States have to get their money somewhere, and while there are other sources of state income, three of the broadest citizen-facing revenue streams are property taxes, sales taxes, and income taxes.
Here’s how each state, plus the District of Columbia, breaks down across the three categories. Property tax information comes from WalletHub. Sales tax information comes from the Sales Tax Institute. Income tax information comes from NerdWallet.
The table is sorted by income tax, with states with a flat income tax (including those with no income tax) at the top, states with a gradient income tax at the bottom, and New Hampshire in the middle because New Hampshire’s income tax only applies to interest and dividends. There aren’t rankings for income taxes because I didn’t dive deep enough to figure out the median rate, and even ranking it that way would be imperfect.
| State | Effective Real-Estate Tax Rate | Sales Tax Rate | Income Tax Rate Range | Property Tax Rank (1 = High) | Sales Tax Rank (1= High) |
| Tennessee | 0.71% | 7.00% | 0.00% | 37 | 2 |
| Nevada | 0.60% | 6.85% | 0.00% | 43 | 7 |
| Washington | 0.98% | 6.50% | 0.00% | 22 | 9 |
| Texas | 1.80% | 6.25% | 0.00% | 7 | 13 |
| Florida | 0.89% | 6.00% | 0.00% | 28 | 16 |
| South Dakota | 1.31% | 4.50% | 0.00% | 17 | 36 |
| Wyoming | 0.61% | 4.00% | 0.00% | 42 | 41 |
| Alaska | 1.19% | 0.00% | 0.00% | 19 | 47 |
| Pennsylvania | 1.58% | 6.00% | 3.07% | 11 | 16 |
| Indiana | 0.85% | 7.00% | 3.23% | 30 | 2 |
| Michigan | 1.54% | 6.00% | 4.25% | 14 | 16 |
| Colorado | 0.51% | 2.90% | 4.55% | 49 | 46 |
| Illinois | 2.27% | 6.25% | 4.95% | 2 | 13 |
| Utah | 0.63% | 4.85% | 4.95% | 40 | 34 |
| Massachusetts | 1.23% | 6.25% | 5.00% | 18 | 13 |
| Kentucky | 0.86% | 6.00% | 5.00% | 29 | 16 |
| North Carolina | 0.84% | 4.75% | 5.25% | 31 | 35 |
| New Hampshire | 2.18% | 0.00% | 5% (interest and dividends only) | 3 | 47 |
| Ohio | 1.56% | 5.75% | 0%-4.797% | 13 | 27 |
| Delaware | 0.57% | 0.00% | 0%-6.6% | 45 | 47 |
| South Carolina | 0.57% | 6.00% | 0%-7% | 45 | 16 |
| Iowa | 1.57% | 6.00% | 0.33%-8.53% | 12 | 16 |
| Oklahoma | 0.90% | 4.50% | 0.5%-5% | 27 | 36 |
| California | 0.76% | 7.25% | 1%-13.3% | 36 | 1 |
| Georgia | 0.92% | 4.00% | 1%-5.75% | 26 | 41 |
| Montana | 0.84% | 0.00% | 1%-6.9% | 31 | 47 |
| North Dakota | 0.98% | 5.00% | 1.1%-2.9% | 22 | 32 |
| Idaho | 0.69% | 6.00% | 1.125%-6.925% | 38 | 16 |
| New Jersey | 2.49% | 6.63% | 1.4%-10.75% | 1 | 8 |
| Hawaii | 0.28% | 4.00% | 1.4%-11% | 51 | 41 |
| Missouri | 0.97% | 4.23% | 1.5%-5.4% | 24 | 40 |
| New Mexico | 0.80% | 5.13% | 1.7%-5.9% | 35 | 31 |
| Alabama | 0.41% | 4.00% | 2%-5% | 50 | 41 |
| Maryland | 1.09% | 6.00% | 2%-5.75% | 21 | 16 |
| Virginia | 0.82% | 4.30% | 2%-5.75% | 33 | 39 |
| Louisiana | 0.55% | 4.45% | 2%-6% | 48 | 38 |
| Arkansas | 0.62% | 6.50% | 2.0%-5.9% | 41 | 9 |
| Nebraska | 1.73% | 5.50% | 2.46%-6.84% | 8 | 29 |
| Arizona | 0.66% | 5.60% | 2.59%-8% | 39 | 28 |
| Mississippi | 0.81% | 7.00% | 3%-5% | 34 | 2 |
| West Virginia | 0.58% | 6.00% | 3%-6.5% | 44 | 16 |
| Connecticut | 2.14% | 6.35% | 3%-6.99% | 4 | 12 |
| Kansas | 1.41% | 6.50% | 3.1%-5.7% | 15 | 9 |
| Vermont | 1.90% | 6.00% | 3.35%-8.75% | 5 | 16 |
| Wisconsin | 1.85% | 5.00% | 3.44%-7.65% | 6 | 32 |
| Rhode Island | 1.63% | 7.00% | 3.75%-5.99% | 10 | 2 |
| New York | 1.72% | 4.00% | 4%-8.82% | 9 | 41 |
| District of Columbia | 0.56% | 6.00% | 4%-8.95% | 47 | 16 |
| Oregon | 0.97% | 0.00% | 4.75%-9.9% | 24 | 47 |
| Minnesota | 1.12% | 6.88% | 5.35%-9.85% | 20 | 6 |
| Maine | 1.36% | 5.50% | 5.8%-7.15% | 16 | 29 |
There’s more digging that could be done on this—how these fit into the total pies of respective state revenue, how large state budgets are in total compared to citizens’ wealth/spending/income, how much sales tax revenue comes from out-of-state residents compared to in-state residents, etc. But at a high level, this is how these three taxes break down.
