Ideally, a sales assessment is fair, has-been a gigantic compliance rate, is difficult to avoid, is charged exactly once on any sole item, and is simple to calculate and simple to collect. A conventional or retail sales expense attempts to achieve this by charging the imposition only on the final end user, unlike a gross receipts cost levied on the halfway business who purchases materials for production or standard operating expenses prior to delivering a service or artefact to the marketplace.

In some countries, there are multiple levels of dominion which each impose a sales tax. For example, sales tax in Chicago (Cook County), IL is 10.25%--the highest in the nation--consisting of 6.25% state, 1.25% city, 1.75% county and 1% regional transportation authority. And in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, the Sales Tax nick is 9%, consisting of 4% state and 5% local rate.1 In Tennessee the sales dues is 9.25%, due to the lack of a state income tax. However, there is no nationwide sales tax in the United States.