Taxes on Services

Expanding the Sales Tax to Services

While all states with sales taxes tax goods (i.e., furniture, computers, cars, etc), only a few impose the sales tax on services - of which there are over 100 potentially-taxable categories (i.e., car repairs, exterminators, architecture, etc.).

Expanding the sales tax to services would not only raise substantial new revenue, but would make state tax systems more fair, more stable, easier to administer and more economically neutral.

Overview articles:

• "Expanding Sales Taxation of Services: Options and Issues"


• "Making the State Sales Tax Pull its Weight"

Additional Resources

• State-by-state data on sales of services


• Consumer Expenditure Survey for aggregated household consumption patterns