Unlike several developed countries, the United States gives sales taxing authority to sub-national governments. Each U.S. state can impose its own sales and use tax, with local jurisdictions in many states also able to impose a tax.
Sales taxes account for a significant share of revenues and provide a useful measure of economic strength. Many governments use data on sales tax distributions to plan their yearly budgets.
Using sales distributions data from the Georgia Department of Revenue, the Fiscal Research Center (FRC) has created an interactive data tool that allows users explore the year-over-year changes in sales tax distributions by commodity from January 2016 through June 2020 at the county, regional, or state level.
Policymakers, government leaders and general users can use this tool to gain a better understanding of the level of sales activity at a granular scale.