The Hall tax was established by action of the Tennessee General Assembly in 1929, by Chapter 86, Public Acts of 1929, enacted on April 10, 1929. It is named for Frank S. Hall, the state senator who sponsored the legislation.
It's a great question to ask -- especially while you pore over tax forms this year. Seven U.S. states currently don't have an income tax: Alaska, Florida, Nevada, South Dakota, Texas, Washington and Wyoming. And residents of New Hampshire and Tennessee are also spared from handing over an extra chunk of their paycheck on April 15, though they do pay tax on dividends and income from investments.
States with nearly no income tax: Tennessee; New Hampshire; Source: Wikimedia Commons. States with no income tax are in red; those with taxes on dividends and interest income are in yellow. Let's examine each of the states with no income tax using each state's data on tax revenue as well as the Tax Foundation's most recent data, which is for 2011.