Why Alaska has no state sales tax but still taxes most sales in its towns, how the cities and boroughs set their own rates, caps and seasons, and what one registration with the Remote Seller Sales Tax Commission covers.
Alaska has no state sales tax, but it is not a sales-tax-free state. The State Assessor puts it plainly: “There is no statewide sales tax levied.” The tax is set locally instead. On the remote seller rate table effective September 1, 2026, combined city and borough rates run from 2% to 9.5%, while Anchorage and Fairbanks, the two largest cities, charge no general sales tax at all.
That split makes Alaska the hardest state to summarize in one number. Each city or borough writes its own code, so the rate can change with the season, stop at a cap on the price of a single item, or exempt groceries for some months of the year. The Kenai Peninsula Borough taxes only the first $500 of a sale. Juneau raises its single-item cap from $15,000 to $50,000 on October 1, 2026. Sitka and Ketchikan charge more in summer than in winter.
Sellers outside the state deal with one body rather than dozens. Since 2019 more than 50 taxing towns have joined the Alaska Remote Seller Sales Tax Commission, which runs a single registration, a single return and a single rate table for its members. This guide explains how that system works, where it stops, and what a business based in Alaska does instead.
01 · Snapshot: Alaska sales tax at a glance
Every figure here is restated, with its source, in the section that deals with it.
| ITEM | ALASKA |
| Remote seller threshold | $100,000 of gross sales delivered into Alaska, statewide, in the current or previous calendar year. The 200-transaction test was repealed on January 1, 2025 |
| State sales tax | None. The State of Alaska levies no general sales or use tax |
| Who levies it | Cities and boroughs, each under its own code; no statutory limit on the rate |
| Combined rates | 2% to 9.5% on the Commission’s rate table effective September 1, 2026 |
| Highest combined rate on that table | 9.5% in Seldovia from April 1 to September 30: 6.5% city plus 3% Kenai Peninsula Borough |
| Anchorage and Fairbanks | No general sales tax in either city or in the Fairbanks North Star Borough |
| Juneau | 5%; single-item cap of $15,000, rising to $50,000 on October 1, 2026 |
| Remote seller authority | Alaska Remote Seller Sales Tax Commission (ARSSTC): one registration and one return for all member towns |
| When to register | Within 30 calendar days of meeting the threshold; no registration fee |
| Marketplace facilitators | Treated as the remote seller for facilitated sales; those sales still count toward the marketplace seller’s own threshold |
| Software, SaaS and digital goods | Taxable remote sales under Commission Interpretation 2021.03, sourced to the buyer’s billing address |
| Caps and seasons | Common. Examples: Kenai Peninsula Borough taxes the first $500 of a sale; Sitka 6% in summer, 5% in winter |
| Groceries | Taxable unless the local code exempts them; Juneau exempts food for residents, the Kenai Peninsula Borough from September to May |
| Resale certificate | Remote sellers buying for resale apply through the Commission; the certificate expires on December 31 |
| Businesses based in Alaska | Register and file with each city or borough where they have a physical presence; state business license $50 a year |
| Remote returns | Monthly, due the last day of the following month; quarterly on application if eligible |
| Remote penalties | 5% a month up to 20%, a $25 late-filing fee each month up to $100, interest at 15% a year; three years to assess |
| Voluntary disclosure | Commission program: 36-month look-back, nothing before January 1, 2023; penalties and fees waived, interest due |
02 · 60-second self-check
Six questions. A yes to any of them sends you to the track that deals with it.
| QUESTION | IF YES |
| Did your deliveries into Alaska reach $100,000 in 2025 or so far in 2026, counting exempt sales and sales to towns with no tax? | Register with the Commission within 30 days of crossing. Read Track 1 or Track 2. |
| Do you sell only through a marketplace that collects for you? | File the marketplace seller affidavit instead of registering. Read Track 3. |
| Should you have registered in an earlier year? | Read 3.4: the Commission’s voluntary disclosure program looks back 36 months. |
| Are subscriptions, software or downloads part of what you sell? | They are taxable remote sales in member towns. Read Track 3. |
| Is your store, stock or staff in an Alaska town that levies sales tax? | You file with that town directly, not only with the Commission. Read Track 4. |
| Buying goods in Alaska to resell them? | Use a municipal resale certificate, or the Commission’s if you have no presence there. Read Track 4. |
03 · Track 1: Sellers based in another US state
Written for the tax or finance lead at a US company outside Alaska that ships goods or sells services into the state.
3.1 One test, measured across the whole state
The rules for remote sellers are not state law. They sit in the Alaska Remote Seller Sales Tax Code, a uniform code that each member city or borough adopts by ordinance, and they are administered by the Commission those members set up by intergovernmental agreement in 2019. Under section 040 of the Code, a seller must collect once its “statewide gross sales, including the seller’s marketplace facilitator’s statewide gross sales” delivered in the state meet or exceed $100,000 in the current or previous calendar year.
The word statewide does the work. The Commission’s seller FAQ says the count takes in all transactions “regardless if the transactions are in a taxing community or are tax exempt”. Sales to customers in Anchorage, where no sales tax applies, count toward the $100,000 just as sales to Juneau do. So do exempt sales. A seller can therefore cross the threshold with very little taxable business in member towns.
The test is now revenue only. The Commission repealed the transaction threshold and “the effective date of the repeal is January 1, 2025.” A seller with many small orders and less than $100,000 in revenue is no longer caught, and one that fell below $100,000 in 2024 could close its registration.
3.2 Physical presence
Any seller with a store, office, stock or employees in a taxing town is not a remote seller there. It deals with that town’s own sales tax office for sales made within the town, as the Commission’s FAQ confirms: “The seller will continue to file locally for all sales made within their jurisdiction where they have physical presence.” Its deliveries to other member towns go through the Commission. The Commission’s Interpretation 2026.01, approved on December 17, 2025, addresses how work done through subcontractors bears on physical presence.
3.3 Registering with the Commission
Registration is online through the Commission’s seller portal and costs nothing. Section 090 of the Code requires it “within thirty (30) calendar days of meeting the Threshold Criteria”, with an extension of up to 90 days where a seller needs time to set up its software. One registration covers every member town. As of August 26, 2026, the member list shows more than 50 cities and boroughs collecting through the Commission, with five more that have joined but not yet adopted the Code.
Returns are “due monthly; quarterly or less frequent filing is optional upon application and approval.” Monthly returns are due on the last day of the following month, and a return is required even when no tax is due. The Commission’s filing frequency guidelines allow quarterly filing for a seller with less than $100,000 of taxable sales into member towns in the preceding 12 months, and annual filing for one whose Alaska sales were all exempt. Our sales tax registration service can handle the application.
A remote seller should also look at the state business license. The Division of Corporations says the requirement “is based on business activity; it is not based upon whether you have a physical presence” in the state, in its business licensing FAQ. The license costs $50 a year.
3.4 If you should already have been collecting: voluntary disclosure
The Commission runs a voluntary disclosure program for remote sellers who never registered. The “lookback period is 36 months from date of application”, and it does not reach back before January 1, 2023. The program waives all late payment penalties and late filing fees, but “interest will not be subject to waiver.” An applicant must never have registered or filed with the Commission, must not have been contacted by it about enforcement, and must not have collected the tax from customers. The application goes to the Commission by email, and the agreement has to be signed within 30 calendar days of it.
The alternative is expensive. Outside the program, the Code charges a penalty of 5% of the tax for each month late, up to 20%, a $25 late-filing fee for each month up to $100 per return, and interest at 15% a year, and the Commission has three years from the due date to assess. A sales tax exposure analysis sizes the back liability town by town before you apply, and a nexus assessment shows which other states the same sales have reached.
04 · Track 2: Sellers based outside the United States
A non-US retailer shipping goods to Alaska customers, worked through one fictional example. Read this if you are its owner or finance director.
The Code draws no line between US and foreign sellers. What matters for a seller abroad is that the town, not the state, decides the rate and the base, so the same product carries a different tax at each delivery address.
4.1 Worked example: Klondike Trail Outfitters Ltd.
Klondike Trail Outfitters is a Canadian company in Whitehorse, Yukon, that sells outdoor clothing online and ships by courier. It has no premises, stock or staff in Alaska. In calendar year 2025 it delivered $140,000 of goods to Alaska customers: $90,000 to addresses in Commission member towns and $50,000 to Anchorage, Fairbanks and other places with no sales tax.
| STEP | KLONDIKE TRAIL OUTFITTERS’ POSITION |
| 1. Measure the threshold | $140,000 statewide meets the $100,000 test. The $50,000 sent to places with no sales tax still counts |
| 2. Register | One registration with the Commission, within 30 calendar days of meeting the threshold |
| 3. Filing frequency | Monthly by default. With $90,000 of taxable sales into member towns, under $100,000, it may apply to file quarterly |
| 4. Rate and cap | Taken from the Commission’s rate table and tax cap sheet for each delivery address |
| 5. State business license | The Division of Corporations bases the license on business activity rather than presence; confirm with the Division |
Now follow one $650 parka to four addresses. In Anchorage the tax is nil. In Juneau it is $32.50: 5% of $650, well under the city’s cap. In Homer the combined rate is 7.85%, but the Commission’s cap sheet taxes only the first $500 of the sale, so the tax is $39.25. On an address in the Kenai Peninsula Borough outside any city, the borough’s 3% applies to the first $500 only, and the tax is $15. Four customers, one product, four answers, and two of the four depend on a cap rather than a rate.
Two changes would alter the picture. If Klondike opened a shop in Skagway, it would register with the Municipality of Skagway for sales made there and file those locally, while its shipments to other towns stayed with the Commission. And if it sold only through a marketplace that collects Alaska tax, it would file the marketplace seller affidavit rather than register at all. For a Shopify store, our Shopify integration applies the rate for each delivery address.
05 · Track 3: Marketplaces, software, caps and seasons
For operators: marketplace sellers, platform builders, subscription businesses and anyone whose tax engine has to cope with Alaska’s local rules.
5.1 Marketplace facilitators
Under section 050 of the Code, a marketplace facilitator “is considered the remote seller for each sale facilitated through its marketplace” and collects, reports and remits the tax. A seller whose Alaska sales all run through such a marketplace does not register; it files a marketplace seller affidavit instead. A seller that also sells through its own website counts both channels toward the $100,000, because the threshold includes the facilitator’s sales on its behalf. Since January 1, 2025, delivery network companies and lodging and travel marketplaces are outside the facilitator rule.
Juneau goes further from October 1, 2026. Its Ordinance 2026-22, linked from the City’s sales tax information page, delegates the collection of tax on all marketplace-facilitated sales in Juneau to the Commission, whether the underlying seller is local or remote.
5.2 Software, SaaS and digital products
The Code taxes more than goods. Its definitions cover a digital good as “any product delivered electronically” and a digital service as one that uses software applications. The Commission’s Interpretation 2021.03, approved on June 22, 2021, treats software downloads, specified digital products, SaaS, streaming and subscriptions as taxable remote sales. For electronic delivery it takes “the point of delivery of the sale to be the billing address of the buyer”, so a subscription billed to a Juneau address is taxed at Juneau’s rate. Each member’s own exemptions and caps still apply. For the position in other states, see our state-by-state SaaS guide.
5.3 Caps: the rule that changes the answer
Many Alaska towns tax only part of a large sale. Wasilla collects its 2.5% “on the first $500 of a sale creating a $12.50 tax cap”, according to its sales tax page. The Kenai Peninsula Borough taxes the first $500 of each separate sale. Palmer taxes the first $1,000, Kodiak caps the taxable amount at $3,000 a transaction and Sitka at $12,000 a sale. Juneau’s single-item and single-service cap rises from $15,000 to $50,000 on October 1, 2026, while cars priced at $50,000 or less keep the $15,000 cap.
Caps are written per item, per service or per transaction, and a town can use one and not the others. The Commission publishes them on a separate sheet of its rate table, and that sheet, not the headline rate, is what a tax engine has to read.
5.4 Seasonal rates and nested towns
Several towns charge a higher rate in the tourist season. The Commission lists them in its seasonal rates notice. Ketchikan’s combined rate is 8.0% from April 1 to September 30 and 5.5% from October 1 to March 31, on the borough’s sales tax page. Sitka charges 6% in summer and 5% in winter. Seldovia’s city rate is 6.5% from April 1 to September 30, which with the borough’s 3% makes 9.5%, the highest combined figure on the Commission’s September table. The Haines townsite has charged 7.0% in summer and 4.5% in winter since January 1, 2026, as the borough’s seasonal tax page explains.
Cities inside a taxing borough add their rate to the borough’s. Homer’s total is 7.85%: 4.85% for the city and 3% for the Kenai Peninsula Borough, as the City of Homer explains. In the Matanuska-Susitna Borough the pattern is different: the borough levies no general sales tax, so Palmer’s 4% and Wasilla’s 2.5% stand alone. Our US sales tax calculator works from the address.
5.5 Cruise ships and bullion
Juneau extends its tax to sales on cruise ships throughout Juneau’s waters from October 1, 2026, and exempts precious-metal coins and bullion from August 28, 2026. Both come from ordinances the Assembly adopted in 2026, summarized on the City’s sales tax information page.
06 · Track 4: Businesses based in Alaska
Licenses, certificates and local returns, seen from the desk of the owner or bookkeeper of a business trading in Alaska.
6.1 The state business license
Almost every business in Alaska needs a state business license. Under AS 43.70.030 the fee is $50 a year, with a two-year license available for $100 under the regulations, as the Division’s statute compilation and fee schedule show. A license runs to the end of the calendar year in which it is issued, and doing business without one can bring a civil fine of up to $300. The license is not a sales tax registration. It gives no authority to collect or exempt tax.
6.2 Registering with each town
The sales tax registration happens locally. A business with a store in Juneau “must register with the sales tax administrator before making sales”, in the words of the City and Borough of Juneau. The Kenai Peninsula Borough requires every business to register, and one expecting less than $2,500 of gross sales can file an affidavit instead. Failing to register there carries a civil penalty of up to $1,000. A business with shops in two taxing towns registers twice, and if it also ships to other member towns it registers with the Commission for those deliveries.
6.3 Resale and exemption certificates
Resale exemptions are local too. Juneau exempts sales for resale only against a valid City and Borough of Juneau resale certificate. The Kenai Peninsula Borough issues its own resale certificate for a fee, valid for the calendar year, and refuses it to sellers who are not in full compliance. A buyer with no physical presence in the taxing town applies for the Commission’s resale certificate, which expires at the end of the calendar year. The Commission’s Interpretation 2020.09 says it “shall be honored by all sellers throughout Alaska.” Other exemptions are certified by each member, and the Commission keeps an exemption certificate directory of them. Our certificate management service collects and tracks certificates by customer and town.
6.4 Returns, penalties and interest
Each town sets its own calendar. In Juneau, quarterly filing is the default, returns are due on the last day of the month after the period, a seller with under $20,000 of annual gross sales may file once a year, and a quarterly filer that collects more than $1,000 in a month makes a deposit by the 15th. The late-filing penalty is $25, late payment costs 5% a month up to 25%, and since Ordinance 2026-20 took effect in July 2026, interest is a fixed 12% a year.
Returns in the Kenai Peninsula Borough are quarterly too, and they are “due one month and one day after the filing period ends”, so the quarter to June 30 is due by August 1. Its code charges 5% a month up to 10% and interest at 10% a year. Both Juneau and the borough have three years from the original due date to adjust a return. Our sales tax filing service files each local return and the Commission return on their own calendars.
6.5 Catching up on local returns
The Commission’s disclosure program covers remote sales only. We found no published voluntary disclosure program at Juneau or the Kenai Peninsula Borough. Juneau does allow a request to waive penalties within 60 days, and the Commission allows one penalty waiver per calendar year on a written request within 45 days with full payment. A business behind on local returns negotiates with each town, which is where a specialist representative earns its fee.
6.6 Use tax, vehicles and selling the business
A town may levy a use tax on goods bought elsewhere and brought in, and the State Assessor notes that “the rate must equal the sales tax rate”, on its sales tax information page. There is no state tax on vehicle purchases. The DMV collects a municipal motor vehicle registration tax, set by the borough or city of residence, not a sales tax, as its 2026 schedule shows. Local sales tax on a car bought from a dealer in a taxing town follows that town’s cap.
Buying a business brings its tax debts with it. Juneau requires the seller to file a final return within 15 days of the sale and states that “the buyer will be liable for any unpaid tax, penalty and interest.” In the Kenai Peninsula Borough the buyer of an ongoing business is liable too, but can ask the borough for a written statement of the amount owed, which caps that liability; the borough has 15 days to reply.
07 · Cross-track essentials: a state tax that does not exist
7.1 Why the rate is set town by town
Alaska’s cities and boroughs tax sales under their own powers, and the 2024 edition of Alaska Taxable, the State Assessor’s report on local taxes, notes that “by statute, there are no limits on the rate of levy for sales or use taxes.” Each town decides its rate, base, exemptions, caps and seasons, and changes them by ordinance or by vote. The Commission posts each change in its notifications library.
7.2 Where there is no sales tax
Anchorage has no general sales tax. The Assembly postponed the most recent proposal, a 3% tax intended for the April 2026 ballot, indefinitely on January 13, 2026, according to the Municipality of Anchorage. The City of Fairbanks and the Fairbanks North Star Borough levy taxes on alcohol, tobacco, marijuana and rooms but no general sales tax, although North Pole, inside the borough, charges 5.5%. Large areas of the state lie outside any taxing town.
7.3 What the state does tax
The state’s own consumption taxes are narrow excise taxes. Passenger vehicle rentals carry a state rental tax of 9%, or 7% when arranged through a rental platform, and recreational vehicle rentals 3%. Cigarettes are taxed at $2.00 a pack. Neither is a sales tax, and neither is collected through the Commission.
7.4 How it compares
Alaska is the mirror image of Rhode Island, which has one 7% rate and no local taxes. A seller used to Illinois or California will recognize the local layers, but not the caps, the seasons or the idea that a remote seller’s registration is with an association of towns rather than a state department.
08 · Recent changes and the road ahead
November 2019: the uniform code
Member towns adopted the Remote Seller Sales Tax Code and set up the Commission to run it.
June 22, 2021: digital goods and SaaS
Interpretation 2021.03 confirmed that software, SaaS, streaming and subscriptions are taxable remote sales.
January 1, 2023: disclosure window
The voluntary disclosure program covers no period before this date.
January 1, 2025: revenue-only threshold
The 200-transaction test was repealed, and delivery, lodging and travel marketplaces left the facilitator rule.
November 20, 2025: Juneau food exemption
Juneau residents stopped paying sales tax on food for home consumption and on residential utilities, after voters approved Proposition 2.
January 1, 2026: Nome and Haines
Nome’s rate rose from 5% to 6%, and Haines moved to seasonal rates of 7.0% and 4.5%.
April 1, 2026: Palmer
Palmer’s rate rose from 3% to 4%, charged on the first $1,000 of a sale.
October 1, 2026: Juneau cap and marketplaces
Juneau’s single-item cap rises to $50,000, marketplace sales pass to the Commission, and cruise-ship sales are taxed throughout Juneau’s waters.
October 6, 2026: Juneau vote
Juneau votes on renewing its temporary 3% sales tax and on a seasonal-rate initiative; the election page has the propositions. The result decides whether the 5% rate in this guide still holds.
January 1, 2027: Soldotna
Soldotna’s rate changes on this date, under a notice published by the Kenai Peninsula Borough.
Proposed, not enacted: a state sales tax
The Governor’s SB 227 would have created a statewide 2% sales tax, rising to 4% from April to September. It was heard and held in Senate Resources on February 6, 2026.
How TaxDo handles Alaska sales tax, from A to Z
Alaska has no statewide sales tax, but its towns do, and a seller that owes tax here usually owes it elsewhere too. TaxDo combines a specialized sales tax team with an automated compliance platform, and covers the whole cycle in every state in four steps, in this order, because each one needs the one before it.
Step 1 · Monitor exposure. The platform tracks your deliveries into each state against that state’s own test, including Alaska’s statewide $100,000 measured across taxing and non-taxing towns alike, and flags a threshold before you cross it. A nexus assessment sets the starting position.
Step 2 · Resolve the past, then register. Where a threshold was crossed in an earlier year, we quantify the exposure and negotiate a voluntary disclosure agreement with each state; in Alaska that means the Commission’s 36-month program, and direct settlement with any town where you trade. We then complete the registrations with the Commission and with each town.
Step 3 · Automate collection and certificates. Use the platform on its own or connect it to your accounting system, ERP, sales platform or e-commerce channel, and it calculates sales tax live in every state, including Alaska’s local rates, caps and seasons. Certificate management is automated too, with municipal and Commission resale certificates tracked to year end.
Step 4 · File, and defend. We prepare and file the Commission return and each local return on their own calendars, and every other state’s alongside them. If a town or state opens an audit, our team handles it on your behalf, from records to resolution.
One specialized team and one platform, from registration to audit, in every state you sell into. For the national picture, see our US sales tax guide for 2026 and the state-by-state hub.
9· Primary sources and official references
All retrieved on September 23, 2026.
- Alaska Remote Seller Sales Tax Code, as amended July 2024: threshold, marketplaces, returns, penalties
- ARSSTC: Threshold change for sellers: transaction test repealed from January 1, 2025
- ARSSTC: FAQs for sellers: statewide measurement, local filing, resale certificate
- ARSSTC: Member jurisdictions: collecting and pending members, August 26, 2026
- ARSSTC: Tax rates: rate sheets and cap sheet effective September 1, 2026
- ARSSTC Interpretation 2021.03: digital goods, SaaS and subscriptions
- ARSSTC: Voluntary Disclosure Agreement: 36-month look-back, penalty and fee waiver
- ARSSTC: Filing frequency guidelines: quarterly and annual filing
- Office of the State Assessor: Alaska Taxable 2024: municipal taxation rates and policies
- Division of Corporations: Business licensing FAQ: license based on business activity
- City and Borough of Juneau: Business registration and sales tax: rate, returns, successor liability
- Kenai Peninsula Borough: Sales tax code: $500 cap, returns, penalties, resale certificates
- Municipality of Anchorage: Tax reform proposals: sales tax proposals postponed
- Department of Revenue: Spring 2026 revenue forecast: fiscal year 2026 unrestricted revenue
This guide summarizes the Alaska Remote Seller Sales Tax Code, the guidance of the Alaska Remote Seller Sales Tax Commission, the municipal codes of the towns named, and the Alaska business license law (AS 43.70) as they stood on September 25, 2026. It is general information, not legal or tax advice. Local rates, caps and exemptions change often; confirm the position for your facts with an Alaska-licensed CPA or tax attorney, the Commission or the town concerned before acting.
Prepared by the TaxDo Tax & Regulatory Advisory Team
