Receipt requirements · DC
District of Columbia receipt requirements
What a business issuing its own receipts in District of Columbia needs to show: the rate, whether tax has to be stated separately, which categories are exempt, and whether a written rent receipt is required.
Rates verified: 2026-08-05. Rates change — check your state Department of Revenue before relying on a figure for filing.
Sales tax at a glance
- State rate
- 6%
- Combined with local
- 6% statewide, no local add-on
- Sourcing
- Destination-based — tax follows the buyer's address
Does tax have to be separately stated?
The District expects the tax stated separately from the price on the receipt. There is a single district-wide rate, so the separate line is unambiguous.
Whatever the rule, print it as its own line. Separately stating tax is what lets a reviewer isolate the pre-tax cost, and it is the mechanism most state statutes use to let a seller exclude the tax from gross receipts. The display conventions are covered here.
Exempt and specially rated categories
- Groceries for home consumption exempt
- Prescription and non-prescription drugs exempt
- Residential utilities exempt
- Sales to the federal government exempt
A basket that mixes an exempt item with a taxable one needs a per-line tax flag and separate taxable and non-taxable subtotals, or the tax line cannot be checked against the lines it came from.
Rent receipts in District of Columbia
No statute requires a written rent receipt; a tenant may still request one and most landlords issue one.
The two fields landlords most often omit are the period the payment covers and the unit number. The full field list is here, and the statutory format is in the rent receipt spec.
Worth knowing in District of Columbia
The District's headline 6% almost never applies to hospitality: restaurant meals and alcohol for on-premises consumption carry 10%, commercial parking 18%, and hotel accommodations a separate higher rate. A DC receipt is usually wrong if it prints 6% on prepared food.