TEXAS TAXES: A COMPARISON WITH OTHER STATES

This document is part of an educational series on Texas taxes. State and local taxes in Texas are compared with those of the fifty states and the District of Columbia. Taxes are compared per capita and per $1,000 of personal income. The taxes include: all state and local taxes, property taxes, sales and gross receipts taxes, personal income taxes, corporate income taxes and corporate franchise taxes. For each tax the national average, median, maximum and minimum are given along with the corresponding tax for Texas and Texas's rank nationally. Texas state revenue comes primarily from the sales tax and local revenue from the property tax. It is one of only four states with neither a corporate nor a personal income tax. For all state and local taxes, Texas ranks 35th per capita and 40th per $1,000 of personal income. Despite this relatively low rank among all states, tax reform is a continuing priority issue in Texas. The reason for this may be the heavy reliance on sales and property taxes to support state and local governmental services. While the overall tax burden is relatively low, the burden of these two taxes ranks relatively high and may disadvantage certain industries.