Last year, Chicago, Illinois, vaulted to the top of the list of cities imposing the highest combined state and local sales tax in the nation when a county tax increase brought the total rate to 10.25 percent,[2] a dubious distinction it now shares with Long Beach, California, which reached 10.25 percent on July 1, 2017, following the implementation of both city and county sales tax rate increases.[3] Four cities trail closely behind at 10 percent: Birmingham and Montgomery, Alabama, and Baton Rouge and New Orleans, Louisiana.
The two cities in Louisiana are relatively new inclusions at the very top, driven by a 1 percentage point increase in the Louisiana state sales tax effective April 1, 2016.[4] They are followed by Seattle and Tacoma, Washington, at 9.6 percent; Freemont and Oakland, California, and Memphis and Nashville, Tennessee, at 9.25 percent; and Glendale, Arizona, at 9.2 percent.
Portland, Oregon, and Anchorage, Alaska, have neither a state nor a local sales tax. Honolulu, Hawaii, has the third lowest sales tax among major cities with a rate of 4.5 percent. However, Hawaii’s overly broad sales tax makes this not strictly comparable with other states. Richmond, Virginia (5.3 percent), Madison, Wisconsin (5.5 percent), and Tulsa, Oklahoma (5.5 percent), also impose low combined state and local sales tax rates.
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