On Tue, 29 May 2001, Ronn Blankenship wrote:
> At 11:23 PM 5/28/01 -0400, John D. Giorgis wrote:
> >The Washington Post has a fascinating article comparing Britain (and to a
> >much lesser degree, Europe) to the United States in Tuesday's edition.
> >
> >Check it out here:
> >http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A88672-2001May28.html
> >
> >Excerpt:
> >***************
> >Income and social security tax rates are generally higher here than in the
> >United States, and on every retail purchase consumers pay a whopping
> >national sales tax of 17.5 percent. In contrast, the combined state and
> >local sales tax for a shopper in Arlington, Va., is 4.5 percent.
>
>
> We pay 8%. On virtually everything, including food and medicine,
> which are not subject to sales tax in some other localities*. Some of
> the surrounding communities, even more. And our "servants of the
> people" are always looking for an excuse to raise it.
We pay state sales tax of 6.25%, plus local taxes up to another 2% for a
total that can be as high as 8.25%. (And, of course, I live in such a
place, with the highest sales tax rate.)
Groceries are not taxed, but restaurant meals are.
> (*Interestingly enough, one of the very few things that I have bought
> locally that was _not_ subject to sales tax was flea powder** for my
> cat, the idea being that insecticides fall under "agricultural
> supplies," for which the laws provide a tax break for the benefit of
> farmers.
They exempted a class of items from the sales tax in the legislative
session a couple of years ago -- basically, stuff to prevent disease and
stuff to treat disease. There was supposed to be some sort of addendum to
the bill that didn't get added that would have made condoms still taxable,
but since it didn't make it in, you don't have to pay the sales tax on
condoms, which gave a number of people fits on the grounds that it would
encourage promiscuity. Of course, the only times I've been using condoms
have been for having sex with my husband, which hardly qualifies as
"promiscuity" -- why didn't they take *that* into account?
(Over-the-counter drugs are exempt from sales tax now, which is nice when
you go out and buy a large bottle of Advil or Tylenol and save $0.60 or
more because you no longer have to pay sales tax....)
Julia
