Do 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.