Southern states top sales tax list

A quartet of Southern states has the highest sales taxes in the nation, according to figures compiled by the Tax Foundation.  

Tennessee, Arkansas, Alabama and Louisiana all have an average sales tax of between 8.9 percent and 9.5 percent, when combining both state and local levies. Washington, which also has an 8.9 percent combined sales tax rate, rounds out the top five on the list from the Tax Foundation, a pro-free markets group.

{mosads}Five states – Alaska, Delaware, Montana, New Hampshire and Oregon – don’t have a statewide sales tax. Among states with a sales tax, Hawaii, Wisconsin, Wyoming and Maine have the lowest combined average rate.

Lawmakers from states with the highest sales tax rates have also been more likely to support federal legislation that would give states more latitude to tax purchases from out-of-state retailers.

Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) and Rep. Steve Womack (R-Ark.) are GOP sponsors of that measure, known as the Marketplace Fairness Act. Sens. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.), Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.), Richard Shelby (R-Ala.) and John Boozman (R-Ark.) backed that proposal when it passed the Senate in May 2013.

The House didn’t act on the online sales tax legislation measure before the end of 2014, and the measure faces a more difficult path in the current all-Republican Congress.