(The Center Square) – A new report released Tuesday ranks all 50 states by individual income tax rates.
The Tax Foundation released its 2023 State Business Tax Climate Index Tuesday, which included a state by state breakdown of individual income tax rates taking into account a range of factors such as deductions and business tax structures for sole proprietors.
Alaska, Florida, South Dakota, and Wyoming received perfect scores from the group since they have no individual income tax and no payroll taxes aside from the standard unemployment insurance payment. Nevada, New Hampshire Tennessee, Texas, and Washington were close behind.
“The individual income tax is important to businesses because states tax sole proprietorships, partnerships, and, in most cases, limited liability companies (LLCs) and S corporations under the individual income tax code,” Tax Foundation Policy Analyst Janelle Fritts said in a statement with the report’s release. “However, even traditional C corporations are indirectly impacted by the individual income tax, as this tax influences the location decisions of individuals, potentially impacting the state’s labor supply, and higher individual income taxes increase the price of labor.”
California, Connecticut, Hawaii, New Jersey, and New York are among the worst performing states by the Tax Foundation’s metrics.
“States that score poorly on this component tend to have high tax rates and very progressive bracket structures,” Fritts said. “They generally fail to index their brackets, exemptions, and deductions for inflation, do not allow the deduction of foreign or other state taxes, penalize married couples filing jointly, do not include LLCs and S corporations under the individual income tax code (instead taxing them as C corporations), and may impose an alternative minimum tax (AMT).”
The map below shows the full rankings:
