The Nature and Structure of Sales Taxation

Sales taxation has, in the course of 25 years, become the chief single source of state tax revenue, now yielding about $2.5 billion or 21 per cent of total state tax revenue in the 1955 fiscal year.' In the 31 states using the tax, it yields approximately one third of state tax revenues, with yields of over 40 per cent in Washington, Georgia, Michigan, and Missouri. The tax has also been growing in importance at the local level, now yielding about $400 million, the bulk of this being obtained by a relatively few large cities. The federal government has never employed a general sales tax, despite considerable pressure for the tax at various times. Such taxes are used extensively by other national governments in various parts of the world--but in most of these countries there is no similar use at lower levels of government.