Socialistic State Taxes

As you find yourself doing your taxes and cursing while trying to find any conceivable deductions, it is interesting to take a look at the huge discrepancies between state tax levels. Some states such as Florida and Texas have no state income taxes while California and Oregon run at about 11%! Maybe it is time for all of us to reassess where we decide to live.

PropertyTaxes vary significantly by state

Maybe Texas deserves a second look...

Another interesting way to look at state income taxes is to rank the states by the distribution of income taxes according to income levels. By looking at how much the top 1% of the state pay as a percentage of income compared to the bottom 20%, we can get a feel for which states highly subsidize the poor via taxing the rich and vice versa.

How much do the rich in your state subsidize the poor?

Some of the states, such as Washington, have no income tax so you can not say that income taxes are being use to subsidize any one class. On the other hand, it could be argued that sales taxes hurt the poor more than the rich because purchases make up a larger portion of total income for the bottom 20% versus the top 1%.