The Star News: Taxing Times for Tar Heels
media mentionMeanwhile, the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy reports that in all 50 states, the wealthy tend to pay a lower percentage of their incomes in taxes than low- and middle-income taxpayers.
In North Carolina, the institute reported, a family of non-elderly taxpayers in the bottom 20 percent of income – less than $18,000 a year – paid 9.2 percent of their income in state and local taxes. The 1 percent with the highest incomes – $376,000 and up – paid just 5.3 percent of their income in those taxes.
The institute says states are relying largely on sales taxes, which hit poor and middle-income families especially hard because they spend a bigger chunk of their paychecks on food and consumer goods.