The Complete US 50-State Tax Guide (2026)
State taxes are the part of the US system most people underestimate. Unlike the federal return, which is identical everywhere, your state can add a second income-tax layer, take a cut of nearly every purchase through sales tax, and quietly bill you year after year through property tax. This guide explains how the three main state taxes work, how they differ by state, and how to compare your real burden before you relocate, register a business, or set up a US account.
How the US tax system is layered
The United States has no single "national" consumption or income tax at the state level. Instead, each of the 50 states (plus DC) is sovereign over its own tax code. A resident in most states files two income-tax returns every year: one federal (to the IRS) and one state. A handful of states skip the state layer entirely, which is why "no income tax" states are so popular with high earners. The trade-off is almost never free: states that collect less from income tax almost always make it up through higher sales tax, property tax, or targeted business taxes.
There are three taxes that dominate state budgets and that this guide compares side by side:
- Sales tax — a percentage added to most retail purchases, set by the state and often "stacked" with county and city rates.
- State income tax — a tax on wages, business profit, and sometimes investment income, which may be progressive (higher rates at higher incomes) or flat (one rate for everyone).
- Property tax — a tax on real estate, set and collected locally (by counties, school districts, and cities), not by the state capitol.
Sales tax: it is rarely just the state rate
A common mistake is to compare only the "state" sales-tax rate. In 38 states, the rate you actually pay at the register is the combined rate: the state portion plus county, city, and special-district additions. A state with a modest 4% state rate can still reach 9–10% once local layers stack on top. That is why our comparison table below shows the combined maximum, which is the number that matters for a shopper.
Since the 2018 Supreme Court decision in South Dakota v. Wayfair, states can require remote and online sellers to collect sales tax based on economic nexus — generally triggered at $100,000 in sales or 200 transactions within the state — rather than a physical presence. This is why a purchase on a national marketplace is taxed according to the destination state, not where the seller is based. Most large marketplaces (Amazon, eBay, and similar) now collect and remit sales tax automatically, which removed much of the old "buy from a no-sales-tax state" arbitrage for ordinary consumers.
Five states have no statewide sales tax at all: Delaware, Montana, New Hampshire, Oregon, and Alaska. Note the fine print — Alaska allows local sales taxes (so some Alaska cities do tax sales), while Montana and New Hampshire permit limited local option taxes in specific areas. None of the five charges a broad statewide sales tax on general retail.
🏆 5 Sales-Tax-Free States (No Statewide Sales Tax)
Delaware (DE) · Montana (MT) · New Hampshire (NH) · Oregon (OR) · Alaska (AK)
Lowest Sales Tax — Top 10
| Rank | State | Code | State Tax | Max Local Tax | Max Combined |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Delaware | DE | 0% | 0% | 0% (Tax-Free) |
| 2 | Montana | MT | 0% | 0% | 0% (Tax-Free) |
| 3 | New Hampshire | NH | 0% | 0% | 0% (Tax-Free) |
| 4 | Oregon | OR | 0% | 0% | 0% (Tax-Free) |
| 5 | Hawaii | HI | 4% | 0.5% | 4.5% |
| 6 | South Dakota | SD | 4.5% | 0% | 4.5% |
| 7 | Maine | ME | 5.5% | 0% | 5.5% |
| 8 | Wisconsin | WI | 5% | 0.6% | 5.6% |
| 9 | Maryland | MD | 6% | 0% | 6% |
| 10 | Michigan | MI | 6% | 0% | 6% |
State income tax: progressive, flat, or none
Of the 50 states, nine levy no broad-based individual income tax: Alaska, Florida, Nevada, New Hampshire, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Washington, and Wyoming. Each "none" comes with an asterisk worth knowing: New Hampshire still taxes interest and dividends (and is phasing that out), Washington levies a capital-gains tax on high earners, and Tennessee eliminated its investment-income tax in 2021. They are genuinely income-tax-free on wages, which is what matters for most employees.
Among states that do tax income, the structure varies sharply. California and a handful of Northeast and upper-Midwest states use progressive brackets that climb above 10% at the top. Others, such as Colorado, Illinois, and a growing group of southern states, use a single flat rate. A flat rate is easier to predict but is not automatically "lower" — a 5% flat tax can exceed a low bracket in a progressive state depending on your income.
The practical takeaway: a state with no income tax is attractive to wage earners, but you should subtract the sales and property taxes you will pay instead. The states with the lowest overall burden are rarely the ones with a single zero — they are the ones where the three taxes are balanced for your specific situation.
Property tax: the local tax that surprises newcomers
Property tax is the one state-tax category set almost entirely at the local level. States do not send you a property-tax bill; your county, city, and school district do, based on an assessed value of your home. That is why two neighboring states can have similar "state" reputations yet wildly different homeowner bills.
Effective property-tax rates (annual tax as a share of home value) are highest in parts of the Northeast and Midwest and lowest in Hawaii, Alabama, and several Mountain West states. Because the rate is local, the single most important property-tax number is the specific county and school district you buy in — not the state average. When comparing states for a move, always pull the county-level rate for the exact town you are considering.
All 50 States — Full Tax Table
| State | Code | Sales Tax (Max Combined) | State Income Tax | Property Tax (Effective) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alabama | AL | Max 10% | 2% – 5% | 0.41% |
| Alaska | AK | Max 7.5% | None | 1.18% |
| Arizona | AZ | Max 10.7% | 2.55% – 4.5% | 0.72% |
| Arkansas | AR | Max 12% | 2% – 5.9% | 0.62% |
| California | CA | Max 11.5% | 1% – 13.3% | 0.74% |
| Colorado | CO | Max 11.2% | 4.55% – 4.55% | 0.52% |
| Connecticut | CT | Max 6.35% | 3% – 6.99% | 2.08% |
| Delaware | DE | 0% (Tax-Free) | 2.2% – 6.6% | 0.56% |
| Florida | FL | Max 8.5% | None | 0.89% |
| Georgia | GA | Max 8.9% | 1% – 5.75% | 0.87% |
| Hawaii | HI | Max 4.5% | 1.4% – 11% | 0.32% |
| Idaho | ID | Max 9% | 1.125% – 6.925% | 0.63% |
| Illinois | IL | Max 10% | 4.95% – 4.95% | 2.27% |
| Indiana | IN | Max 7% | 3.23% – 5.75% | 0.85% |
| Iowa | IA | Max 7% | 0.33% – 8.53% | 1.53% |
| Kansas | KS | Max 10.5% | 3.1% – 5.7% | 1.37% |
| Kentucky | KY | Max 12% | 5% – 5% | 0.86% |
| Louisiana | LA | Max 11.5% | 1.85% – 4.25% | 0.53% |
| Maine | ME | Max 5.5% | 5.8% – 7.15% | 1.36% |
| Maryland | MD | Max 6% | 2% – 5.75% | 1.09% |
| Massachusets | MA | Max 6.25% | 5% – 5% | 1.23% |
| Michigan | MI | Max 6% | 4.25% – 4.25% | 1.54% |
| Minnesota | MN | Max 8.375% | 5.35% – 9.85% | 1.05% |
| Mississippi | MS | Max 8% | 0% – 5% | 0.81% |
| Missouri | MO | Max 10.1% | 1.5% – 5.4% | 0.93% |
| Montana | MT | 0% (Tax-Free) | 1% – 6.75% | 0.84% |
| Nebraska | NE | Max 7.5% | 2.46% – 6.84% | 1.63% |
| Nevada | NV | Max 8.25% | None | 0.69% |
| New Hampshire | NH | 0% (Tax-Free) | None | 2.05% |
| New Jersey | NJ | Max 6.625% | 1.4% – 10.75% | 2.49% |
| New Mexico | NM | Max 9% | 1.7% – 5.9% | 0.75% |
| New York | NY | Max 8.75% | 4% – 10.9% | 1.72% |
| North Carolina | NC | Max 7.5% | 4.5% – 4.5% | 0.84% |
| North Dakota | ND | Max 8.5% | 1.1% – 2.9% | 1.42% |
| Ohio | OH | Max 8% | 0.5% – 4.8% | 1.62% |
| Oklahoma | OK | Max 11.5% | 0.25% – 5% | 0.87% |
| Oregon | OR | 0% (Tax-Free) | 4.75% – 9.9% | 0.9% |
| Pennsylvania | PA | Max 8% | 3.07% – 3.07% | 1.58% |
| Rhode Island | RI | Max 7% | 3.75% – 5.99% | 1.63% |
| South Carolina | SC | Max 8% | 0% – 7% | 0.55% |
| South Dakota | SD | Max 4.5% | None | 1.28% |
| Tennessee | TN | Max 9.75% | None | 0.75% |
| Texas | TX | Max 8.25% | None | 1.69% |
| Utah | UT | Max 9.5% | 4.55% – 4.55% | 0.63% |
| Vermont | VT | Max 6% | 3.35% – 8.75% | 1.9% |
| Virginia | VA | Max 6% | 2% – 5.75% | 0.82% |
| Washington | WA | Max 10.4% | None | 0.93% |
| West Virginia | WV | Max 7% | 3% – 6.5% | 0.57% |
| Wisconsin | WI | Max 5.6% | 3.54% – 7.65% | 1.68% |
| Wyoming | WY | Max 6% | None | 0.61% |
Regional patterns worth knowing
Tax burden clusters by region. The Northeast (New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Vermont) combines high income-tax brackets with high property taxes — great public services, high carrying cost. The South (Texas, Florida, Tennessee, Nevada) leans on no income tax but higher sales and property burdens, which shifts cost onto consumption and homeownership. The West Coast (California, Oregon, Washington) mixes high income tax (CA) with sales-tax-free or income-tax-free trade-offs (OR, WA). The Mountain West (Wyoming, Montana, Colorado) is generally lighter overall but compensates through severance and tourism-related taxes.
None of these is universally "best." A remote software employee with no home equity is taxed very differently than a retired couple owning a paid-off house. Use the table above as a starting screen, then model your own numbers with our calculators before drawing conclusions.
Estimating your real burden (legally)
The only number that matters is your combined effective rate across all three taxes, applied to your actual income, spending, and home value. Two people in the "same" state can have opposite experiences depending on whether they rent or own, earn wages or capital gains, and shop locally or online.
Our calculators let you model the income-tax and after-tax picture state by state, and our address tool helps eligible users understand where a registered US address may change sales-tax collection on qualifying digital subscriptions and accounts. None of this is tax evasion — it is about understanding nexus and residency, both of which are defined by law. If your situation is complex (business income, multi-state residency, or relocation), work with a licensed CPA; the figures here are estimates for planning, not a filing.
Frequently Asked Questions
Which US states have no sales tax?
Five states have no statewide sales tax: Delaware (DE), Montana (MT), New Hampshire (NH), Oregon (OR), and Alaska (AK). Alaska permits local sales taxes in some cities, and Montana/New Hampshire allow limited local option taxes in specific areas, but none charges a broad statewide retail sales tax.
Which states have no state income tax?
Nine states have no broad-based individual income tax: Alaska (AK), Florida (FL), Nevada (NV), New Hampshire (NH), South Dakota (SD), Tennessee (TN), Texas (TX), Washington (WA), and Wyoming (WY). New Hampshire still taxes investment income (phasing out), and Washington has a targeted capital-gains tax.
Which state is best for lowering taxes overall?
It depends entirely on your income type and assets. Wage earners often benefit from Texas or Florida (no state income tax); investors may prefer Wyoming (no income tax and no estate tax); online shoppers save most in Delaware (no sales tax). Always model all three taxes together rather than optimizing one in isolation.
Why is the combined sales tax higher than the state rate?
In 38 states, local governments (counties, cities, and special districts) add their own sales-tax layers on top of the state rate. The combined rate is what you pay at checkout, and it is the figure our table uses for ranking.
Do remote and online purchases get taxed by my state?
Since South Dakota v. Wayfair (2018), states can require out-of-state sellers to collect sales tax once they exceed an economic nexus threshold (commonly $100,000 in sales or 200 transactions). Most large marketplaces collect and remit automatically based on the destination address.
Is property tax set by the state?
No. Property tax is set and collected locally — by counties, cities, and school districts — based on assessed home value. That is why the same state can have very different homeowner bills by town, and why you should check the county rate for the specific location you are considering.
Sources & References
Rates reflect publicly available 2026 state tax data and are provided for general comparison only. Figures change frequently and exclude local variations not shown here. Last updated: July 2026.