State and local tax burdens below national averages

A new report from the nonpartisan Wisconsin Policy Forum says that taxes as a share of income were 10.2% in 2020, again reaching the lowest point in a half-century and dipping below the U.S. average. The percentage of what state residents paid of their collective income in state and local taxes in 2020 was down from 10.3% for 2019. This share has declined each year since 2010 and has been on a largely downward trajectory since 1994 when it was 13.1%. The state’s tax burden as a share of income dipped below the U.S. average for only the second time in decades, lowering its tax ranking to 23rd among the states, from 17th in the previous year.