what you collect is what you remit, to the cent. Mixed sellers (a store with groceries, prepared food, and general goods) must keep category-accurate records, because a single register total cannot be decomposed at filing time. And watch the boundary cases above: misclassifying lodging at 8% instead of 9% — an easy mistake since the two special rates sit close together — is a recurring audit finding for small hospitality operators.
New England context
New Hampshire next door charges no general sales tax at all, which is why Maine border retailers watch pricing carefully; Vermont charges 6% plus local-option add-ons; Massachusetts 6.25%. Maine’s 5.5% base is the lowest general rate in New England among states that levy one — but its 9% lodging and 8% meals rates are squarely aimed at visitors, a deliberate export of tax burden to tourism.
Sources
Estimate only. Classification questions (staple vs. prepared, lodging duration) are fact-specific — verify against Maine Revenue Services guidance. All math runs locally in your browser.