Just looked at a breakdown of state sales tax rates and honestly it's wild how different things are depending on where you live. California's sitting at 7.25% which is apparently the highest in the country, but Indiana, Mississippi, Rhode Island and Tennessee are all right there at 7% too. Meanwhile Alaska, Delaware, Montana, New Hampshire and Oregon don't charge sales tax at all - must be nice.

The national average hovers around 5% but yeah, there's definitely outliers everywhere. What's kind of interesting is that a lot of states have been tweaking their rates. New Mexico and South Dakota both lowered theirs since 2021, and Indiana's apparently been looking at whether they should make changes too. Some people are even pushing for this Fair Tax Act thing that would set up a national sales tax and get rid of the IRS, which seems... ambitious.

Also heads up - the sales tax by state map doesn't always show the full picture because cities add their own local taxes on top. So if you're in Oakland or Chicago you're actually paying way more than the state rate shows. Plus there's those sales tax holidays during back to school season where certain purchases are tax-free, which is clutch if you're buying clothes or supplies. Different states have different rules about what qualifies and price limits though.

Has anyone actually benefited from a sales tax holiday or does your state just keep hiking rates anyway?