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1 Lawrence Summers, Major Metropolitan Area Sales Tax Rates 1 (2010)

handle is hein.taxfoundation/ffcdjxz0001 and id is 1 raw text is: NININ Augut019 201 No. 239 Major Metropolitan Area Sales Tax Rates By Lawrence Summers Introduction General sales taxes levied by state, county and city governments in the United States vary greatly, even among major metropolitan areas. For purposes of this analysis, major metropolitan areas are those with populations greater than 200,000 individuals, of which there are 107 in the United States. The 25 metropolitan areas with the highest combined sales tax rates- state rate plus county rate plus city rate-are shown in Table 1. Two Alabama cities, Montgomery and Birmingham, have the highest combined sales tax rates in the nation. Until recently Chicago had that distinction, but Cook County lowered its rate by 0.50, effective July 1, 2010. Unsurprisingly, none of the highest-taxing cities are located in the five states that levy no state-level tax: Alaska, Delaware, Montana, New Hampshire and oregon. But some of these high-taxing cities have a zero rate at either the county or city level. In four cities-St. Louis, Memphis, Nashville and New York City-there is no county-level sales tax; and in eight cities-Oakland, Fremont, Seattle, San Francisco, San Jose, New Orleans, Baton Rouge, and Fresno-there's no city-level tax. Lawrence Summers is an adjunct scholar at the Tax Foundation.