11 Strangest Ways States Tax You (And Don’t)

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Funny thing about our federal system of government: There’s that complicated tax code that Uncle Sam keeps and the IRS enforces.

Then there’s an even larger patchwork of taxation schemes crafted by 50 state legislatures, all coming up with new ways to extract coin from their citizenry (or create social policy through tax breaks). Some of these regimens are, well, quirky.

We’ve found 11 of the strangest ways states tax you and cut you breaks (plus a few creative tax dodges) from across the land.

David Muhlbaum
Former Senior Online Editor

In his former role as Senior Online Editor, David edited and wrote a wide range of content for Kiplinger.com. With more than 20 years of experience with Kiplinger, David worked on numerous Kiplinger publications, including The Kiplinger Letter and Kiplinger’s Personal Finance magazine. He co-hosted  Your Money's Worth, Kiplinger's podcast and helped develop the Economic Forecasts feature.