<P> Although the United States government has never used a general sales tax, an excise tax on whiskey enacted in 1791 was one of its first fund raising efforts . The unpopularity of this tax with farmers on the western frontier led to the Whiskey Rebellion in 1794 . </P> <P> Federal and state sales taxes in the United States remained selective, rather than general, through the 19th century . However, excise taxes were applied to so many specific commodities during the Civil War that they functioned collectively as a general sales tax . </P> <P> The first broad - based, general sales taxes in the United States were enacted by Kentucky and Mississippi in 1930, although Kentucky repealed its sales tax in 1936 . </P> <P> The federal government's per - gallon tax of gasoline (beginning at . 01 cent per gallon in 1932) and per - package tax of cigarettes ($1.01 per package since 2009) are the most well - known current sales taxes administered by the federal government . </P>

The collection of sales tax by a company when selling goods to customers would be recorded as a (an)