Mapped: Every State’s Biggest Source of Tax Revenue
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Most of America’s federal government revenue is raised through personal and corporate income taxes. But how do individual states raise money for government activities?
We visualize each state’s largest source of tax revenue, color-coded by personal income, sales, or other taxes. Data was sourced from Pew Research and is current up to 2023.
Breaking Down Every State’s Tax Revenue Share
A vast majority of states raise most of their tax revenue through general and selective sales taxes. Here’s the share of each category to all the tax collected by each state.
StatePersonal
Income Tax (%)Sales Tax (%)Other Tax (%)
Alabama354817
Alaska0991
Arizona216415
Arkansas255223
California443422
Colorado374419
Connecticut404020
Delaware371053
Florida08020
Georgia493516
Hawaii30619
Idaho295120
Illinois354322
Indiana39547
Iowa364816
Kansas344323
Kentucky354916
Louisiana305119
Maine394813
Maryland414316
Massachusetts533017
Michigan314920
Minnesota413722
Mississippi236413
Missouri504010
Montana492031
Nebraska414712
Nevada07723
New Hampshire42967
New Jersey364024
New Mexico193744
New York472627
North Carolina434611
North Dakota83062
Ohio29656
Oklahoma324028
Oregon642017
Pennsylvania314920
Rhode Island345511
South Carolina374815
South Dakota08515
Tennessee07426
Texas08515
Utah484111
Vermont273340
Virginia453817
Washington27424
West Virginia354520
Wisconsin394417
Wyoming04555
Note: Figures rounded. New Hampshire and Washington report capital gains and dividends collections under personal income tax. Oregon reports corporate activity taxes under sales tax.
For six states with no broad-based personal income tax (South Dakota, Florida, Texas, Nevada, Washington, and Tennessee), sales taxes contribute more than 70% to all tax dollars raised.
Then, in direct contrast to neighbor Washington, Oregon has no sales tax, so personal income tax is their majority collection.
For states with a higher median income (California, New York, Massachusetts) the largest share is personal income tax.
And then there are the states which don’t fall in either of the two main categories. For example, Alaska also has no personal income tax but makes most of its revenue through severance tax (listed under Other). It also benefits from the Permanent Fund and federal transfers.
Similarly, New Hampshire has no general sales or personal income tax. So, collections from corporate income and business profits are the majority sources of tax revenue.
Learn More on the Voronoi App
Wondering how much of your income goes towards the various state taxes? Check out Visualizing the Tax Burden of Every U.S. State for the ultimate breakdown.
The post Mapped: Every State’s Biggest Source of Tax Revenue appeared first on Visual Capitalist.