What U.S. states have the highest and lowest taxes?
If you hate paying taxes, pay attention to where you live. Residents of the nation's lowest-tax states pay less than one-quarter of the levies contributed by those in the highest-tax states. And that's even when they earn the same amount and spend the same amount on everything from housing to beer, according to an analysis by personal finance site WalletHub.
The result: This individual pays $9,718 in state and regional tax levies if he lives in New York. That's nearly 15 percent of his income. But he pays just $2,364, less than 4 percent of gross income, if he lives in Wyoming.
It's worth noting that the WalletHub study differs from other research on the highest tax states because it does not factor in average wages in the various states. The Tax Foundation, for example, also does a ranking of highest tax states. But it attempts to gauge the average tax hit by using state-specific wages. This analysis holds wages and spending constant, allowing Americans to consider just how much or little they'd pay if they picked up their current lifestyle and moved a few states away.
Under this analysis, a resident of Connecticut would see that if he moved across the border into Rhode Island -- and had no change in income, housing or spending -- he'd save $2,195 annually in taxes alone. A Californian moving across the border to Nevada, meanwhile, would save $6,139.
10 states with the lowest average annual tax burden:
1. Wyoming, $2,365
2. Alaska, $2,791
3. Nevada, $3,370
4. Florida, $3,648
5. South Dakota, $3,766
6. Washington (state), $3,823
7. Texas, $5,193
8. Delaware, $5,195
9. North Dakota, $5,588
10. New Mexico, $5,822
10 states with the highest average annual tax burden:
1. New York, $9,718
2. California, $9,509
3. Nebraska, $9,450
4. Connecticut, $9,099
5. Illinois, $9,006
6. Wisconsin, $8,975
7. Vermont, $8,838
8. New Jersey, $8,830
9. Iowa, $8,788
10. Maine, $8,622
To see how your state compares, check out WalletHub's full analysis..
