Consumers have to purchase certain items such as clothes, food, healthcare, and shelter, in order to live and to function well in society, in which, different States and different localities and counties within States have different sales tax rules, in fact, there are still five States that do not charge a sales tax on purchases, with the balance of the other States most definitely doing so. The sales tax, itself, is of fairly recent vintage and only came into form in the 1930s, and even then the majority of States had no sales tax, but by the time the 1960s came, the sales tax was now the law in forty five States. So too, when the sales tax was first initiated, like virtually all taxes, it was fairly reasonable, so that in a State such as California, their original sales tax rate was the only 2.5% in 1933, whereas, today, in some counties and localities of that State their sales tax rate runs as high as 9.75%.
Then, as might be expected, the sales tax is not uniformly applied to the same goods or category of goods in every State, so that some States do indeed charge a sales tax for candy, soda, dietary supplements, prepared food from restaurants, some groceries but not all groceries, in which, usually groceries are taxed at a reduced sales tax rate. Another issue with a sales tax is the fact, that unlike, for instance, gasoline, or the purchase of an airline ticket, in which any taxes and fees associated with such are integrated within the price, the sales tax is added onto the item so that for those budgeting for goods and calculating their expenses in which literally every penny matters, this is difficult to calculate, because of the inconsistency of items applicable to such and how sales taxes are applied.
Another issue to consider is the fact since a sales tax is uniformly applied at the same rate for all it is, by definition, non-progressive, because the same sales tax percentage applies whether you are rich or poor, and hence the sales tax is regressive in its nature. This then leads to the point that there probably should be items, most particularly food as well as clothing, that should not have a sales tax associated with them, because such a tax unfairly burdens those that have the least amount of money as well as options, further pointing to the fact that the reason such taxation is added onto the most inclusive list as possible, has more to do with State and local governments grabbing for the lowest lying fruit of taxation, without taking into consideration the capacity and wherewithal of their citizens to pay for it, let alone the fairness of it all.
All of the above signifies what people in general, suspect, that when it comes to taxation, such taxation, almost always morphs over time to take a higher percentage bite from the people’s pockets as well as to lose its focus as to its true purpose of being, so that what may begin as something that appears to be relatively benign or purposeful, providing, for instance, a direct help to State and local budgets, instead ends up burdening even more the least amongst us.