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Florida, for all its no state income tax acclaim, is only a little better than average in overall state-local tax burden, according to the Tax Foundation.
The state has the 31st highest state-local tax burden in the U.S., the report shows. That puts it one spot behind Colorado and one spot ahead of Virginia. The annual report analyzes the percentage of state income residents pay in state and local taxes, and whether those taxes are paid to their state of residence or others. The formula is the total amount of state and local taxes paid by state residents to both their own and other governments, divided by each state's total income.
A Washington D.C.-based nonpartisan research organization, the Tax Foundation analyzes taxes that way, it says, to move the focus from the tax collector to the taxpayer. “States have different tax burdens, just as they have different levels of services,” Tax Foundation economist Liz Malm says in a statement. “For Americans to make informed judgments about benefits and costs of state-local government, the costs need to be known.”
The report, which uses 2011 fiscal year data, the most recent available, says Florida taxpayers paid 9.2% of their collective incomes in state and local taxes in 2011. The national average is 9.8%. The states with lightest tax burden, the report shows, are Wyoming, Alaska, South Dakota and Texas. The ones with the heaviest tax loads are high-tax stalwarts: New York, New Jersey, Connecticut and California.
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