A study from personal finance company WalletHub, published in February, looked at the tax burden for people in various income brackets for all 50 states and DC. The 10 states with the highest and lowest taxes on the upper class come from all areas of the country, but there is a clear divide between states with red and blue political leanings.
To determine the tax burden, WalletHub examined the amount of taxes paid at three different income levels, with $25,000 defined as “low,” $50,000 for “medium,” and $150,000 as “high.” It also looked at the percentage of a resident’s income in each state that goes to sales and excise taxes, property taxes, and income taxes.
While it might not come as a surprise that the Republican and Democratic parties often have different stances on taxing the wealthy, the level of divide in WalletHub’s analysis is stark.
Of the 10 states with the highest taxes on the wealthy, nine are states President Joe Biden won in the 2020 presidential election. Meanwhile, nine of the 10 states with the lowest tax burden went to former President Donald Trump.
The 10 states with the lowest overall taxes tend to be quite lenient on income tax. In fact, five of those states have no state income tax and four have an income tax below 1% for the wealthy. On the other hand, the 10 states with the highest taxes for the rich had income taxes that ranged between 3.96% and 6.62%.
Here are the 10 states where wealthy residents pay the highest percentage of their income on state taxes, ranked from highest to lowest (No. 50 to No. 41). That’s followed by the 10 states with the lowest tax burden for high-income earners, also ranked from highest to lowest (No. 10 to No. 1). Business Insider omitted DC, which was included in the WalletHub study and ranked 47th overall.
