Which U.S. state was first to impose a sales tax?

As of August 2021, only five U.S. states have no statewide sales tax: Alaska, Montana, Delaware, New Hampshire, and Oregon.

All of the others, including Guam and the District of Columbia, impose some sort of levy on most goods. Those that do are all following in the footsteps of West Virginia, which first enacted a sales tax on May 3, 1921.

The current rate of taxation in West Virginia is 6%. As of 2021, California has the highest state-level sales tax rate at 7.25%. Colorado's is just 2.9%.

Today, state taxes can vary by jurisdictions within the state, ranging from less than 1 percent to more than 10 percent. To further confuse matters, lower tax rate numbers, like those of Colorado, can often be deceptive. Colorado allows cities and counties to collect sales taxes in addition to the state tax, as do many other states today. This definitely has an impact on the consumer’s bottom line at the cash register.