States Without Income Tax Move Forward

Still, having no income tax gives more control to the individual over who gets to pay and how much. But the bottom line here is if one doesn't like the tax situation they are in, leave that state and go to one that you like.

If you can't leave or won't, then suck it up and live with the consequences of how and who you voted for. If you just look in the mirror and see someone else to blame other than yourself, you have to be a progressive Democrat. 


States Without Income Taxes Rely on Varying Forms of Revenue

Source: Alex Raut, "States Without Income Taxes Rely on Varying Forms of Revenue," Tax Foundation, April 26, 2012.


According to the latest U.S. Census Bureau data, state-level individual income taxes make up the largest share of total state government tax collections. In 2011, state governments brought in $259 billion through these taxes, approximately 34 percent of total collections.

However, there are currently nine states that do not tax wage income (New Hampshire and Tennessee tax interest and dividends): Alaska, Florida, Nevada, New Hampshire, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Washington and Wyoming. The composition of tax collections in these states varies considerably, says Alex Raut of the Tax Foundation.

•For example, Florida, South Dakota and Washington each raised about 60 percent of their collections through sales taxes in 2011 -- nearly double the national average.
•New Hampshire collected 39 percent of its $2.3 billion of tax revenue from excise taxes (national average: 17.4 percent), and around 25 percent from corporate income taxes (national average: 5.3 percent).
•Alaska and Wyoming, both of which rely heavily on severance taxes on natural resource extraction, each collected a much larger percentage of their tax revenue from "other taxes" than the national average of 12.1 percent -- 82.4 and 59.9, respectively. Besides severance taxes, this category includes state-level property taxes, death and gift taxes, documentary and stock transfer taxes, and licenses.

•Nevada and Texas each collect about half of their respective totals from sales tax collections, splitting the rest between excise and other taxes.

Since 2000, some of these states have seen large changes in the overall make-up of their tax collections, while others have stayed rather consistent.

•For example, in 2000, over 30 percent of Alaska's tax revenue came from its corporate income tax; in 2011, that same figure accounts for less than 5 percent of total collections.
•This has not been caused by decreases in corporate tax collections, which in fact increased by 64 percent between 2000 and 2011, but by enormous increases in severance taxes.
•On the other hand, the composition of tax collections in Tennessee and Texas has largely remained unchanged over the last decade.