Union Bulletin: State Needs Flat Rate Income Tax

“Fairness: The Washington State Tax Structure Study Committee found that in 1999 the state’s lowest-income households paid 15.7 percent of their income on state and local taxes, while the highest-income households paid just 4.4 percent. This meant the lowest-income households had to work 8.2 weeks out of the year to pay their tax bill, while the highest-income households had to work only 2.3 weeks. In 2013, the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy concluded that Washington’s sales-based tax system was the most unfair in the nation.”