On this page we are describing the sales taxes in the State of Arkansas, we aim to educate you on the differences that occur throughout the state so you get a better understanding of it in regards to whether you may have:

  • Have taken a new job in the are
  • Applied for a new school
  • Opened a new bank account in the state of Arkansas
  • People who may be unable to find their Social Security Card or have lost it.

What is the lowest and highest sales tax in Arkansas?

In the map of Arkansas that is pictured below there are a total of 75 countries that are within the state. You can go directly to the page and see which area has the highest and lowest sales tax in your county of choice.

Arkansas Ashley Baxter Benton Boone Bradley Calhoun Carroll Chicot Clark Clay Cleburne Cleveland Columbia Conway Craighead Crawford Crittenden Cross Dallas Desha Drew Faulkner Franklin Fulton Garland Grant Greene Hempstead Hot Spring Howard Independence Izard Jackson Jefferson Johnson Lafayette Lawrence Lee Lincoln Little River Logan Lonoke Madison Marion Miller Mississippi Monroe Montgomery Nevada Newton Ouachita Perry Phillips Pike Poinsett Polk Pope Prairie Pulaski Randolph St. Francis Saline Scott Searcy Sebastian Sevier Sharp Stone Union Van Buren Washington White Woodruff Yell
The state sales tax for businesses and so forth is a standard rate of 6.5% which allows the local government to be able to collect up to another 5% on top of this:

  • the average sales tax for the entirety of Arkansas is 8.62%,
  • the highest is within the Lincoln County that consists of Gould and this equates to 11.5% sales tax,
  • the lowest sales tax is in the Monroe County, which includes cities like Holly Grove, Roe and Monroe and the sales tax in these areas total to 6.5%

This is a brief overview, and we suggest that you go directly to the page if you wish to get a clearer image of the different ranges of sale tax in a particular county. Please note that the ones that have an asterisk means they are below the usual county level of sales tax.

How to calculate your own sales tax in the state of Arkansas.

So, what does this mean for you, if you are looking into how much sales tax you are going to charged dependant on what sort of county you are residing or working out of. You can go ahead and use a sales tax calculator which will give you a section that is exampled below.

$
-or- Specify Sales Tax Rate
-or- Specify ZIP Code
%

 

You do need to know the purchase ZIP code and purchase amount in order to get an accurate figure. For an example we will use the amount of $500 and see what the ranges could be from the highest area to the lowest.

In Gould, AR with the highest sales tax of 11.5% would mean that your $500 purchase would incur a $57.5 sales tax, taking the total amount to $557.5.

Whereas in Little Rock, AR the sales tax is only 8.625% and a $500 purchase would equate to $43.125 tax, taking the total to $543.125.

The sales tax calculator makes it as easy as it can be to find out what sort of sales tax you will be charged by simply adding the amount and the ZIP code. Though there might be some purchases that are exempt from sales taxes or have some special leniency which do need to be taken into consideration.

City Sales Tax Rate Zip-code Population
Little Rock 9.00% 72201, 72202, 72203, 72204, 72205, 72207, 72209, 72211, 72212, 72214, 72215, 72216, 72217, 72219, 72221, 72222, 72223, 72225, 72227, 72260 138093
Springdale 9.75% 72762, 72764, 72765, 72766 62299
Fort Smith 9.75% 72901, 72902, 72903, 72904, 72905, 72906, 72908, 72913, 72914, 72917, 72918, 72919 61486
Fayetteville 9.75% 72701, 72702, 72703, 72704 58529
Hot Springs National Park 9.50% 71901, 71902, 71903, 71913, 71914 56106
Rogers 9.50% 72756, 72757, 72758 55059
Jonesboro 8.50% 72401, 72402, 72403, 72404 54825
Conway 9.13% 72032, 72033, 72034, 72035 54013
North Little Rock 9.50% 72114, 72115, 72116, 72117, 72118, 72119, 72124, 72190 53982

Pine Bluff

10.00% 71601, 71603 35774

Bentonville

9.50% 72712, 72716 32352

Jacksonville

9.50% 72076, 72078 30042

Cabot

10.00% 72023 28306

Paragould

8.63% 72450, 72451 26923

Texarkana

10.25% 71854 26511

Sherwood

9.50% 72120 26504

El Dorado

9.75% 71730, 71731 25893

Van Buren

9.25% 72956, 72957 25623

Searcy

9.75% 72143, 72145, 72149 24666

Bella Vista

9.50% 72714, 72715 23044

Benton

9.38% 72015, 72018 21984

West Memphis

9.75% 72301 18233

Blytheville

10.50% 72315, 72316 17582

Maumelle

9.50% 72113 17358

Batesville

8.00% 72501 17349

Malvern

8.00% 72104 16575

Siloam Springs

9.50% 72761 15283

Hot Springs Village

8.00% 71909, 71910 14704

Camden

10.75% 71701 14266

White Hall

10.00% 71602 13392

Russellville

9.00% 72801, 72811, 72812 13237

Marion

10.25% 72364 12808

Magnolia

10.38% 71753, 71754 11973

Greenbrier

7.00% 72058 11950

Bryant

9.88% 72022, 72089 11801

Greenwood

7.75% 72936 11509

Alexander

6.88% 72002 10934

Clarksville

7.50% 72830 10878

Hope

10.50% 71801 10772

Mena

9.50% 71953 10761

Arkadelphia

10.00% 71923, 71998, 71999 10677

Alma

7.75% 72921 10449

Wynne

10.50% 72396 10384

Mabelvale

6.88% 72103 10226

Why do I need to collect sales tax in Arkansas?

You will need to collect sales tax if you have any sort of nexus there, and what this means is that if you have assets that are physical or economic then you need to do this.

Physical meaning having a tangible activity or some sort of presence in any of the states of Arkansas, economic nexus is simply passing the states’ economic threshold for total revenue, or the maximum number of transactions that can occur in the period of time within the state.

Two easy ways to see if you have either a physical or economic nexus in any of the counties is the following:
Physical:

  • Tangible personal property
  • Business assets or property
  • Own, renting properties
  • Made more than $500,000 in a service or content delivery in the state

Economic:

  • Made more than $100,000 in sales annually
  • More than 200 transactions in the last calendar year

How do I get a sales tax permit?

The main way to go about this is to register online at the Arkansas Business Gateway. Follow the steps that are presented to you and ensure that you have the following to hand to use as information:

  • Business identification information
  • Business entity
  • Location/s that you will be conducting this from
  • Date you will start collecting Arkansas sales tax from a business/property
  • NAICS Code (North American Industry Classification System.)

What is the best way to file sales taxes?

Before you think of doing anything else there are three things that we recommend that you do in order to make this process as easy and smooth as possible.

First of all, find out how much tax you owe (remember the sales tax calculator we mentioned before) so that you know how much you need to pay the state at the end. Second is get onto the Arkansas Department Of Taxation ready to submit them, and third have the money ready so you can make the payment straight away.

There are two main options as well to filing and paying your Arkansas sales tax, these are:

  • Filing online. This is where merchants are required to file all of their sales taxes through the department of taxation in the state of Arkansas, you can also pay your taxes on this platform, so it is one to keep close to you for future reference.
  • Filing by mail. Simply fill out the form UST-1, but this is not the recommended way of filing your taxes due to the possibilities of them getting lost in the post and then it could mean that you are subject to late fees if they are not filed within the allotted time.

We hope this document was able to allow you to feel more confident when it comes to sales tax in the state of Arkansas depending on where you operate out of.