Who loses?• 125,000 pay the Hall tax.• Nearly 6 million pay sales tax.• The five states with the highest average combined state-local sales tax rates are Tennessee (9.45 percent), Arkansas (9.19 percent), Louisiana (8.89 percent), Washington (8.88 percent), and Oklahoma (8.72 percent).
After a tidal wave of anti-tax sentiment swept Tennessee last Tuesday, the same lawmaker that brought Amendment 3 to ban a general state income tax and local payroll tax now is peddling a bill that would phase out the state's Hall income tax on stock dividends and some bonds.
If he succeeds again, our sales taxes will climb into double digits, and unless you never buy anything, your wallet - not the wallets of the wealthiest Tennesseans - will get thinner and thinner.