A Taxing Weekend

I was reminded of the above-cited vignette about taxes during the circus know as Black Friday shopping.

In addition to suffering a severe tryptophan hangover from ingesting ungodly amounts of turkey this weekend, I was also dragged kicking and screaming to several malls and outlets by an unrelenting spouse who somehow convinced me that due to the rise in online retailing the crowds would be less than in years past.

I questioned that hypothesis when I did my best impression of Jackie Chan, fighting off three overzealous housewives who wanted the same leather coat as I did. The truth be known, a 35-year background in boxing is no match for an angry veteran shopper brandishing a rolled-up sale circular.

Having managed to escape without life-threatening injuries, I just happened to glance at the register receipt after several purchases and noticed that despite the advertised “door-buster” prices, we still had the, ahem, privilege of paying New York State taxes on the merchandise.

So that got me to thinking about which states have the highest and lowest sales taxes. For those that still have a largely unfulfilled holiday list, here are the five highest and lowest states, courtesy of our friends at financial software publisher CCH.

The five states with the highest state sales taxes (note: these don’t include local or city taxes only on the statewide level) are California in the No. 1 slot at 7.5 percent followed by Indiana, Mississippi, New Jersey and Rhode Island, all at 7 percent.

The five states with the lowest are: Colorado at 2.9 percent followed by Alabama, Georgia, Hawaii and Louisiana at 4 percent. Surprisingly, my home state of New York came in 6^th lowest at 4 percent, but as noted that doesn’t include the add-ons of New York City taxes or other local jurisdictions in the Empire State that often approach 9 percent.

Lucky us.

As for the combat pay, I have taken a preventive step to avoid another potential Pier 6 brawl in the men’s department next year – I purchased a new PC so we’ll be virtual holiday shoppers in 2015. Unless of course we get embroiled in a cyber-brawl.