Washington State has the Worst/Highest Cell Phone Taxes and Fees in the country.

Washington Taxes SuckDo you live in Washington State? It turns out it’s not just your cell phone provider that’s trying to steal your money, it’s our local government as well.

It turns out, WA has the highest rate for local and state taxes on cell phones in the nation.

Rank State State-Local Wireless Rate State-Local Sales Tax Rate Federal Rate Combined Federal-State-Local-Rate
(USF)
1 Washington 18.59% 9.00% 5.05% 23.64%
2 Nebraska 18.39% 6.50% 5.05% 23.44%
3 Florida 16.26% 7.25% 5.05% 21.31%
4 New York 16.05% 8.19% 5.05% 21.10%
5 Rhode Island 14.62% 7.00% 5.05% 19.67%

How does the rest of the West Coast and HI/AK Compare?

20 California 10.67% 9.10% 5.05% 15.72%
37 Hawaii 7.75% 4.00% 5.05% 12.80%
43 Alaska 6.69% 2.50% 5.05% 11.74%
47 Montana 6.03% 0.00% 5.05% 11.08%
49 Idaho 2.20% 6.00% 5.05% 7.25%
50 Nevada 2.08% 7.91% 5.05% 7.13%
51 Oregon 1.74% 0.00% 5.05% 6.79%
National Averages:

US Simple Average

9.73% 6.26% 5.05% 14.52%
US Weighted Average 10.96% 7.26% 5.05% 15.75%

These numbers shouldn’t be shocking to anyone who has actually looked at their cell phone bill recently.

If you haven’t looked at your WA cell phone bill, go check it out.

/insert rant about our government’s spending problems and their joy to tax everything in our state.

Source: http://www.mywireless.org/50-state-ranking-2010

Note: Oregon is 51st because the original list includes DC.