Tag: state income taxes

Guest Post by Paul Craig Roberts

The headline might seem extravagant, but it is true. Readers might not realize its truth, because people tend to associate slavery with confinement, but that is incorrect. The slave was confined to his place of work, because that is where his labor was used and mobility in those times was extremely limited, not because confinement was a feature of slavery.

A slave is a person who does not own his own labor. His labor is owned by another. On 19th century plantations about half of a slave’ output was used to feed, clothe, and house him. In other words, the slave was taxed at 50%. The other half was return on the capital the owner had invested in the slave. According to economic historians, earnings on the investment varied over time but seldom was extravagant. Slavery was brought to the British colonies not because it was profitable, but because there was no other labor force to work the fertile land. Some historians concluded that the return was declining and that slavery was on its way out.

Continue reading “Every State With An Income Tax Is A Slave State”

Via Visual Capitalist

Another U.S. tax deadline has passed, and you may be wondering how green the grass is on the other side of the state border. Today’s maps and charts, from cost information website HowMuch.net, show the difference in tax rates between states to help you discover which states pay the lowest income taxes.

Before we dive in to the data, it is worth noting that there are seven states that currently have zero interest tax, including Florida, Nevada, Texas, Alaska, South Dakota, Washington State and Wyoming. New Hampshire and Tennessee also have no income tax, but they do tax interest and dividends.

The other 41 states (and one district) all levy an income tax. Here’s the average amount paid in each state:

Average Income Tax

California has the highest average tax of any state at 10.4%. Oregon, Minnesota, Hawaii, DC, New York, Vermont, and Maine also have average state income taxes that are higher than 7.5%.

Aside from the states with zero income tax, there are also 14 that have average tax rates below 5%.

However, as HowMuch.net notes, the average isn’t necessarily the best indicator when it comes to this data. Since most tax schemes are progressive, the tax rates of most states vary heavily depending on the level of personal income each year.

Here’s the difference between what the highest income group (top 0.1%) and the median income group (top 50%) are paying:

Continue reading “Which U.S. States Have the Lowest Income Taxes?”