Combined sales and income tax leaders
The Tax Foundation interprets individual tax burden by what taxpayers actually spend in local and state taxes, rather than report these expenses from the state revenue perspective used by the Census Bureau. Its State and Local Tax Burden Rankings study reported that Americans paid an average rate of 9.9 percent in state and local taxes in 2012. According to the foundation, the five highest state-local tax states were:
New York 12.7 %
Connecticut 12.6%
New Jersey 12.2%
Illinois 11.0%
California and Wisconsin 11.0%