Montana has a relatively high Income Tax rate starting at a low income level.
Stunningly high by my reckoning: 6.9% on income > 15 grand
Yes and relatively high property taxes and other "user" fees to compensate for the lack of sales tax.
Montana's screwy taxes on "custom" automobiles and "classic" automobiles are beyond my pay grade. There may be some kind of dodge there.
But I do know that I just wrote a check for $400 to renew the tags on my four-year-old pickup. When it was brand-new the fee was well over $500.
A relative of mine in Idaho, by comparison, just registered his brand-new AWD Fusion for $56. Of course he had to pay Idaho's six-plus-percent sales tax...then again, he only has to pay the sales tax once.
Still and all the absence of a sales tax, regressive though it is, seems preferable to me. When you pay (non-withholding) taxes in Montana you have to write out a check: it keeps the tax-grab right in front of you.