45 states and the District of Columbia have sales tax. The only states without statewide sales and use taxes are Alaska, Delaware, Montana, New Hampshire, and Oregon. These 5 states make up the revenue by charging higher property taxes, for example. Every state with a sales tax has a use tax too. Use tax is a type of excise tax imposed on both businesses and individuals. Generally, you are supposed to pay use tax if you purchase an item without paying your home state's sales tax and you use, give away, store, or consume that item in your home state. Please heed this information as a warning that use tax includes items you purchased on the internet. Please also be advised that use tax applies when an item is used rather than sold as inventory when an individual or business holding a sales tax permit and purchase items "tax free" or exempt from sales tax. The theory is that the state wants to collect sales tax on the highest price that a consumer/customer will purchase the product for. If the item was used by an individual or business then use tax is due on the price it was purchased for.