by Nyamekye Daniel, The Center Square | May 12, 2021 08:00 PM Print this article
The North Carolina House approved a bill Tuesday that gives counties the flexibility to increase local sales tax without raising the maximum tax rate.
House Bill 704 also places a cap on the total sales and use taxes that counties can levy and allows counties to specify on the ballot how they will spend the proposed sales tax.
The local sales and use tax rate in North Carolina counties ranges from 2% to 2.75%.
The measure would allow all counties to use a local-option quarter-cent sales tax usually set aside for transportation for other purposes. It would allow counties to increase the local-option tax from a quarter-cent to a half-cent.