Receipt requirements · TN
Tennessee receipt requirements
What a business issuing its own receipts in Tennessee 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
- 7%
- Combined with local
- 8.5% – 9.75% combined
- Sourcing
- Origin-based — tax follows the seller's location
Does tax have to be separately stated?
Tennessee expects the tax stated separately from the sale price on the receipt or invoice, with the local option rate included.
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 taxed at a reduced state rate
- Prescription drugs exempt
- Local single-article tax cap on large purchases
- Manufacturing machinery 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 Tennessee
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 Tennessee
Tennessee caps the local option tax on a single article at a set purchase amount, so on an expensive item the local tax stops accruing partway up the price. Combined with the highest state rate in the country and no income tax, Tennessee receipts show one of the highest average combined rates anywhere.