New Hampshire Fiscal Policy Institute: New Hampshire’s Tax System Asks Far Less of the Wealthy than of the Poor
ITEP Work in ActionMore than five years after the end of the Great Recession, many Granite Staters are still struggling. The typical household’s income has yet to recover the ground it lost during the economic downturn, while wages for individuals and families at the bottom of the income distribution are still where they were two decades ago.
A key set of policies – New Hampshire’s state and local tax system – puts economic security still further out of reach. It requires upper-income taxpayers to dedicate much smaller shares of their incomes to meeting their tax responsibilities than it demands of low- and moderate-income taxpayers. In fact, a new report shows that, on average, the wealthiest families in New Hampshire pay an effective state and local tax rate that is less than one-third of the rate faced by families just trying to make ends meet.