Sales Tax

SALES TAX RATES

General 4.50%
Automotive 1.75%

Sales Tax is imposed on the retail sale of tangible personal property in Huntsville. Sales tax is collected by the seller from their customer and remitted directly to the City of Huntsville. All persons or businesses that sell tangible personal property at retail must collect tax and make payments to the City. It is unlawful for the seller to keep any portion of sales tax collected from customers.

For questions about Sales Tax, you should contact the City Finance Department at (256) 427-5080 or FinanceTax@huntsvilleal.gov.

It is the TAXPAYER’S RESPONSIBILITY (in the case of retail sales, it is the SELLER’S RESPONSIBILITY) to determine whether a transaction occurs in Huntsville.

In order to assist Huntsville businesses in determining whether their customers are located inside the city limits, please refer to the Huntsville Address Locator, which is a current listing of all addresses inside Huntsville.

For locations not having a postal address (such as new real estate developments), you should contact the City Planning Department for assistance at (256) 427-5100.

IMPORTANT NOTE: U.S. Post Office addresses do not indicate Huntsville’s geographic boundaries.

AUTOMOTIVE VEHICLE DEALERS

Automotive vehicle dealers are required to collect sales tax on the sale of all vehicles in the city. This does not apply to vehicles delivered outside Huntsville, “delivery” being defined by Alabama law. If a dealer delivers a vehicle outside Huntsville, the dealer is required to complete the State’s “Certificate of Exemption – Out of State/City/County Delivery” (“State Form”) for the sale to be exempt, which is available from the Alabama Department of Revenue.

The matter of delivery outside of Huntsville is complex and must comply with Alabama law concerning what constitutes delivery and passage of title. The DEALER IS RESPONSIBLE for determining whether a delivery location is inside or outside the city, and may refer to the Huntsville Address Locator for reference.

For the exemption to be accepted by the city, the dealer must submit the original or copy of all State Forms executed for the tax reporting period with the tax return for the period.

IMPORTANT NOTE: The State Form does not apply to sales to individuals or businesses having a Huntsville address according to the then applicable Huntsville Address Locator, regardless of the point of delivery. If such a sales is claimed as exempt by a dealer and the city discovers such, AND the city discovers the Madison County License Director did not collect the city sales tax from the buyer upon registration of the vehicle, the city will assess the sales tax on the sale to the dealer, plus a penalty for failure to pay the tax timely.

Also, if the city discovers from the buyer that the vehicle was not delivered outside the city, contrary to the State Form, the city will assess the sales tax on the sale to the dealer, plus a penalty for failure to pay the tax timely.

The city will assess sales tax on the sale to the buyer if the city finds the dealer properly exempted the sale but for other reasons finds the buyer owes the tax.