Effective State and Local Tax Burdens by
State and Rank Projected for 2007

The percentages presented in the tax burden table are derived from the U.S. Commerce Department's Census Bureau and the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) -- the government agency that publishes the nation's most authoritative statement of taxation and income, the National Income and Product Accounts (NIPA).  In NIPA, BEA makes numerous methodological decisions about what constitutes a tax and income.  For example the BEA counts capital gains taxes as "taxes", but does not count capital gains as "income" for various reasons.

In calculating the tax burden of a state, total taxes are divided by total income, as reported by the BEA.  High-income taxpayers tend to increase the average tax burden -- just as including low-income taxpayers decrease it.  This percentage is what is called the "nation's total tax burden."  The Tax Foundation, a Washington-based nonprofit, takes this data, looks at historical trends and the most recent economic data, then uses it to make a projection of what the tax burden will be in the current year.  The result is a projection of the average tax burden for the U.S. economy as a whole.  

Each state's tax burden represents a combination of state and local tax burdens.  The table below uses information extracted from Tax Foundation reports and shows the effective state/local tax burdens as a percentage of income by state.  Ranking by state can be found in column 1.  Column 2 shows the tax burden as a percentage of income, column 3 is tax burden per capita, and column 4 shows income per capita. 

 

	Tax Burden Rank	Tax Burden  as a Percentage  of Income	Tax  Burden Per Capita	Income Per Capita
United States	-	11.0%	$4,422	$40,486
Alabama Alaska Arizona Arkansas California	46 50 31 13 12	8.8% 6.6% 10.3% 10.3% 11.5%	$3,090 2,729 3,603 3,514 4,965	$35,007 41,469 34,836 31,145 43,338
Colorado Connecticut Delaware Florida Georgia	30 8 47 38   32	10.4% 12.2% 8.8% 10.0% 10.3%	$4,509 6,756 3,804 3,962 3,615	$43,512 55,536 43,471 39,782 35,210
Hawaii Idaho Illinois Indiana Iowa	6 35 22 25 18	12.4% 10.1% 10.8% 10.7% 11.0%	$5,014 3,367 4,594 3,887 4,085	$40,455 33,274 42,428 36,169 37,068
Kansas Kentucky Louisiana Maine Maryland	15 20 17 2 23	11.2% 10.9% 11.0% 14.0% 10.8%	$4,330 3,568 3,808 5,045 5,341	$38,732 32,673 34,501 36,117 49,324
Massachusetts Michigan Minnesota Mississippi Missouri	28 14 11 29 34	10.6% 11.2% 11.5% 10.5% 10.1%	$5,419 4,202 4,971 3,103 3,678	$51,297 37,538 43,121 29,582 36,341
Montana Nebraska Nevada New Hampshire New Jersey	41 9 36 49 10	9.7% 11.9% 10.1% 8.0% 11.6%	$3,353 4,549 4,127 3,504 5,991	$34,415 38,373 40,916 43,745 51,605
New Mexico New York North Carolina North Dakota Ohio	40 3 19 39 5	9.8% 13.8% 11.0% 9.9% 12.4%	$3,251 6,522 3,933 3,626 4,597	$33,163 47,176 35,705 36,635 37,020
Oklahoma Oregon Pennsylvania Rhode Island South Carolina	45 37 24 4 26	9.0% 10.0% 10.8% 12.7% 10.7%	$3,248 3,747 4,405 5,291 3,520	$36,077 37,356 40,942 41,809 32,790
South Dakota Tennessee Texas Utah Vermont	44 48 43 27 1	9.0% 8.5% 9.3% 10.7% 14.1%	$3,435 3,054 3,533 3,452 5,387	$38,072 35,960 38,005 32,249 38,306
Virginia Washington West Virginia Wisconsin Wyoming	33 16 21 7 42	10.2% 11.1% 10.9% 12.3% 9.5%	$4,460 4,604 3,401 4,736 4,340	$43,710 41,530 31,198 38,639 45,881
District of Columbia	-	12.5%	$7,873	$62,852

Sources: Tax Foundation and Bureau of Economic Analysis.