Which states have no income tax?
Nine states have no tax on wages in 2026: Alaska, Florida, Nevada, New Hampshire, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Washington and Wyoming. Two of them are recent additions in practice: Tennessee's tax on interest and dividends was repealed for 2021, and New Hampshire's for 2025, so both now have no individual income tax at all. Washington taxes long-term capital gains above about $278,000 at 7% (9% above $1 million) but not salary, so for a wage earner it belongs on the list.
A tenth state comes close on ordinary salaries. North Dakota taxes nothing on the first $48,475 of taxable income for a single filer ($80,975 married) after the federal standard deduction, so a single earner pays no state tax until about $64,575 of gross pay and a couple until about $113,175; above that the rates are 1.95% and 2.5%.
How much more does a paycheck keep in a no-tax state?
On a $60,000 salary for a single filer in 2026, the state income tax avoided is about $870 compared with Ohio, $1,290 with Arizona, $1,842 with Pennsylvania, $2,640 with New York, $2,825 with Illinois, $3,030 with Hawaii and $3,981 with Oregon. On $150,000 the figures are roughly $3,340, $3,540, $4,600, $7,810, $7,280, $9,930 and $11,730. Federal tax and FICA are identical everywhere, so the state line is the whole difference; the paycheck hub table shows it for all 51 jurisdictions.
Local taxes widen the gap further in some comparisons. A New York City resident pays the state's $2,640 plus about $1,900 of city tax on $60,000; a Baltimore County resident pays Maryland's $2,490 plus about $1,600 of county tax. None of the nine no-tax states has a local income tax either.
What do the no-tax states charge instead?
Texas relies on property tax, which is among the highest in the country at an effective rate near 1.6% of home value, and a 6.25% sales tax that reaches 8.25% with local additions. On a $350,000 home the property tax is about $5,600 a year, more than the income tax a $100,000 earner would pay in most taxing states.
Florida charges a 6% sales tax (7% or more with county surtaxes), documentary stamp taxes on real estate and mortgages, and property tax at an effective rate around 0.8%, with the Save Our Homes cap limiting increases for long-time owners and shifting the burden to newer buyers. Homeowner's insurance, not a tax but unavoidable, is the highest in the country.
Washington has a 6.5% state sales tax that exceeds 10% in Seattle, one of the highest combined rates in the country, plus the business and occupation tax on gross receipts and the capital gains tax. Its paycheck is not quite untouched: Paid Family and Medical Leave (employee share about 0.66%) and WA Cares (0.58%) take roughly 1.24% of wages.
Nevada is funded by gaming taxes, a 6.85% sales tax (8.375% in Clark County), the Modified Business Tax that employers pay on payroll, and the Commerce Tax on large businesses. Tennessee has the highest average combined sales tax in the country, 7% state plus up to 2.75% local, and taxes groceries at 4%. South Dakota uses a 4.2% sales tax, property tax and taxes on its trust and credit card industries.
Alaska and Wyoming are the resource states. Alaska has no sales tax either and funds itself from oil royalties and the Permanent Fund, paying residents a dividend rather than taxing them. Wyoming's severance taxes on coal, oil, gas and minerals cover roughly half of state spending, and its property and sales taxes are both low. New Hampshire has no sales tax and no wage tax, and pays for that with property taxes that are the second highest per capita in the country, plus business taxes and a 9% meals and rooms tax.
Does living in a no-tax state mean paying no state tax on wages?
Not always. State income tax follows where the work is done as well as where the worker lives. A New Hampshire resident who commutes to Massachusetts pays Massachusetts's 5% on those wages; a Vancouver, Washington resident who works in Portland pays Oregon tax; a Texan who does a project in California owes California tax on the days worked there. Remote workers are generally taxed by the state they work from, with exceptions in states that apply a convenience-of-the-employer rule (New York most prominently).
The reverse also holds: a resident of a taxing state who works in a no-tax state still owes tax to the home state. Residence is what the no-tax states sell, and it is residence in the legal sense, with a domicile test that the taxing states audit when high earners move.
Are the no-tax states cheaper overall?
The total state-and-local tax burden as a share of income is lower in most of the nine, but not by the full amount of the income tax, and the ranking depends on how much a household earns and owns. Property-heavy systems (Texas, New Hampshire) fall hardest on homeowners; sales-heavy systems (Tennessee, Washington) fall hardest on lower incomes, which spend a larger share; resource-funded systems (Alaska, Wyoming) are cheap for almost everyone. A renter on a high salary does best in the no-tax states; a homeowner on a modest salary may not.
This site publishes the income tax figures and, on each state page, names the other taxes the state charges. It does not rank states as better or worse places to live, because that depends on the household. The guide to what moving states does to take-home pay covers the income tax side of a move.
Which states are cutting toward zero?
Mississippi's HB 1 (2025) cuts its flat rate to 3.75% in 2027 and 3.5% in 2028, then by 0.25 points in any year revenue growth exceeds a threshold, with repeal as the stated goal. North Carolina's rate can fall from 3.99% to 3.49% in 2027 and in steps to 2.49% under revenue triggers. Kentucky, Oklahoma, West Virginia, Georgia and Nebraska all have trigger mechanisms for further cuts. Whether any reaches zero depends on revenue that no one can forecast a decade out, and every one of them would have to replace the money with something.