Tennessee Residents Pay Nearly $3K Per Capita In Key State Tax Levies
Photo: The flag of Tennessee flies at the Opryland Hotel in Nashville on the 25th of March, 2019.
Photo Credit: NovumChase
Published February 11, 2021
The Center Square –
Tennessee residents pay 5.7% of their income per capita toward property, income and sales taxes – or $2,694 per person – according to a new study examining tax burdens in the 50 states and the District of Columbia.
The share of income paid by Tennessee residents for these three taxes represented the second-lowest state tax burden among the 50 states and Washington, D.C., the HireAHelper website reported.
The state’s residents paid 1.69% of their income on property taxes, according to the website, which provides moving services.
The percentages of income going toward the state taxes vary significantly among the states, the study said, from nearly 13% in New York to just over 5% in Alaska, researchers said. The study uses data from the U.S. Census Bureau and U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis to measure state tax revenues collected as a share of states’ total personal income per year.
The analysis points out that some states, such as North Dakota and Alaska, rely heavily on severance taxes on oil, natural gas and other resources so that taxes on individuals remain relatively low.
States in the Northeast tend to impose the highest tax burdens on individuals, while states in the South have lower tax burdens, researchers said.
Tax Burdens Imposed by the 50 States:
| Rank | State | Property, Income and Sales Taxes as a Percentage of Income | Annual Property, Income and Sales Taxes Per Person | Property Taxes as a Percentage of Income | Income Taxes as a Percentage of Income | Sales Taxes as a Percentage of Income |
| 1 | New York | 12.80% | $8,781 | 4.41% | 4.96% | 3.43% |
| 2 | Hawaii | 12.23% | $6,755 | 2.46% | 3.10% | 6.68% |
| 3 | District of Columbia | 11.63% | $9,435 | 4.60% | 3.63% | 3.40% |
| 4 | Vermont | 10.92% | $5,827 | 5.12% | 2.45% | 3.35% |
| 5 | Connecticut | 10.67% | $7,985 | 4.15% | 3.64% | 2.88% |
| 6 | Maine | 10.52% | $5,136 | 4.61% | 2.46% | 3.45% |
| 7 | New Jersey | 10.06% | $6,809 | 4.98% | 2.49% | 2.59% |
| 8 | Minnesota | 10.02% | $5,746 | 2.87% | 3.69% | 3.46% |
| 9 | Rhode Island | 9.75% | $5,312 | 4.47% | 2.31% | 2.98% |
| 10 | California | 9.49% | $6,029 | 2.64% | 3.78% | 3.06% |
| 11 | Illinois | 9.48% | $5,410 | 3.98% | 2.10% | 3.39% |
| 12 | Maryland | 9.43% | $5,905 | 2.70% | 3.94% | 2.79% |
| 13 | Kansas | 9.40% | $4,818 | 3.13% | 2.29% | 3.98% |
| 14 | Iowa | 9.27% | $4,640 | 3.39% | 2.53% | 3.35% |
| 15 | Nebraska | 9.08% | $4,793 | 3.80% | 2.32% | 2.96% |
| 16 | Mississippi | 9.01% | $3,403 | 2.80% | 1.64% | 4.56% |
| 17 | Ohio | 8.96% | $4,365 | 2.78% | 2.54% | 3.64% |
| 18 | Wisconsin | 8.90% | $4,588 | 3.25% | 2.72% | 2.92% |
| 19 | Louisiana | 8.83% | $4,079 | 1.93% | 1.51% | 5.39% |
| 20 | Arkansas | 8.80% | $3,806 | 1.79% | 2.20% | 4.81% |
| 21 | Massachusetts | 8.78% | $6,288 | 3.57% | 3.29% | 1.92% |
| 22 | West Virginia | 8.78% | $3,614 | 2.31% | 2.62% | 3.85% |
| 23 | Kentucky | 8.61% | $3,639 | 2.00% | 3.18% | 3.43% |
| 24 | Pennsylvania | 8.49% | $4,755 | 2.83% | 2.53% | 3.14% |
| 25 | Michigan | 8.47% | $4,040 | 3.07% | 2.26% | 3.14% |
| 26 | Washington | 8.33% | $5,174 | 2.64% | 0.00% | 5.68% |
| 27 | Colorado | 8.25% | $4,855 | 2.74% | 2.24% | 3.26% |
| 28 | Utah | 8.19% | $3,842 | 2.28% | 2.69% | 3.22% |
| 29 | Oregon | 8.19% | $4,209 | 3.02% | 4.12% | 1.04% |
| 30 | New Mexico | 8.19% | $3,407 | 2.00% | 1.44% | 4.75% |
| 31 | Arizona | 8.16% | $3,630 | 2.52% | 1.42% | 4.21% |
| 32 | Indiana | 8.12% | $3,844 | 2.18% | 2.04% | 3.90% |
| 33 | Nevada | 8.11% | $4,048 | 2.09% | 0.00% | 6.03% |
| 34 | Texas | 8.08% | $4,123 | 3.86% | 0.00% | 4.22% |
| 35 | North Carolina | 8.06% | $3,725 | 2.15% | 2.63% | 3.28% |
| 36 | Virginia | 7.86% | $4,545 | 2.93% | 2.86% | 2.06% |
| 37 | Missouri | 7.85% | $3,695 | 2.28% | 2.40% | 3.17% |
| 38 | Georgia | 7.84% | $3,678 | 2.57% | 2.36% | 2.91% |
| 39 | Idaho | 7.78% | $3,461 | 2.29% | 2.35% | 3.14% |
| 40 | North Dakota | 7.78% | $4,327 | 2.95% | 0.87% | 3.95% |
| 41 | South Carolina | 7.42% | $3,259 | 2.76% | 1.99% | 2.68% |
| 42 | Alabama | 7.37% | $3,147 | 1.40% | 1.94% | 4.03% |
| 43 | Montana | 7.36% | $3,540 | 3.55% | 2.54% | 1.26% |
| 44 | South Dakota | 7.35% | $3,853 | 3.01% | 0.00% | 4.34% |
| 45 | Oklahoma | 7.19% | $3,295 | 1.68% | 1.93% | 3.58% |
| 46 | Florida | 6.86% | $3,489 | 2.70% | 0.00% | 4.16% |
| 47 | New Hampshire | 6.83% | $4,192 | 5.47% | 0.13% | 1.24% |
| 48 | Delaware | 6.17% | $3,260 | 1.76% | 3.23% | 1.18% |
| 49 | Wyoming | 6.11% | $3,709 | 3.32% | 0.00% | 2.80% |
| 50 | Tennessee | 5.70% | $2,694 | 1.69% | 0.08% | 3.93% |
| 51 | Alaska | 5.04% | $3,030 | 3.64% | 0.00% | 1.40% |
More excellent news that our “Conservative” Republican legislatures over the past several years know how to balance the budget and spend LESS than they make, just like most of them do with the business and home budgets. But, they also know how to keep regulations low so that the tax base grows, making it a ‘no brainer’! The issue with other more liberal republican and of course Democrat run cities and states is they firmly believe things that are just untrue, i.e., That their constituents know less how to spend their money than they do, that their biggest desire is to continue to stay in power, thus creating a dependent class with everything they do and every policy pass and finally, that they have disdain for true ‘markets’ and their ability to adjust. This survey is only a part of the reason, citizens from high taxes, Democrat controlled states are ‘running’ to Tennessee. But, as I told a transient from California recently, “Just leave your politics at the Mississippi River! They won’t work here!”