U.S. State and Local Taxes as a Share of Personal Income

## What this measures

Total taxes collected in a fiscal year by all state and local governments in the United States combined (Census Bureau finance surveys), divided by U.S. personal income in the same calendar year (BEA). Annual from 1992 (fiscal years), except 2001 and 2003.

## Why it matters

It is the benchmark for each state's figure (us.state.*.state_local_tax_share_of_income) and a long-run read on how much state and local government takes from income nationwide.

## How to read it

Percent of personal income. Federal taxes are not included.

## What it does not say

This is not the Tax Foundation's "state and local tax burden" and will not match it: the Tax Foundation reassigns taxes to the state whose residents ultimately pay them (a tourist's hotel tax, a commuter's income tax, severance taxes paid by out-of-state owners), while this counts what each state's governments collect and divides by its own residents' income. States that export taxes to visitors or to buyers of their oil, gas and minerals look higher here. Taxes are for state fiscal years (most end June 30) and income for calendar years. Local government figures in non-census years (those not ending in 2 or 7) come from a sample. Census published no state tables for 2001 or 2003. Fees, charges and other non-tax revenue are not counted.

## Source

Taxes: U.S. Census Bureau, Annual Survey of State and Local Government Finances and Census of Governments: Finance (Table 1, "Taxes", state and local government), from the Census Data API from 2017 and the published summary tables before. Personal income: U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, SAINC1 (line 1). Both public domain. Ratio calculated by Palanor.