It’s easy to complain about less-than-perfect conditions in your home state. In some ways, the grass will always seem greener on the other side of the state line. When you’re particularly frustrated, it can feel especially good to fall into a wail of “But that’s not faaaiiirrr” when it comes to taxes and the services that governments provide for the people who pay those taxes.
But when Illinoisans start to whine about unfair taxes, they may actually have a point.
Financial social media site WalletHub took a look at which state’s taxes are the fairest based on what people’s perceptions are of what’s fair compared to how people are really taxed in every state. Illinois was ranked as the fourth least-fair state in the union, just behind Washington, Hawaii and Arkansas and just ahead of Indiana, New York and Florida.
Montana was ranked as the number one most tax-fair state in the country, followed by Oregon, South Carolina, Delaware and Idaho.
Here is a map from WalletHub, showing which states have the fairest tax burdens. The report found that states that tend to swing Democrat had slightly more fair burdens than states that tend to swing Republican:
10 states with the most fair tax burdens:
- Montana
- Oregon
- South Carolina
- Delaware
- Idaho
- Virginia
- Minnesota
- California
- Maryland
- Vermont
10 states with the least fair tax burdens:
- Washington
- Hawaii
- Arkansas
- Illinios
- Florida
- Indiana
- Mississippi
- Arizona
- Texas
- Tennessee
Fair is not always objective, so the authors of this study polled economically, ethically and socially varied Americans to see what the average person thought a fair tax structure looked like in order to rank the states. States were ranked based on the difference between the study’s results of a “fair” tax burden and each state’s real tax burden.
The report’s authors also broke down poll respondents’ fairness qualifications by political leanings and ranked the states for fairness based on the ideology of the more conservative and liberal respondents. Overall, and in both political camps, the study found that Americans favor progressive tax structures for state and local taxes, with wealthier households paying a higher percentage of their income in taxes. (Illinois has a flat state income tax rate, at 5 percent for everyone, regardless of income.) Even though a progressive tax structure was preferred across the board, the conservatives still thought people with a lower income should owe a higher percentage of taxes than liberals did and liberals thought higher-income people should pay a higher percentage of their income in taxes than conservatives did. This is broadly in line with traditional perspectives of how economic conservatives and liberals view taxes.
Tax burdens can be fair or unfair at different tax brackets. Some states tax their higher-income people fairly, according to the parameters set out in the report, while still taxing their middle- or lower-income residents unfairly. Illinois was ranked as the number two state to overtax its low-income residents (Washington was number one) and number seven state to overtax its middle-income residents (Arkansas was number one). Illinois was not among the top 10 states to undertax its wealthy residents (Wyoming was number one).
NEXT ARTICLE: AARP poll offers many lessons on Illinois taxes
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