10 U.S. States with the Highest Tax Burden

I was shocked when that didn't come up

I also tries Mass first, and I even live in one of the top three.

This is just state tax, there’s federal tax on top.

Still cheaper than state income, federal income, sales, property, excise and fuel tax plus "fees" for everything the government requires you to do. Add in private health insurance as a wage cost to employees you never even see included as an a wage benefit and we're blowing that 33% out of the water.

Iowa isn't a red state. It's purple and has a long history of progressiveness. It was one of the first states to legalize gay marriage, and was the home of arguably one of the most progressive political figures of American politics, Henry Wallace.

nyc is almost always a typein for new york (state)

This is an average.

When you break it out by income bracket, a lot of things show up that are contrary to popular opinion.

For example, if you look at non-elderly taxpayers in California or Texas, you'll see that for the bottom 60% of earners, California offers lower taxes than Texas. The bottom 20% there is a very large difference in particular. It's only the wealthy (really about the top 5-10%) where California actually taxes more.

Most states are actually regressive that way in taxation - very few states tax the bottom 20% less than they do the top 1% as a percent of their income (CA, DE, MN, NJ, VT). But the press reports based on taxes for the wealthy or averages, which are skewed towards what is done for the wealthy rather than the median.

It varies based on amount and type of income.

For example, the bottom 20% of households by income pay a total federal tax burden of about 1.3% on average (-10.9% on income taxes, 9.4% on payroll taxes, 0.6% on corporate taxes, 2.2% on excise taxes). The top 1%, by comparison, pay an average of 31.6% (24.4% in income taxes, 2.2% on payroll taxes, 4.8% on corporate taxes, 0.2% on excise taxes).

You can also structure your income to avoid taxes, particularly if you're wealthy. I don't do anything unusual, but my investment income is generally taxed between 0% and 15%. My earned income I'm in a 22% tax bracket, but pay an effective total income tax rate of about 12%.

Confused? That's all thanks to the CPA lobby. :)

Taxes are terrible in MN, that's why it's on the list. As bad as NJ!!

I wonder whose interests its in to try and convince people that healthcare, education, jobs, infrastructure, quality of life, etc is less important than lowering taxes.

I was waiting for this comment, there's always someone finding the deep, hidden meanings lying in wait for us to discover the amazing correlation

If Quizmaster’s true to his word, we should expect a large chunk of comments to be deleted soon.

but that's sort of the anarchist/libertarian philosophy to governance (and why it fails from the onset): because people aren't all wonderful, selfless, and responsible. Corporations are greedy, cruel, and corrupt. And there will always be someone who seizes whatever power, wealth, or authority that others voluntarily surrender, or abuse whatever is given to them, if there is nothing in place to stop them from doing so. Is it possible for there to be overreach in the opposite direction leading to tyranny or oppression? Laws or law enforcement that are overly draconian and onerous and more stifling than helpful? Can bureaucracy get out of hand and needlessly self-perpetuating and self-enlarging? Yeah, of course. But a healthy synthesis will never be all one or the other. Those arguing otherwise are either naive or have an agenda and ulterior motives.