How Bad is Washington State’s Tax Burden? Tax Foundation Releases Annual Report

Since 1937, the independent, non-partisan Tax Foundation has released a comprehensive look at tax burdens and issues in all 50 states as well as the U.S. overall.

This year, the Foundation says overall Washington state ranks 28th out of 50 for the highest tax burdens overall.  As of 2015, 9.3% of all income went to state and local taxes. The average Washington resident pays just over $3,200 annually in these state and local taxes, and also pays an average of just over $1,300 in taxes in other states. This comes from traveling to and doing business in other states that tax out-of-state visitors or part-time residents.

By comparison, New York has the highest state-local burden at 12.7% along with Connecticut at 12.6 and New Jersey at 12.2.   The lowest?  Alaska had the lowest at 6.5% followed by South Dakota and Wyoming at 7.1%.

By the way, our neighbors to the south, Oregon, came in at the bottom of the top ten in most tax burden, with 10.1%.

The entire report can be seen by clicking here.