Report: Florida’s tax burden 5th-lowest in the U.S.

By Jason Schaumburg
The Center Square
June 25, 2020

(The Center Square) – Florida has the fifth-lowest tax burden in the U.S., according to a new report by the personal finance website WalletHub.

The proportion of total personal income a person pays toward state and local taxes is considered his or her tax burden.

To determine who has the biggest tax burdens in the U.S., WalletHub compared the 50 states across the three types of state tax burdens – property taxes, individual income taxes and sales and excise taxes – as a share of total personal income in the state.

Florida ranked 46th in the U.S. in total tax burden at 6.82 percent. It also ranked in the bottom seven states for highest individual income tax burden, coming in tied for 44th with no burden.

Florida’s property tax burden was 2.79 percent (28th overall), and its total sales and excise tax burden was 4.03 percent (14th overall).

New York (12.28 percent), Hawaii (11.48 percent), Vermont (10.73 percent), Maine (10.57 percent) and Minnesota (10.19 percent) were the states with the overall highest tax burden.

Along with Florida, Alaska (5.16 percent), Delaware (5.52 percent), Tennessee (6.18 percent) and Wyoming (6.47 percent) had the lowest overall tax burden.

New Hampshire (5.57 percent) had the highest property tax as a percentage of personal income, and Alabama was lowest (1.43 percent).

New York (4.40 percent) had the highest income tax burden as a percentage of personal income, and Alaska, Florida, Nevada, Texas, South Dakota, Washington and Wyoming have no income tax burden on its residents.

Hawaii (6.36 percent) had the highest sales and excise tax burden as a percentage of personal income, and Oregon was lowest (1.05 percent).

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Mark Tomes
Trusted Member
Mark Tomes(@mtomes)
3 years ago

I would not judge a state or a government by how low it sets its taxes; you often get what you pay for. Taxes are a community’s method of taking care of itself; they are necessary and not evil unto themselves. The issues are whether the tax burdens are fair for any particular group of people and what happens to those taxes. We certainly saw the failure of our governments in using our taxes wisely when the pandemic hit – billions of dollars went needlessly to wealthy corporate executives (fortunately, although begrudingly by many Republicans, some dollars went to paycheck protections and individuals to help them get by). But the removal of our taxes before the pandemic in pandemic research, unemployment benefits, affordable health care, etc., and funneling those taxes into the wealthiest citizen’s pockets shows a fundamental flaw in our tax system and obvious places to correct now. It all comes down to who you vote for (if you are allowed to vote, but that is another issue).