PSA: Interactive State Taxes Table

[Midpack]

With relocation in the picture, I refer to several though most are "static" and therefore less useful. I thought this one was worth sharing as it:

• includes state income, sales, property & gas taxes and
• you can vary income, grocery, property value & miles driven

and it instantly recalculates and sorts. An example with one set of inputs below. I expected to see CA, NY, NJ, MA, CT to be the highest - not NE or some of the others near the top?

FWIW

State Tax Comparison Table

Rank	State	Tot Tax
1	Nebraska	$9,377
2	Wisconsin	$9,303
3	Connecticut	$8,370
4	Vermont	$8,321
5	Kansas	$8,204
6	New Jersy	$8,115
7	Michigan	$7,937
8	Iowa	$7,766
9	Illinois	$7,621
10	New York	$7,539
11	Maine	$7,528
12	Washington, D.C.	$7,432
13	Minnesota	$7,426
14	Rhode Island	$7,423
15	Pennsylvania	$7,341
16	Idaho	$7,197
17	North Carolina	$7,128
18	Massachusetts	$7,051
19	Oregon	$7,007
20	Ohio	$6,927
21	Texas	$6,610
22	Kentucky	$6,529
23	North Dakota	$6,490
24	California	$6,423
25	South Carolina	$6,357
26	Georgia	$6,244
27	Indiana	$6,231
28	Virginia	$6,200
29	Missouri	$6,162
30	Utah	$6,159
31	Oklahoma	$6,102
32	Arkansas	$6,044
33	Montana	$5,953
34	Maryland	$5,945
35	Hawaii	$5,823
36	Mississippi	$5,700
37	West Virginia	$5,664
38	New Hampshire	$5,118
39	South Dakota	$4,996
40	New Mexico	$4,808
41	Colorado	$4,753
42	Arizona	$4,424
43	Alabama	$4,326
44	Delaware	$4,115
45	Washington	$3,910
46	Tennessee	$3,856
47	Florida	$3,738
48	Alaska	$3,212
49	Nevada	$3,092
50	Louisiana	$2,916
51	Wyoming	$2,586

 

[rodi]

Interesting table.

I'd have to adjust some of the items, a bit, because of quirks of my state. Prop 13 impacts property taxes - taxing new owners much more than people who have lived in their homes longer. I'm not sure that table includes our latest tax increases... (EG Sales tax just went up 1/1/2013.)

 

[Lazarus]

Pretty interesting. I know this is just taxes but taxes are not the only cost that varies. Heating and cooling, Property cost.

The chart underestimates my property tax also.

 

[Midpack]

Interesting table.

I'd have to adjust some of the items, a bit, because of quirks of my state. Prop 13 impacts property taxes - taxing new owners much more than people who have lived in their homes longer. I'm not sure that table includes our latest tax increases... (EG Sales tax just went up 1/1/2013.)

Pretty interesting. I know this is just taxes but taxes are not the only cost that varies. Heating and cooling, Property cost.

The chart underestimates my property tax also.

The blog author is open to input on rates, and provides a link to do so...

 

[Midpack]

Looks like a dud thread (sorry), but I did an average for all states to confirm for myself at least that Prop Taxes are my biggest state expense, not Income Taxes. And Gas Taxes are pretty trivial.

Federal taxes are still larger than any single state tax, but considerably less than state taxes in the aggregate.

 

[calmloki]

I appreciated the link and played with the imputs a bit as well as forwarding it. Alaska seemed to be the least expensive state * for taxes * but I suspect the other costs of living there more than make up for it. And as a friend last night said - the weather makes Alaska unattractive. My cheap genes keep wanting to move to Wyoming, and I've liked the people,but, again, weather.

Nevada is a possibility, but I just haven't had a good feel from the people in that state - maybe it's me, but there seems to be an underlying desperation there.

Comes down to it, and given Oregon will tax our rental income anyway, several thousands of dollars/year isn't enough to urge a move.

 

[W2R]

We pay 9.875% sales tax. The table only counts that as 4%, the part of that sales tax which goes to state and not local government.

So yes, it does show the state taxes, but it's not a good tax comparison for areas that have substantial local taxes. Our property taxes go to the Parish (=county), although it shows a small amount is included in the computations as well. Our state income tax is supposedly 6%, and they say it is 4%, but maybe that is after deductions and so on.

I think that to compare two locations being considered for retirement, one must look at the exact taxes in those locations. Local taxes may make a huge difference.

 

[Midpack]

We pay 9.875% sales tax. The table only counts that as 4%, the part of that sales tax which goes to state and not local government.

So yes, it does show the state taxes, but it's not a good tax comparison for areas that have substantial local taxes. Our property taxes go to the Parish (=county), so I assume they are completely left out of the computations as well.

"In addition, in states marked with a dagger (†), additional municipal and regional sales taxes may apply. In states marked with a double dagger (‡), certain items may be taxed at a higher rate, sometimes substantially so." Though curiously LA is not marked

A tool that factored in local sales, income, property and/or gas taxes would probably be a lot to ask of a free tool, but your point is well taken. FWIW

 

[W2R]

"In addition, in states marked with a dagger (†), additional municipal and regional sales taxes may apply. In states marked with a double dagger (‡), certain items may be taxed at a higher rate, sometimes substantially so." Though curiously LA is not marked

That's my point. Imagine the shock of someone who actually believed this table and then moved here. Also, if any of my property tax goes to the state, then I was not aware of it. We vote locally on the millages and the math seems to work out. I guess it is always possible.

A tool that factored in local sales, income, property and/or gas taxes would probably be a lot to ask of a free tool, but your point is well taken. FWIW

Everything I ever look at on the internet is free. But this particular table is essentially useless for comparison purposes, for those like me living in areas with high local taxes. I just wanted to point that out, since I was surprised when I visited Missouri and did a more realistic comparison of taxes.

 

[Midpack]

That's my point. Imagine the shock of someone who actually believed this table and then moved here.

I can't imagine anyone would...

Everything I ever look at on the internet is free. But this particular table is essentially useless for comparison purposes, for those like me living in areas with high local taxes. I just wanted to point that out, since I was surprised when I visited Missouri and did a more realistic comparison of taxes.

I would think it might be useful for initial screening, but sorry...you're most welcome to kill the thread, wouldn't bother me. I wasn't hoping to mislead or provide a useless link.

 

[W2R]

I can't imagine anyone would...

I would think it might be useful for initial screening, but sorry...you're most welcome to kill the thread, wouldn't bother me. I wasn't hoping to mislead or provide a useless link.

Not at all. You posted the link for discussion, and sometimes during discussion one sees two sides of an issue (or link, in this case) rather than universal praise for it. That's useful as well.

 

[pixelville]

Thanks for link!
The assumption is clearly stated in the link, but it is helpful to call out. Property cost varies significantly and that changes the property tax paid. If the author used median home value, that might help make it more representative. Also a similar tax comparison of the major urban/cities areas would be nice As someone else pointed out, in CA newcomers pay the real rate (1% here) although median might be 0.5% because of existing owners.


NY, CA, etc will come out at the top when a real scenario is used.

 

[Midpack]

Not at all. You posted the link for discussion, and sometimes during discussion one sees two sides of an issue (or link, in this case) rather than universal praise for it. That's useful as well.

Indeed, I'll leave it at that...

 

[Original Wally]

And, let's not forget that the author is (apparently) to suggestions. Perhaps the project will grow into a more complete form.

IMHO, Anytime you try to boil down a very complex issue like that into half a dozen inputs it gets really really difficult to provide any meaningful output. As always, YMMV

 

[Katsmeow]

For Texas - FWIW, the property tax which is the largest tax we pay was 99.4% of what we actually paid this year. So the chart was extremely accurate.

This chart will become less accurate for those over 65 as it does not factor in the cap on school taxes for those 65 or over.

The sales tax rate was accurate as far as it goes - 6.25% but we actually pay 8.25% in most areas due to local taxes. The fact there might be local taxes was noted.

 

[SteveNU]

Looks like this was developed almost three years ago and hasn't been touched since then. The accompanying blogs last entry was September 2010.

It is a great idea to bad it seems to have been abandoned.

 

[youbet]

For you Illini........

Note the tool uses 3% for Illinois income tax and this has been increased 67% to 5%. Likely, it will increase quite a bit more...... or Illinois will simply go out of business.

 

[Midpack]

Any of you have a better interactive resource by any chance? I've seen lots of the static tables & maps, though at least they're more current.

 

[pb4uski]

Interesting. I plugged in my actual state taxable income for 2012 and my assessed value and the sum of state income taxes and property taxes was ~97% of the actual amounts.

As W2R noted, ignores some local taxes, but in my case, pretty close.

 

[ERhoosier]

Thanks for the link!
As has been said, many individual variables but it is good place to start.

 

[marko]

I like this link! My income tax is notably higher than my property tax...and our guv has just announced plans to increase the income tax by 19%.

The site does not take into account excise, estate, liquor, meals and other state taxes but does give a good windage on things.

Moving 40 miles north to NH would save me about $12K a year I think.

 

[Amethyst]

Our pensions are fully taxed at Federal, state, and county levels, so moving to a state that either has no income tax, or doesn't tax pension income, is a very attractive idea to us.

Interestingly, these types of articles/tables never mention that NC doesn't tax Federal or military pensions or SS, due to the legislation known as the "Bailey decision."

Amethyst

 

[Mulligan]

General taxing information is almost meaningless because of all the variables. You almost have to pick an exact location you would like to move too, and find exact costs to compare to current situation. I live in MO which has a 6% income tax over 9k of income. Since including my PT job, I am about
100k last year. I originally thought if I moved to an non state income tax state, I would save close to six thousand bucks. Well, not true. Thanks to a provision of pension income being excluded, my state taxes were less than $1700, or only 1.7% total.