Which states have the highest and lowest income tax?
Oregon collected the most state income taxes in 2023, while nine states collected no income tax at all.
According to the most recent data, the average American paid $1,395 in state income taxes in 2023. Depending on which state you live in, you might be paying more, less, or nothing at all.
What is state income tax?
States collect state income taxes from residents annually. These are separate from federal income taxes, which are paid to the federal government.
States commonly use income tax revenue to fund services and programs for:
- Education: supporting K–12 (teacher and administrator salaries) and higher education (state community colleges and universities)
- Healthcare: operating state-specific initiatives and state-administered programs such as Medicaid
- Corrections: building, maintaining, and operating state prison systems
- Transportation and infrastructure: building and maintaining roadways, bridges, airports, and public transit systems
- Public assistance: providing cash or benefits to individuals or families, including childcare services, transitional housing, and job training
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How much someone owes in state income tax depends on their income level and their state’s tax rate. Some states have a flat tax rate, so everyone pays the same percentage of their income in taxes no matter how much they earn. Other states have a progressive tax rate, meaning that people who earn more pay a higher percentage of their income in taxes. Some states have no income tax at all.
State income tax rates vary, with 27 states and DC using a progressive system.
State income tax structure, March 2026
Which states have no income tax?
As of 2026, there are nine states that don’t collect any state income tax: Alaska, Florida, Nevada, South Dakota, New Hampshire, Tennessee, Texas, Washington, and Wyoming. Two of these are recent additions to the list; New Hampshire repealed its state income tax effective January 1, 2025, and Tennessee repealed state income tax in 2021.
Instead of levying income taxes, these states collect tax revenue from other sources like property taxes, sales tax, and motor vehicle licensing taxes.
However, in March 2026, the Washington state legislature passed a state income tax on income of $1 million or more. The law will be effective January 1, 2028.
Where do people pay the highest state income taxes?
In 2023, people paying the highest average state income tax per person were:
- Oregonians, who paid an average of $3,123.07 per person
- Bay Staters (people from Massachusetts), at $3,097.34
- New Yorkers, at $2,970.49
- Californians, at $2,459.81
The highest average per-person local income tax in the nation was collected in Washington, DC: $4,465.88 per person.
Oregon collected the most state income taxes per person: over $3,100.
Average state income tax per person, 2023
The lowest average taxes in 2023 were paid in:
- Tennessee, at $0.41 per person
- New Hampshire ($106.66)
- Washington ($108.03)
- North Dakota ($629.47)
- Arizona ($641.36)
- Mississippi ($819.86)
- Ohio ($957.81)
Residents in all other states paid an average of $1,000 or more in state income taxes. The data above does not include people in no-tax states.
Which states have the highest income tax burden?
Income tax “burden” is another way to evaluate how much tax someone pays: it measures the share of a person’s income paid in state income taxes.
Tax burdens in 2023 were highest in Oregon, where the average resident paid 4.6% of their personal income to state income taxes. Delaware and New York were tied for second (3.6%). The tax burden in Washington, DC, was 4.2% for the average resident.
Oregonians paid almost 5% of their income in state income tax in 2023.
State income tax revenues as a percentage of per capita personal income, 2023
Which states have the lowest income burden?
Among the income-tax collecting states, Tennessee had the lowest income tax burden in 2023. That year, the average Tennessean paid just $0.41 — or 0.0006% of their income — in state income taxes. Washington (0.1%), New Hampshire (0.1%) and North Dakota (0.9%) were the only other states with a tax burden of less than 1%.
Eleven other states — Arizona, Colorado, Ohio, Mississippi, Louisiana, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Idaho, South Carolina, Michigan and Pennsylvania — had tax burdens between 1.0% and 2.0%. The remaining 30 states had tax burdens of 2.0% or higher.
Where does this data come from?
Where does this data come from?
Data published in this article comes from the Census Bureau’s annual survey of state and local government finances. It provides statistics on revenue, expenditure, debt, and assets for the 50 states and Washinton, DC. The intention of the survey is to provide comprehensive and standardized information on public finances at the local and state level.
The Census Bureau has produced this report every year since 1957 and has collected data by either a census (in years ending in 2 and 7), or a sample of state and local governments in intervening years.
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