The US States With The Biggest Tax Burdens, Do You Live In One?
The states with the biggest tax burdens are New York, Hawaii, Maine, Vermont, and Connecticut.
As we close out the month of March, April 18th is looming in the not-so-distant future, and if you are facing a tax burden, you have been putting off doing your taxes until the last minute. Depending on the state tax laws in which you reside will determine how much income, property, or sales tax you will be burdened with when you file. We will take a deep dive into which state residents carry the most considerable tax burden and which state residents have the least tax burden. .
Typically, people exhibit two types of behaviors when January rolls around and the tax filing period opens. Some filed the second they got all their tax forms in hand and most likely get a refund from the government every year. A quick turnaround on the filing process equals dollars back in their pockets in mid to late February. Others are unsure if they will have a tax liability from last year and don’t want to risk filing too early and owing taxes.
WalletHub is a personal finance website, and they released a report which analyzed each state resident’s average tax burden. According to WalletHub, “It measured a combination of the proportion of property tax, income tax and sales tax that people paid.” Looking at the report, the five states that sit on top of the list of residents that carry the most significant percentage of tax burden are #1 New York, #2 Hawaii, #3 Maine, #4 Vermont, and #5 Connecticut.
New York residents sit atop the tax burden mountain with a 12.47 percent tax liability. They are followed closely by the residents of Hawaii at 12.34 percent. I guess when you are living in paradise, that is something you pay for one way or the other.
When we break down the three tax categories, we find that states with the highest state income tax burdens are New York 4.72 percent, Maryland 4.21 percent, and Oregon (3.62 percent). The highest property tax burden was Maine, at 5.33 percent, Vermont, at 4.98 percent, and New Hampshire, at 4.94 percent. In the Sales Tax bucket, we have Hawaii leading the way by a full percent over the second highest state with 6.71 percent, then Washington at 5.66 percent, and New Mexico with a 5.62 percent tax burden.
These statistics put into perspective that depending on what state you live in can determine whether you get a tax refund or carry a tax burden. It also shows you that even if you earn the same amount of money in New York as someone in Alaska the person in Alaska gets to keep more of that money for doing the same exact job for the same pay rate. This begs the question of how we get to an even playing field for every citizen in the US when it comes to the tax burden we each carry.
