As cities struggle with declining property values and the lingering recession, they are desperate to raise funds. That is leading to increasing
sales tax rates across the nation. Forbes reports:
...Vertex Inc., which calculates sales tax for Internet sellers, reports that the average general sales tax rate nationwide reached 8.629 percent at the end of 2009, the highest since the company started tracking data in 1982.
That was up a nickel on a taxable $100 purchase from a year earlier and up nearly 40 cents for the decade. The highest sales tax rate in the country now stands at 12 percent.
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Nationally, sales taxes in 2008 generated more revenue for state and local governments — about $450 billion, a recent Government Accountability Office report suggests -- than did either property taxes ($411 billion) or personal income taxes ($310 billion).
Sales taxes are going up, but incomes are not, which is why some tax increases that are being voted on soon won't be passed.
