States with the highest sales tax

Understanding states with the highest sales tax

Across all 51 states and the District of Columbia, combined sales tax spans from 10.11% in Louisiana at the top of the list to 0.00% in Oregon at the bottom. The three at the top are Louisiana, Tennessee, and Washington; the three at the bottom are Montana, New Hampshire, and Oregon.

Sales tax is the tax almost everyone pays, and it varies more than people expect once local rates are added on. The figure here is the combined average of the statewide rate and the local rates set by counties and cities. States like Louisiana and Tennessee top the list, while a handful of states levy no statewide sales tax at all.

Notice how often the highest sales taxes appear in states with no income tax. That is not a coincidence — states have to raise revenue somehow, and those that forgo an income tax tend to lean harder on sales tax, and sometimes property tax, to make up the difference. A "no income tax" state is not necessarily a low-tax state overall.

Because sales tax applies to spending rather than earning, it weighs more heavily on lower- and middle-income households, who spend a larger share of what they make. For anyone comparing states, the combined sales tax is worth pairing with the income tax rate to see the whole picture, since a low rate on one is often balanced by a high rate on the other.