Sales taxes in Chicago are now the highest in the nation, and business leaders are furious.
As CBS 2's Joanie Lum reports, a 1 percent sales tax increase is in effect Tuesday, hiking the sales tax in the city of Chicago to 10.25 percent. By comparison, the sales tax in Lake and Will counties is 7 percent, and in DuPage County, it's 7.25 percent.
A sales tax of 10.25 percent is also significantly higher than the sales tax in other major cities. The next highest rate in the country is in Memphis at 9.25 percent. New York, Los Angeles and Dallas all have a sales tax of under 8.3 percent, Phoenix has a tax of 6.3 percent, and Denver's sales tax is only 3.6 percent.
The Cook County Board voted to raise the sales tax at the end of February, after a five-month stalemate on the 2008 budget. Board President Todd Stroger and his supporters ultimately prevailed, saying the tax hike was necessary to provide health care and other services.
The tax hike applies to everything but groceries, medicine, cars and boats. For larger purchases like furniture or appliances, the taxes can add up.
It will definitely be cheaper to shop in the suburbs. Buy a $500 TV in DuPage County where the taxes are 6.75 percent and you'll pay $534, in Chicago where the taxes are 9 percent, you'll pay $545 for that same television, and when taxes increase to 10.25 percent, you'll pay $551.
For that reason, businesses are concerned that consumers will leave Cook County to make purchases.
And people wonder why guys like me give up on the city and move to the 'burbs. It's the taxes dumbass.
2 comments:
a sales tax over 10%. wow.
No wonder Denver is growing at that low rate.
That's why the libs want to up federal taxes. They know you can escape city tax by moving to the burbs. But you can't escape federal tax unless you move abroad. And globally the libs/socialists have slithered into most of the successful foreign economies making them less so. Like cockroaches, they are everywhere. And for every one you do see, there are a thousand you don't.
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