Where Does Your State Fall on the ITEP Tax Inequality Index?
mapThe vast majority of state and local tax systems exacerbate the economic divide by taxing low- and middle-income families at higher rates than the wealthy. This map distills an exhaustive analysis of state and local tax codes into one key number, the ITEP Tax Inequality Index, to show the degree to which each state’s tax system affects income inequality. States with Index scores far below zero (such as Washington at -12.5 percent) have highly regressive tax systems, meaning incomes are less equal after state and local taxes. The small number of states with positive Index scores (New Jersey, Minnesota, Delaware, Vermont, California and D.C.) have tax systems that slightly mitigate income inequality.
Read More: Who Pays? A Distributional Analysis of the Tax Systems in All 50 States (Sixth Edition)