How much do you spend on sales tax each year?

[procare]

I have been looking at my finances at the beginning of the year and I just realized I pay a lot each year to sales tax. I never think about it because it is always the price of what I buy, but it adds up. My state charges 6% sales tax so if I buy $10,000 of stuff a year, that's $600 in sales tax. How much do you think you spend a year in sales tax?

[Scanner]

This is why I am always amused by the Right Wing when they claim the poor don't pay any taxes.

Let's not forget major purchases like a car every 7 years let's say. So, a 30K car x 6% = 1800/7 = 257. . .throw that onto your annual total of other non-food purchases.

Don't forget liquor tax, rental tax. Hidden taxes in your phone/cable bill also.

Heck, I even saw a hotel bill with a "bed tax" in it (3 dollars). I am going to request a room without a bed to avoid that tax the next time. . .ask them if they have any rooms with no beds

[disneysteve]

How much do you think you spend a year in sales tax?

I have absolutely no idea. For most items, there isn't really anything I can do about it anyway. The only way to avoid paying sales tax is to buy stuff at places that don't charge it like yard sales, flea markets, and certain online sites though more and more of those are starting to charge tax. Another option we have, which we don't use very often, is to drive down to Delaware to make big purchases since there is no sales tax there. We've done that in the past but it's been years. We are a little too far for it to be practical due to gas and tolls.

[autoxer]

Don't forget liquor tax, rental tax. Hidden taxes in your phone/cable bill also.

And Gas tax. This one is buried in the price, but you can look it up. In my state it's about $.32/gallon, so last year that cost me about $180 or $15/month.

http://taxfoundation.org/article/state-gasoline-tax-rates-2009-2013

[wjcalderon]

I can tell you exactly how much I spent on sales tax last year - $1104.02

The reason I know this is because I take the sales tax deduction on my federal tax return instead of the state income tax deduction. And that's because I'm retired and my state does not take income tax on retirement income. If I didn't track it, I would only be allowed the amount on the sales tax table. For last year, that would only be around $750/

For 2013 it was a little over $3000 because I bought a new car and replaced all the windows in my house.

I have a simple Excel spreadsheet set up - date, paid to, amount.