State Tax Rate Maps: How Does Your State Compare?
I ran across some nice visual maps from TaxFoundation.org today. Each one compares a different type of tax across all 50 states. How does your home state choose to extract revenue from its residents?
Click on the images for a bigger version.
State Sales Taxes (Yellow Lowest, Blue Highest)
State Income Taxes (Highest Marginal Rate)
State Property Taxes (Yellow Lowest, Blue Highest)
March 22nd, 2010 at 11:06 pm
Extract revenue? How about choose to raise money to pay for the vital public services that we all share that make our country great?
Remember that under Eisenhower, when we were building freeways and otherwise investing in our nation’s infrastructure, the top marginal tax rate was over 90% — http://www.taxpolicycenter.org.....?Docid=213
Reed Hastings of Netflix has begged to be taxed at 50%. “President Obama should celebrate our success, rather than trying to shame us or cap our pay. But he should also take half of our huge earnings in taxes, instead of the current one-third.
Then, the next time a chief executive earns an eye-popping amount of money, we can cheer that half of it is going to pay for our soldiers, schools and security. Higher taxes on huge pay days can finance opportunity for the next generation of Americans. ”
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02.....tings.html
March 23rd, 2010 at 5:17 am
Looks like a good place to live is in Southern Washington State which has no state income tax. You can then do you shopping in Oregon which has no sales tax.
March 23rd, 2010 at 6:04 am
I’m in WI… screwed up state.
March 23rd, 2010 at 6:07 am
Looks like Alaska is the place to be: small sales tax, limited income tax and low property tax.
March 23rd, 2010 at 6:37 am
This doesn’t quite tell the whole story. For instance, most places in Texas actually pay about 8.25% sales tax after you add in local, which would make it 8th highest. Also, while Texas has the highest nominal property tax rate in the country, it also has some of the lowest property values.
Example:
Los Angeles: $350/sq ft x 0.61% tax = $2.14 annually
Dallas: $120/sq ft x 1.76% tax = $2.11 annually
March 23rd, 2010 at 6:46 am
Since commenting, I found better price per sq/foot data on trulia.com.
Los Angeles: $280/sq ft x 0.61% tax = $1.71 annually
Dallas: $70/sq ft x 1.75% = $1.23 annually
March 23rd, 2010 at 7:43 am
I don’t know how they figure their numbers, but they’re off.
Metropolitan areas of Alabama have total sales tax rates of 10%. Rural Alabama is not incorporated, so total tax rates for the state on average might be around 6%, but that’s a factor of geography and not of population. If you live in Alabama and participate in civilization, you pay $10 for every $100 of groceries.
March 23rd, 2010 at 8:08 am
I share your pain Captain Betty! Of course, the thing that keeps me in WI is my family…. which doesn’t show up on the map.
March 23rd, 2010 at 8:11 am
Ben: the California property tax rate is misleading due to Prop 13, which sets the property tax amount to the original sales price of the house with a maximum annual increase of 2%. In most counties, the property tax rate is at least 1%.
So, someone who bought a house 40 years ago for $25,000 is only going to pay maybe $550 a year in property taxes. Their neighbor, who bought a similar house next door last year for $750,000 would pay at least $7,500.
March 23rd, 2010 at 8:58 am
I live in Michigan. Property taxes are only high for those that have purchased a home recently. When you purchase a home you pay taxes on what the house was purchased for and pay more if it is not your main home. If you purchase vacant land, or a vacation home you pay 18 mills more. But on your homesteaded home (the taxable value that you pay property taxes) on will not go up over the rate of inflation or 5% whichever is less. The taxable value can go down. The property tax law in Michigan does hurt those buying a home they can afford now and then getting a nicer or bigger home as their incomes go up or as their families grow. Only helps those that have huge incomes and can purchase a home that they will stay in. It does help seniors that will stay in their homes but it is bad for the young.
But then again Michigan has the best in income taxes for retirees. A retiree pays no income tax on pension and IRA income up to about $90,000. Social Security is not included in this amount. You also pay no state tax on Social Security. In some instances you pay no tax on interest earned. It depends on total income. Also everyone gets a tax rebate on property taxes up to a certain amount if the property taxes are over a certain % of your income and your income does not exceed I think around 80 to 90 thousand.
The problem is that there are so many cheaters with people that own more than one home and get around paying that extra 18 mills. There are many who have tried to circumvent these laws, by putting homes in girl friends names, children’s names or their spouses names and use quit claim deeds not registered and other means to get around paying more in property taxes.
March 23rd, 2010 at 9:08 am
Tennessee does not have a state income tax, so the map is incorrect.
March 23rd, 2010 at 9:11 am
Sorry, I didn’t read the fine print.
March 23rd, 2010 at 9:27 am
Another misleading item. The sales tax maps is treating states that have a sales tax and a gross receipts tax as the same thing, but there is a huge difference.
March 23rd, 2010 at 5:22 pm
Ken,
You sre Sooooo right!
Ed…from Vancouver,WA
P.S.
Note, though, that there is always a little math to do with respect to time and gas money when I decide if I should drive 10 miles to save a couple of bucks.
March 23rd, 2010 at 6:37 pm
The figures are state level averages. So the numbers given aren’t exactly what you pay or what is charged in a specific county or city for each state. There are a lot of reasons the taxes are higher or lower for given situations. e.g. I pay around 0.2% more on my property tax but thats due to local school bonds. They cite 8.7% tax for sales tax in WA but I know in Seattle I paid 10% cause the city/county add more. THe income tax rates are the TOP rates that only people in the higher income brackets pay, average people pay lower rates. Property tax may be based on lower property value than fair market. My state is taxing us on about 60-80% of our market value. etc.
March 24th, 2010 at 1:44 pm
Sandra:
The Tennessee income tax does not apply to salaries and wages, but most income from stocks, bonds and notes receivable is taxable at a flat rate of 6 percent.
Thats why it is yellow and not white on the map. MO has a 6% income tax but is on all wages.
March 24th, 2010 at 2:44 pm
Yay New Jersey!!! oh, wait….
March 25th, 2010 at 6:43 am
Texas rocks… The only area we are paying a bit more is property taxes and as someone else pointed out, house prices are cheap in Texas.
I have to pat myself on the back for ditching the Midwest and moving to Austin. I wonder how many thousands I have saved? On the flip side, I’d probably be broke if I lived in California… (Or at least underwater…)
May 20th, 2010 at 2:02 pm
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