[Rick Lee]

VA, while infuriating, probably belongs to the lower tax states. Fairfax City has a 9% sales tax in restaurants, but 5% on everything else. For vehicle sales tax it's only 3%. BUT when you lease a car, you pay that 3% on the entire sticker price of the car, not the portion you are leasing. We also have a very hated personal property tax on cars, which works out to be around 3% of the bluebook value per year. Because of this there is no county or city income tax. State income tax is very modest. Property taxes also irritate the hell out of me, since I don't have any kids and never will in VA, they don't treat roads for snow and my condo assoc. handles garbage service and water. Still, property taxes are about 1/3 of whatmy folks pay in NJ for about the same level of services. DC has a 10% sales for restaurants! Ouch.