Yakima, Washington Sales Tax Rate

Agriculture (apples, hops, wine grapes), healthcare, food processing, and retail drive Yakima's economy. The city is the agricultural hub of Washington and a major center for hop production (used in craft beer), apple growing, and wine making.

The combined sales tax rate in Yakima is 8.500%, composed of the Washington state rate of 6.500% plus a local portion of 2.000%. On a receipt, that stacks up as: State 6.5% + Yakima County 0.5% + City of Yakima 1.5% = 8.5%.

The formula to calculate sales tax for any purchase:

For a $150.00 purchase in Yakima: tax is $12.75 ($150.00 × 0.08500), total is $162.75.

Yakima's agriculture and food processing sector buys exactly the goods Washington treats specially:

• Prescription Drugs: Exempt when prescribed by a licensed practitioner
• Medical Devices: Varies — often exempt when sold to licensed facility
• Prosthetics & Orthotics: Generally exempt when prescribed
• Oxygen & Respiratory Equipment: Typically exempt for home medical use
• Diabetic Supplies: Test strips, insulin pumps, glucose monitors — generally exempt

Where an item does not qualify, the full 8.500% combined rate applies in Yakima County.

For providers in Yakima, entity status decides what the purchasing department owes:

A non-profit hospital is generally relieved of tax on purchases made for its exempt purpose, and a for-profit one on the same street is not — so the entity classification decides the invoice before the item does. The line is not the building: the gift shop, the cafeteria and the parking structure are unrelated business activities and can be taxable at 8.500% inside an otherwise exempt institution, while capital equipment on the scale of an MRI or a surgical robot usually is exempt with the documentation in place. Contracted laundry, food service and medical waste each follow their own Washington treatment. The certificate mechanics are in the exemption certificate guide.

Life-sciences work in Yakima can tap:

• R&D Tax Credits: Federal (up to 20% of QREs); many states add their own — verify Washington's current program
• Equipment Exemptions: Lab equipment used in qualified research often exempt
• Clinical Trial Materials: Drugs/devices used in FDA-approved trials often exempt
• Orphan Drug Credits: Federal credit for rare disease drug development

Yakima shoppers and businesses routinely cross into Ellensburg, Richland, Kennewick and beyond — and in Washington, the combined rate can change at those lines. Of the tracked neighbors, Richland charges 8.800% and Kennewick charges 8.800% versus Yakima's 8.500%.

• Ellensburg (40 mi): outside our tracked Washington city set — verify its current combined rate before invoicing deliveries there
• Richland (65 mi): combined rate 8.800% — see the Richland page
• Kennewick (70 mi): combined rate 8.800% — see the Kennewick page
• Wenatchee (110 mi): outside our tracked Washington city set — verify its current combined rate before invoicing deliveries there

Deliveries are taxed by the destination rules Washington applies, not by where the store sits — when an order ships across one of these city lines, re-check the rate for the exact address.

Since South Dakota v. Wayfair, a seller with no premises, staff or stock anywhere near Yakima can still be required to register in Washington and charge 8.500% on what it ships here — presence stopped being the trigger and volume took over. The thresholds that decide it are in the table below; what they do not tell you is that crossing them obliges you to collect at the buyer's local rate, not a state average, which is why Yakima and its neighbours have to be priced separately. The registration mechanics and the trailing-twelve-month counting rules are in the economic nexus guide.

Audit & Compliance Warning: Because combined tax rates combine state and local tax components, calculating tax based purely on ZIP codes can lead to errors. Many ZIP codes span multiple municipal boundaries with differing rates. For precise auditing, always use address-level geo-lookup.

Three obligations follow the 8.500% rate around Yakima: untaxed out-of-state purchases delivered here owe matching use tax — $85.00 on a $1,000 order — self-assessed to WA Dept of Revenue / Yakima County; sellers with physical presence or economic nexus must register before collecting; and wholesale sales need a valid resale certificate on file at transaction time. Filing mechanics, exemption certificates, and audit preparation are covered in the Washington sales tax guide.

Retail around Yakima Farmers Market anchors Yakima's consumer economy. Marketplace facilitator laws require platforms to collect/remit sales tax for third-party sellers. Economic nexus threshold in Washington: $100,000 in gross sales, revenue-only with no transaction test, measured over the current or previous calendar year..

Yakima's technology employers sell into every state's rules. SaaS and digital services taxability in Washington: Fully taxable as a digital automated service (DAS).