Sales and Use Tax. The State levies a general retail sales and use tax of 4.75%. The general rate applies to purchases of tangible commodities, certain digital property, room and cottage rentals, admission charges to an entertainment activity, service contracts, and laundry and dry cleaning services.
For the first time in U.S. history, the cost of manufacturing both a penny and a nickel is more than the 1-cent and 5-cent values of the coins themselves. Skyrocketing metals prices are behind the increase, the U.S. Mint said in a letter to members of Congress last week. The Mint estimates it will cost 1.23 cents per penny and 5.73 cents per nickel this fiscal year, which ends Sept. 30. The cost of producing a penny has risen 27% in the last year, while nickel manufacturing costs have risen 19%. BACKGROUND:A brief history of the penny.
Metal is largest component of this cost: the penny has been composed of 97.5% zinc and 2.5% copper since 1982, and because the price of those metals fluctuates, so too does the cost of producing pennies. In 2005, the cost to the United States Mint to produce a penny was 0.97Â¢, which was just a smidge under a cent. In 2006, that year's pennies each cost about 1.23Â¢ to manufacture. Rises in metal prices, particularly of zinc, pushed the per-unit cost up to 1.7Â¢ in 2007. By 2012, production costs had risen to 2.41Â¢ per penny.