Ashville Citizen Times: Long-Term Tax Shifts May Hit Rich and Poor Differently
media mentionNorth Carolina’s sales tax is unfair because it “requires the least from those with the most,” said Meg Wiehe, state tax policy director at the national Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, which leans to the left. And because it exempts services and falls less heavily on the rich, the sales tax by itself will not grow enough to fund needed state services in the future, she said.
Retail purchases in most North Carolina counties come with a 6.75 percent or 7 percent sales tax, with 4.75 percent going to state coffers and the rest to local governments. State proceeds from the tax are expected to come to more than $6.4 billion this fiscal year, roughly 31 percent of state general fund revenue.