18 January 2015 (03:20 UTC-07 Tango)/27 Rab al’Awwal 1436/28 Dey 1393/28 Yi-Chou 4712

A new study shows that even in U.S. states with no official state level income tax the less money you make the higher the percentage of taxes you pay: “Combining all state and local income, property, sales and excise taxes that Americans pay, the nationwide average effective state and local tax rates by income group are 10.9 percent for the poorest 20 percent of individuals and families, 9.4 percent for the middle 20 percent and 5.4 percent for the top 1 percent.“-Who Pays: A Distributional Analysis of the Tax Systems in All Fifty States (fifth edition)

In fact, the U.S. state of Washington (which has no state level income tax) kisses the asses of the 1% the most: Lowest 20% pay 16.8% in various forms of taxes.  The middle 20% pay 10.1%, the top 1% pay only 2.4%.

Many police state New England states are very similar to Washington in their effective combined tax rates.  The top 1% pay very little as a percentage of their incomes compared to the bottom 20%.

Back out west, state and local governments in Idaho charge their lowest 20% of income earners a combined 8.5% for the ‘privilege’ of living in the Gem State.  The middle 20% pay 7.6% and the top 1% pay 6.4%.  Also, Idaho does not allow poor people to get a state level ‘earned income tax credit’ rebate such as states like California.  If an individual’s personal income is less than $10,500 USD the state will not accept a tax refund filing request from them (even though the state’s own tax refund charts show they should be able to get a refund, and that the unfair state income taxes were already taken out of their paychecks).

California is considered the most ‘fair’ with its plethora of state and local taxes, but the poor are still charged more than the rich.  The bottom 20% of income earners pay 10.5% for the ‘privilege’ of living in the Golden State.  The middle 20% pay 8.2% and the top 1% pay 8.7%.

To read more and weep (unless your the top 1%, then rejoice) click here for more. The study does not include federal level taxes.

As far as sales tax only, the TaxFoundation accuses Tennessee of having the highest state and local sales taxes, while Delaware,  Montana, New Hampshire and Oregon have no sales tax (as of 2014).  Some states, like Idaho, actually have a ‘sales’ tax law (called a Use Tax in Idaho) requiring you to pay taxes on any products you buy outside of the state!

In 2010, Bankrate.com rated Hawaii and Oregon as the states with the highest individual income tax rates, followed by California, Oregon, Iowa, New Jersey, New York, Vermont, Maine and Washington DC.

The Retirement Living Information Center provides state level tax info for each U.S. state (but not local level taxes).  However, they don’t rate which state is the best for least amount of taxes paid.

Do the taxes you pay justify the lack of governmental services you get in return?  Even with Obama Care the United States still does not have a true ‘socialized’ healthcare system (it’s just a profit making scheme for the insurance industry)!