Changes in state and local sales taxation in the last decade / BEBR No. 499

"This paper was prepared for presentation at the Allied Social Sciences meetings, Chicago, August 29-31, 1978."Includes bibliographical references."This paper summarizes the major trends in state and Canadian provincial retail sales taxes in recent years. State sales tax rates have risen slowly; coverage has on the whole been reduced slightly as more states have exempted food and medicines. Sales tax revenue as a percentage of total state tax revenue rose slowly until 1971 and since had remained almost unchanged; revenues from state income taxes have exceeded sales tax revenues since 1973. In Canada, the trend has been toward sharply higher rates (reaching a maximum of 11%), but broader exemptions. Currently, the Canadian Federal government has induced the provinces (except Quebec) to lower their retail sales taxes in exchange for Federal grants to stimulate recovery and lessen cost-push inflationary pressures. The provinces have been moving slowly to increased adjustments in sales taxes for nonrevenue objectives, whereas the states have not. The sales taxes, despite the violent opposition in earlier years, are now generally accepted as permanent elements in the tax structures. They offer one great political advantage: the yield adjusts to inflation but does not overadjust, unlike the income tax. Unlike the property tax, tax liability does not jump sharply.