A cool guide to total tax burden by state

Taxes aren't a burden. They are an easy way to pay for the things we all use like roads, public services, parks, and the infrastructure to run it all.

Calling taxes a "burden" plants the idea that taxes have no use and are unfair. Taxes are only as fair as the people make them - vote.

When I moved from FL to MD I immediately noticed that there were a lot of services paid for. Like parks, schools, and other things that made life better. I'd rather pay for things than not have them.
- I think I'm gonna name MD America's official most forgettable state.
  I'm not American so obviously there's not particularly important reason for me to be able to name all 50 states, but with the aid of this chart I could get all the way to 48. I dunno if I placed them all correctly (who could possibly know if "ME" and "MA" refer to Massachusetts and Maine respectively, or inversely, and unlike MO, which devoid of the context of the full map I might've guessed was Montana, these two don't have geography to help out, being right next to each other), but even with a map and the abbreviations, I can't for the life of me figure out MD.
  Or MN, while I'm at it. But for some reason that one feels like one I'll be slightly more embarrassed to have forgotten if I looked it up.
- I actually completely agree with your first paragraph about the definition of burden. I think anything which places a cost on you is fair to call a burden, even if it's one that greatly benefits society or even yourself personally in the long run.
  But your second paragraph is nonsense. There's nothing fair about a flat tax. Flat taxes place a greater burden on the lowest income, because they tend to spend a higher percentage of their income and save less, simply due to necessities being a higher percentage of their income. A flat tax completely ignores this fact.
  A fair society is one on which the more you earn, the more you give back. Because you can give back more without it causing you significant extra burden.
  The first paragraph is important because of this way of defining what is fair. The fact that we can accept that tax is still a burden means we can explain what is a fair tax by trying to minimise the cumulative burden on taxpayers while maximising the amount of tax brought in.

Texas has significantly higher property taxes than California. So high in fact, many of the tech bros that moved out there and bought a million dollar home had a higher total tax burden even though California has higher income and sales taxes.

Don't ever trust a cool guide to figure your taxes, just do the math yourself.

Also higher taxes can save you money in the long term if those taxes support things like infrastructure, education, and healthcare. Living in Texas, getting back 10-20% of your income back through lower taxes but receiving a fraction of the benefits of a social democracy in a Nordic country ain't a fair trade for working people.

Glad you've put a little more meat on the bone. Taxes are so much more complicated in every country than memes like this ever capture. Second point is totally true, but who wants well maintained roads and hospitals?

Not a fair comparison if they leave out property taxes.

Last year I paid twice as much in property tax as I did in state income tax.

I bet a bunch of ‘low tax’ states wouldn’t look so great if they included the full picture.

From the bottom of the graphic: “Total tax burden based on property tax, individual income tax, and sales & excise tax.“
Several states have no state income tax at all, so it wouldn’t make sense to only look at that.
What does make this a bit of an unfair comparison is that it doesn’t break it down by income. Compare tax burdens for the bottom quartile earners and it tells a different story.

...and yet, the states with the highest tax "burdens" seem to be doing the best economically?

Maybe--and just hear me out!--letting the rich off the hook for paying their fair share doesn't actually work out?

It’s not the taxes
No matter what tax system you put in place; California, Texas, and New York are going to do better economically than Alaska, Wyoming, Tennessee
Well tell that to the rich making the laws... Oh wait

Honestly I can't believe anyone complains about their taxes being too high in the US.

Sure, we don’t have 70% tax rates like some countries do, but the 30% taxes we do pay don’t actually do anything to improve our lives.
I feel like it’s valid to complain about paying taxes into a system that doesn’t have any interest in making our lives better or longer.
Also, we still spend that extra 40% in ridiculous health insurance and copayments.

Wyoming resident here. I think it should be made clear that the Jackson Hole metro area is overflowing with billionaires and multi-millionaires. The state also has the lowest or close to the lowest population count of the entire country. In other words, take that % with a bucket of salt.

Horrible way to display this.

In states with no income taxes and mostly regressive taxes like sales taxes and other consumption tax, the rich with large income (who always disproportionately account for all income in any state) pay a very low share of their income in taxes. Some people will be paying 10% of their income in taxes because their entire income is spent every month and taxed as consumption (sales taxes). While others pay only 2% of their income in taxes because a good portion of their income goes into savings and tax-free retirement accounts and not on consumption.

Meanwhile states with a progressive income tax ensure that (closer to) everyone pays a more fair share of their income. So the rich end up paying more of their income. While lower income families pay a lower sales tax rate (and/or are able to see the benefits of better social programs funded by the taxes on the wealthy)

Tennessee clearly illustrates the burden imposed by low taxes

Call it "Adult Subscription Fee."

Cost of participating in society and getting to use all the things built with other people's money.

"Adult Subscription Fee."
I dunno that sounds kinda porny

I was trying to find the equivalent stats for my country. So far I have failed to do so, but I did find this page. And holy shit I didn't realise it was so rare to have a 0 marginal income tax bracket. America being shitty is little surprise to me, but Canada, Spain, and Germany wow. And the UK and Sweden with their lowest marginal rate being as high as Australia's median income's marginal rate. That seems grossly unfair to the poorest people in the country.

Edit: I did later find this which at first seemed to be pretty much the thing I was initially looking for, but on closer inspection…the UK's effective average tax rate is way less than half of their lowest marginal income tax, so it's obviously not doing what it seems to be doing from the title.

I can't say for other countries, but Canada uses a non-refundable tax credit called the basic personal amount. As long as you make less than that, and file your taxes correctly (and maybe even if you don't), you will pay no income tax. Each province has a similar thing at a similar amount.
So yes, there is a marginal tax rate at even $1, but no one is paying until about $15k.
- Interesting. How does that interact with your take-home paycheque? In Australia your income tax is deducted by your employer, so if your only interaction with the tax system is "do job. make money. pay tax on that money", come tax time you should get 0 tax bill and 0 refund, it already having been paid as you go.
  If it's a tax credit outside the income tax system, I imagine that would be taken into account after the fact? So you end up getting a big refund every year. Which is nice, but surely would be nicer to have had the money all year? Or do employers' payroll systems take that into account basically like it's part of income tax?