Comparing States on Total Tax Burden, Not Headline Rates
Income, sales, and property tax trade off against each other. Here's a method for comparing states on what you'd actually pay, with worked examples at three income levels.
Most state tax comparisons pick one tax, rank the states on it, and stop. That produces confident conclusions that are frequently wrong, because states trade these taxes off against each other deliberately. A state with no income tax has to raise the money elsewhere, and it does.
Here's a method that gives you a number you can actually act on.
The Four Lines
For any state you're considering, work out:
- State income tax on your income, after that state's standard deduction
- Sales tax — your annual taxable spending × the state's combined rate
- Property tax — the home you'd realistically buy × the state's effective rate
- Local income tax, where it exists
Add them. That's your state and local burden. Compare that total between states, and only that.
The two inputs people get wrong: taxable spending isn't your whole budget (rent, mortgage payments, groceries in most states, and services in many are excluded — for most households taxable spending runs 30–40% of gross income), and the home value should be the home you'd buy in that market, not the one you own now.
Worked Example: $75,000, Single, Renting
Someone earning $75,000, spending about $26,000 on taxable goods, and renting.
Texas. No income tax. Sales tax at 8.20% on $26,000 is about $2,130. No property tax as a renter, though it's embedded in the rent. Total: roughly $2,130.
Pennsylvania. Flat 3.07% with no standard deduction: about $2,300. Sales tax at 6.34% on $26,000: about $1,650. Total: roughly $3,950.
California. Progressive brackets on $75,000 less the $5,363 standard deduction: about $2,700. Sales tax at 8.85% on $26,000: about $2,300. Total: roughly $5,000.
Florida. No income tax. Sales tax at 7% on $26,000: about $1,820. Total: roughly $1,820.
At this income and profile, the no-income-tax states win clearly. The ranking holds because a renter escapes the property tax line where those states do most of their collecting.
Worked Example: $75,000, Married, $400,000 Home
Same income, now a couple filing jointly with a house.
Texas. No income tax. Sales tax about $2,130. Property tax at 1.49% on $400,000: $5,960. Total: roughly $8,090.
Pennsylvania. Income tax about $2,300. Sales tax about $1,650. Property tax at 1.30%: $5,200. Total: roughly $9,150.
California. Joint brackets with the $10,726 standard deduction: about $1,700. Sales tax about $2,300. Property tax at 0.70%: $2,800. Total: roughly $6,800.
South Carolina. Income tax on joint income after the $29,200 deduction: about $1,700. Sales tax at 7.5%: about $1,950. Property tax at 0.48%: $1,920. Total: roughly $5,570.
The ranking inverts. Texas now costs more than California for this household, because property tax dominates the calculation and California's Proposition 13 keeps effective rates low. South Carolina — which nobody puts on a low-tax list — comes out cheapest of the four.
This is the case that breaks people's intuitions, and it's a common profile.
Worked Example: $250,000, Single, Renting
High earner, spending $55,000 on taxable goods, renting.
Texas. No income tax. Sales tax about $4,510. Total: roughly $4,510.
California. Progressive brackets reach 9.3% here; tax after deduction is roughly $18,900. Sales tax about $4,870. Total: roughly $23,770.
Pennsylvania. Flat 3.07%: about $7,675. Sales tax about $3,490. Total: roughly $11,165.
At high income with low property exposure, income tax dominates completely and the no-income-tax states win by a wide margin. A $19,000 annual difference between Texas and California is the kind of gap that genuinely moves people, and it's why this profile — high-earning, mobile, renting or in a modest home — accounts for so much of the interstate migration.
What the Three Examples Show
The answer changes with the profile, not just the state:
- High income, low property, low spending → income tax dominates. No-income-tax states win decisively.
- Middle income, high property value → property tax dominates. No-income-tax states often lose.
- Low income, any profile → sales tax dominates as a share of income. States with grocery exemptions and generous standard deductions win.
Anyone who tells you a state is cheap or expensive without asking what you earn, what you spend, and what you'd own is guessing.
Four Things This Method Still Misses
Cost of living. Housing swamps everything. A $400,000 house in Texas and a $400,000 house in California are not the same house, and the California mortgage on an equivalent property may exceed the entire tax difference. Compare equivalent lifestyles, not equivalent prices.
Insurance. Florida and Texas carry among the highest homeowners insurance premiums in the country because of hurricane and hail exposure. In Florida the premium difference alone can consume much of the income tax saving.
Local income tax. Indiana counties add 0.5–3%. Maryland counties add 2.25–3.2%. Ohio has hundreds of municipal income taxes. New York City adds its own on top of state tax. State-level figures miss all of it, and it can be several thousand dollars.
Change over time. Tax law moves. Several states have cut rates or moved to flat taxes in recent years; others have added high-income surtaxes. A decision made on today's rates is a decision made on today's rates.
Running It Yourself
Every state has an income tax calculator here, prefilled with that state's real brackets or flat rate and its actual standard deduction, showing state tax, federal tax, FICA, and take-home together. Every state also has a sales tax calculator with its combined rate.
Run your own salary through two or three states, add the sales tax on your realistic taxable spending, add the property tax on the home you'd actually buy, and compare the totals. It takes about ten minutes and it beats every ranked list on the internet, because it's calculated on your numbers instead of a hypothetical median household.