In the US it's actually more insane, we can also have different sales taxes at the county (a smaller administrative unit w/in states, there are a few thousand o

In the US it's actually more insane, we can also have different sales taxes at the county (a smaller administrative unit w/in states, there are a few thousand of them nationwide), and the city level. We also have different tax rates on different kinds of products (restaurants vs clothes vs gas, for example.) This reasoning behind this is giving individual areas the flexibility to tax based on their individual needs, so a county could vote to raise sales taxes for (X) years to fund a new high school or something. I believe they usually do this by other methods (like bonds), but want to keep taxes as an option. I live in Washington DC, which is tiny and close to 2 other states, so there are days when I can end up going to DC, MD, and VA and buying food and gas, so I pay 6 different tax rates in the same day. It's all transparent to me of course, and most people only pay attention to income taxes when they think about moving somewhere.