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.

Income tax levels are surprisingly low over there, in the UK we hover around 20% + 12% national insurance

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.

Thankfully New York is in America, where we have our freedom from social services like government-guaranteed health insurance, retirement, vacation, early childhood care, college tuition, elder care, and so on...You really have to feel bad for the Danes and Belgians, who are forced to get something in return for their taxes.

@BobSaget all those things are nice, but why should I have to pay for yours

@CartoJuggernaut: for the same reason I pay for the fire department to put out a fire at your house, and not just mine.

@BobSaget

Running a fire department on an individual or household basis is nearly impossible. The same cannot be said for your medical insurance, paid time off, and retirement.

@CartoJuggernaut because the math works. If we all have government-run healthcare the government has negotiating power with pharmaceutical companies and hospitals that private healthcare companies never had. This means cheaper healthcare costs for all of us. Thus your increase in taxes will be less than you were paying for private health insurance. Also, it's absurd to think that you're never going to use healthcare, childcare, college, or vacation in your life or your children's. Not to mention that you're already paying for services you don't use on a daily basis like public education, policing, fire and so much more through the government.

Why is New York City so expensive? Because it's worth it.

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.

I don't know about "one of the first." I mean, before Iowa legalized it, several states allowed it, then banned it, and some allowed it again. Iowa was something like the 14th state to explicitly allow it, if you discount the fact that so many states that allowed it ended up banning it again before Iowa even initially allowed it.

How about a quiz on which states (or better yet, countries) have the lowest tax rates for the wealthy and on companies?

Compare this list with "best states to live in/raise children" I bet there is a correlation.

Funny that NYC is a type in for New York state. I assume it is auto because of New York although in this situation it is not referring to the city.

Hawaii?!?!?!

Do all of these states have a flat tax, or is this an average, or the rate for the lowest bracket, highest bracket...?

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.

What is the federal income tax rate in the US?

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. :)

aka the civilized states

How bourgeois of you

thats why commiefornians move to other states

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

all demoncrats

That doesn't make you sound insane at all.

yeah, totally tbolt, you got me. An analysis every bit as clever and on-point as I would expect, coming from you.

So... blue states, then? Shocker.

but if you measure in terms of truck nuts per capita these are also the poorest states in the country.

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.

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.