Crashes and the rules they brought · 1929–1950s
1932
The first modern sales tax
Mississippi adds a 2% tax to retail sales as Depression-era revenues collapse.
With property taxes going unpaid in the Depression, Mississippi adopted a 2% general retail sales tax in 1932, the first modern one in the US. Within a decade, about half of the states had followed.
💡 Why it made sense then
States needed money that kept coming in when incomes and property values had fallen, and a small charge on every purchase did that.
🎮 In Journey Shares
Everything in the city's stores includes 7.53% sales tax, which goes to the treasury.
Ideas it gave us
- 🧮 Sales tax
A sales tax is a tax added to the price of goods and services when they're sold. The seller collects it and pays it to the government.
Practise with $10,000 in play money
Free. No real money involved.