State Income Tax Rates by State

Most states in the U.S. have income taxes at the state level.   The Tax Foundation has data on the state income tax brackets for each state from 2000 to 2011. 

Here is a list of the states sorted alphabetically with the Top marginal tax rate, the marginal tax rate paid at income at about $55,000 level and the marginal tax rate for incomes around $25,000.  

	TOP	$55,000	$25,000
AK	0%	0%	0%
AL	5.00%	5.00%	5.00%
AR	7.00%	7.00%	6.00%
AZ	4.54%	4.24%	3.36%
CA	10.30%	9.30%	4.00%
CO	4.63%	4.63%	4.63%
CT	6.50%	5.00%	5.00%
DC	8.50%	8.50%	6.00%
DE	6.95%	5.55%	5.55%
FL	0%	0%	0%
GA	6.00%	6.00%	6.00%
HI	11.00%	8.25%	7.60%
IA	8.98%	7.92%	6.48%
ID	7.80%	7.80%	7.40%
IL	5.00%	5.00%	5.00%
IN	3.40%	3.40%	3.40%
KS	6.45%	6.45%	6.25%
KY	6.00%	5.80%	5.80%
LA	6.00%	6.00%	4.00%
MA	5.30%	5.30%	5.30%
Maine	8.50%	8.50%	8.50%
MD	5.50%	4.75%	4.75%
MI	4.35%	4.35%	4.35%
MN	4.35%	7.05%	7.05%
MO	6.00%	6.00%	6.00%
MS	5.00%	5.00%	5.00%
MT	6.90%	6.90%	6.90%
NB	6.84%	6.84%	5.12%
NC	7.75%	7.00%	7.00%
ND	4.86%	3.44%	1.84%
NH	5.00%	5.00%	5.00%
NJ	8.97%	6.37%	1.75%
NM	4.90%	4.90%	4.90%
NV	0%	0%	0%
NY	8.97%	6.85%	6.85%
OH	5.93%	4.11%	3.52%
OK	5.50%	5.50%	5.50%
OR	11.00%	9.00%	9.00%
PA	3.07%	3.07%	3.07%
RI	5.99%	4.75%	3.75%
SC	7.00%	7.00%	7.00%
SD	0%	0%	0%
TN	6.00%	6.00%	6.00%
TX	0%	0%	0%
UT	5.00%	5.00%	5.00%
VA	5.75%	5.75%	5.75%
VT	8.95%	6.80%	3.55%
WA	0%	0%	0%
WI	7.75%	6.50%	6.50%
WV	6.50%	6.00%	4.50%
WY	0%	0%	0%

Keep in mind that these are the marginal tax rates.  Each state has different rules about how they figure the amount of your income that is subject to taxes. The amount of income that is subject to the state taxes will vary.

Alaska, Florida, Nevada, South Dakota, Texas, Washington and Wyoming all have no state income taxes.

The median top tax marginal state income tax rate is 5.99%.
The highest state income tax rate is a tie between Hawaii and Oregon both charging 11%.  Those tax rates kick in if your taxable income levels are over $200,000 or $250,000 respectively.


The Tax Foundation page was current as of March 3rd, 2011 but all tax rates are subject to change.

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Cut Your Spending 1%

Being frugal can feel to some people like an unhappy process of giving up things and a time consuming hassle.  You might spend time clipping coupons to save 25¢ or 50¢.   You could be bagging lunches to save a few dollars a day.  This kind of thing can either be a turn off that makes people give up on frugality or it could lead people into an unrealistic sense of accomplishment.   Either way some attempts at being frugal either fizzle out or simply don't accomplish much.

Rather than going through the various normal frugal processes such as coupon clipping and bargain hunting how about you look at it another way?     How about you instead look at your bottom line and just try to shave off 1%?  If you cut 1% of your spending annually for several years the cost savings will add up big time.


I arbitrarily picked 1% for a goal because it is a fairly practical number to shoot for.   I think that most of us could find 1% to cut off our spending fairly easily if we tried.   Of course you don't want to limit yourself to 1% of easy savings if theres more to be had.   For the first year you might easily find 2% or 3% or 5% of savings.   In subsequent years however you may have a harder time finding easy ways to quickly cut your spending and then finding 1% to cut might be a bigger challenge.

When you go about cutting your spending I'd follow this basic process:
Categorize at all your spending such as housing, gasoline, car insurance, groceries, eating out, clothes, etc.  Then sort the list of categories by the amount spent per year and see what you spend the most on.   Consider each topic and prioritize what is most important for you and what you don't care too much about.  Focus cost cutting in the items that you consider lower priority items but which are most expensive.
 If you need ideas on how to save money you can find lists such as : When Times are Tight: 168 Frugal Tips to Make Your Dollar Stretch