These states have the highest and lowest income tax rates for 2026
These states have the highest and lowest income tax rates for 2026
Daniel de Visé, USA TODAYMon, March 16, 2026 at 9:02 AM UTC
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Taxes never feel so burdensome as during tax season, which runs for another month in 2026.
And if you happen to live in Oregon, you may be feeling that burden more than most.
Oregon has the highest effective tax rate of any state, according to a report from the personal finance site FinanceBuzz, which uses median income and state and federal tax rates to measure the total average tax rate in all 50 states.
The lowest overall tax rate is in Florida, FinanceBuzz found, followed by Nevada: two states with no income tax.
The report illustrates how tax rates and incomes interact. States with the highest effective tax rates tend to have higher tax rates and larger median incomes. States with the lowest tax rates generally have no income tax and lower incomes.
An “effective” tax rate is the percentage of annual income that you pay as tax: total tax divided by income.
Oregon has the highest effective tax rates in the nation, according to a new report.Oregon, Massachusetts have the highest overall tax rates
Oregonians have a relatively high median income, $65,249 for individual taxpayers. Based on that income, and relatively high state taxes, the typical Oregonian faces a total tax burden of $15,925, or 24.4% of their income, the report found.
The February report looks at tax rates in every state for 2025, estimating what the typical individual and married couple will owe in taxes with the returns they file in 2026.
For simplicity’s sake, we’ll focus mostly on individual tax rates.
Massachusetts has the second-highest individual tax burden: $18,538 in total tax, or 23.5% of the median individual income in that state, $78,811.
“Massachusetts has one of the, if not the highest median incomes of any state in the country, which puts them into the highest tax bracket,” said Josh Koebert, data scientist and researcher at FinanceBuzz.
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“Oregon, on the other hand, is at the top because they just have remarkably higher state taxes than anyone else,” he said.
Oregon’s effective state tax rate is 7.9% for an individual filer with a median income, the report found. That’s nearly three percentage points higher than the next-highest effective state tax rate, 5.1%, for Hawaii.
Nevada has one of the lowest overall tax rates of any state, according to a new report.Florida, Nevada have the lowest tax rates
Florida has the lowest individual tax rate. With a median income of $54,375 and no state taxes, the typical Floridian will pay $8,557 in tax, or 15.7% of their income.
The second-lowest tax burden falls on Nevada. That state, too, has no income tax, but the median income is a bit higher than Florida’s at $54,796.
For married couples, oddly enough, the lowest overall tax rate is not in Florida or Nevada, but in Tennessee. The median income for married couples is $105,402 in that state. With no state income tax, the total average tax burden for married couples there is 15.7%.
President Donald Trump campaigned on tax cuts. In response, a round of “tax competition” has broken out in the states, especially among those led by Republicans, according to the nonpartisan Tax Foundation.
Eight states lowered their income tax rates in 2026, the Tax Foundation reports. Ohio introduced a flat tax, joining 14 other flat-tax states, another trend.
“A lot of states are going to flat taxes to try to simplify things,” Koebert said. “They’re making it easier for everyone to understand what they owe on their state taxes.”
The FinanceBuzz analysis uses median income data from the U.S. Census and determines state-level tax rates based on state and federal tax codes for 2025.
These states have the highest overall tax rates
Here are the 10 states with the highest effective individual tax rates:
Oregon: With a median income of $65,249 and an effective state tax rate of 7.9%, Oregon has a total effective tax rate of 24.4%
Massachusetts: Median income of $78,811. Effective state tax rate of 4.7%. Total effective tax rate of 23.5%.
Maryland: Median income of $74,296. Effective state tax rate of 4.3%. Total effective tax rate of 22.4%.
New York: Median income of $70,122. State tax rate of 4.6%. Total tax rate of 22.1%.
New Jersey: Median income of $73,606. State tax rate of 3.4%. Total tax rate of 21.5%.
Minnesota: Median income of $66,826. State tax rate of 4.6%. Total tax rate of 21.4%.
Virginia: Median income of $67,034. State tax rate of 4.5%. Total tax rate of 21.4%.
Illinois: Median income of $65,318. State tax rate of 4.7%. Total tax rate of 21.3%.
Hawaii: Median income of $60,531. State tax rate of 5.1%. Total tax rate of 21.2%.
Colorado: Median income of $71,700. State tax rate of 3.4%. Total tax rate of 21.16%.
. . . And these states have the lowest tax rates
And here are the 10 states with the lowest effective individual tax rates:
Florida: Median income of $54,375. No state income tax. Total tax rate of 15.7%
Nevada: Median income of $54,796. No state tax. Total tax rate of 15.77%
Tennessee: Median income of $55,245. No state tax. Total tax rate of 15.8%
South Dakota: Median income of $55,597. No state tax. Total tax rate of 15.82%.
Wyoming: Median income of $56,994. No state tax. Total tax rate of 15.9%.
Texas: Median income of $58,229. No state tax. Total tax rate of 16%.
North Dakota: Median income of $60,086. No state tax. Total tax rate of 16.1%.
Alaska: Median income of $66,828. No state tax. Total tax rate of 16.9%.
New Hampshire: Median income of $69,187. No state tax. Total tax rate of 17.3%.
Louisiana: Median income of $52,496. State tax rate of 2.3%. Total tax rate of 17.9%.
Contributing: Medora Lee.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: These states have the highest and lowest income tax rates
Source: “AOL Money”
