I feel sorry for Ming

[giblets]

Awesome, we needed another partisan dumbass to balance out Dinodoc.

[Lorizael]

Wait. Wait. Was Oerdin actually banned for the racial slur post? Wow.

[Dinner]

Nope, and it wasn't really a racial slur post though I did joke around with racial names. The main thrust was that I wanted Italians to make my Italian food, Chinese to make my Chinese food, and Mexicans to make my Mexican food as it would be more authentic.

[Arrian]

Wisconsin: Ranked #9 in the nation with an overall tax burden of 10.2%. Heh.

Oerdin may or may not be a partisan dumbass, but in this case he may be correct. IL was ranked 30th (9.3%) prior to this tax increase. Wisconsin was at 10.2%... again as of two years ago. I don't know if they've raised or lowered since then. It seems likely, however, that WI remains a higher-tax environment than IL.

-Arrian

[rah]

Is that 10.2% personal or for business. Illinois raised the business tax to over 7% This is what our neighbor states were harping on to encourage businesses to move.

[Dinner]

From the article I linked to eariler:

http://www.superiortelegram.com/event/article/id/49547/group/homepage/

Wisconsin has a graduated income tax, but for the overwhelming majority of filers, the tax rate here will still be higher than Illinois’ after the tax increase. Illinois also raised its corporate income tax. Depending on how you measure it, it will go from being lower than Wisconsin’s to slightly higher.

[N35t0r]

Depending on how you measure it?

How about in fathoms?

[Dinner]

I'm not sure exactly what they mean by that but they probably have some decent reason.

[Arrian]

Rah,

TaxFoundation.org, if you choose to visit the site, explains their methodology, I believe. That said, the % is total tax burden as a percentage of "state income" which I assume (without spending all that much time looking) is basically state GDP. It's an amalgam of personal and business taxes.

Introduction

For 18 consecutive years the Tax Foundation has published an estimate of the combined state-local tax burden shouldered by the residents of each of the 50 states. For each state, we calculate the total amount paid by the residents in taxes, and we divide those taxes by the total income in each state to compute a "tax burden" measure.

We make this calculation not only for the most recent year but also for earlier years because tax and income data are revised periodically by government agencies, and in the case of the current report, we have changed our own methodology to take advantage of new datasets.

The goal is to focus not on the tax collectors but on the taxpayers. That is, we answer the question: What percentage of their income are the residents of this state paying in state and local taxes? We are not trying to answer the question: How much money have state and local governments collected? The Census Bureau publishes the definitive comparative data answering that question.

Here are some examples of the difference between collections (focusing on the tax collector) and burdens (focusing on the taxpayer).

•When Connecticut residents work in New York City and pay income tax there to both the state and the city, the Census Bureau will duly tally those amounts as New York tax collections, but we will count them as part of the tax burden of Connecticut's residents.
•When Illinois and Massachusetts residents own second homes in nearby Wisconsin or Maine, local governments in Wisconsin and Maine will tally those property tax collections, but we will shift those payments back to the states of the taxpayers.
•When people all over the country vacation in Disney World or Las Vegas, tax collectors will tally the receipts from lodging, rental car, restaurant and general sales taxes in Florida and Nevada, but we will use economic tools to tally those payments in the states where the vacationers live.
Every state's economic activity is different, as is every state's tax code. As a result, they vary in their ability to "export their tax burden"-that is, to collect revenue from non-residents. Economists have been studying this phenomenon since at least the 1960s when Charles McLure (1967) estimated that states were extracting between 15 and 35 percent of their tax revenue from non-residents.

Much of this interstate tax collecting occurs through no special effort by state and local legislators or tax collectors. Tourists spend as they travel, and all those transactions are taxed. People who own property out of state naturally pay property tax out of state. And the burden of business taxes is borne by the employees, shareholders and customers of those businesses, wherever they live.

However, many states have made a conscious effort for years to raise taxes on non-residents, and that effort seems to be accelerating. In fact, many campaigns for tax-raising legislation in the last several years have explicitly advertised the preponderance of non-voting, non-resident payers as a reason for resident voters to accept the tax.

This beggar-thy-neighbor effort has been mostly legislative, exemplified by a wave of tax hikes on tourism: hotel rooms, rental cars, restaurant meals, and local sales taxes in resort areas. States and localities have also enacted separate, higher tax rates for non-residents' property and income. The effort to soak nonresidents has also been administrative, as departments of revenue have pursued non-resident income tax revenue from individuals and corporations with far more zeal than in years past.

In some cases the tax exporting is a wash from the tax collector's perspective. That is, a state collects about the same amount from non-residents as its own residents pay to out-of-state governments. But in many cases there's a significant difference.

By tallying tax payments in the taxpayers' home states, this annual tax burden report allows policymakers, researchers, media, and citizens to go beyond a tally of collections to the question of which states' residents are most burdened by state and local taxes.

-Arrian

[Arrian]

IL in particular:

Here are some basic facts on Illinois’ tax system and how it compares to other states:

Tax Freedom Day Arrives on April 11 in Illinois
Tax Freedom Day is the day when Americans finally have earned enough money to pay off their total tax bill for the year. In 2010, Illinois taxpayers work until April 11 to pay their total tax bill, ranking the state 14th nationally, two days after national Tax Freedom Day. The Tax Freedom Days of neighboring states are: Wisconsin, April 12 (ranked 13th nationally); Iowa, April 4 (ranked 36th nationally); Missouri, April 4 (ranked 35th nationally); Kentucky, April 3 (ranked 41st nationally); and Indiana, April 6 (ranked 29th nationally).
Full study of Tax Freedom Day, nationwide and in each state


Illinois' State/Local Tax Burden Below National Average
Estimated at 9.3% of income, Illinois' state/local tax burden ranks 30th highest nationally, below the national average of 9.7%. Illinois taxpayers pay $4,346 per capita in state and local taxes.
llinois' State-Local Tax Burden, 1977-present
Other States' State/Local Tax Burdens
Historical Chart Comparing All States' State/Local Tax Burdens from 1977 to 2008

Illinois' 2011 Business Tax Climate Ranks 23rd
Illinois ranks 23rd in the Tax Foundation's State Business Tax Climate Index. The Index compares the states in five areas of taxation that impact business: corporate taxes; individual income taxes; sales taxes; unemployment insurance taxes; and taxes on property, including residential and commercial property. Neighboring states ranked as follows: Wisconsin (40th), Iowa (45th), Missouri (16th), Kentucky (19th) and Indiana (10th).
50-State Comparison of Business Tax Climates (data only)
2011 State Business Tax Climate Index, Eighth Edition (full study)


Illinois' Individual Income Tax System
Illinois' personal income tax system consists of a flat 3% rate on federal adjusted gross income. That rate is the lowest among states that levy individual income taxes. Illinois' 2008 state-level individual income tax collections were $806 per person, which ranked 31st highest nationally.
50-State Table of Individual Income Tax Rates
50-State Table of State Individual Income Tax Collections
50-State Table of State and Local Individual Income Tax Collections Per Capita

Illinois' Corporate Income Tax System
Illinois' corporate tax structure consists of a flat rate of 7.3% on all corporate income. Among states levying corporate income taxes, Illinois' rate ranks 23rd highest. In 2008, state-level corporate tax collections (excluding local taxes) were $243 per capita, which ranks 10th highest nationally.
50-State Table of Corporate Income Tax Rates
50-State Table of State and Local Corporate Income Tax Collections Per Capita and Per Household
50-State Table of State Corporate Income Tax Collections Per Capita

Illinois Sales and Excise Taxes
Illinois levies a 6.25% general sales or use tax on consumers, which is above the national median of 5.85%. In 2007 combined state and local general and selective sales tax collections were $1,458 per person, which ranks 16th nationally. Illinois' gasoline tax stands at 39 cents per gallon, which ranks 6th highest nationally. Additionally, the state's general sales tax is applied to gasoline purchases. The cigarette tax stands at 98 cents per pack of twenty and ranks 29th nationally. The sales tax was adopted in 1933, the gasoline tax in 1927 and the cigarette tax in 1941.
50-state table of sales, cigarette, gas, beer, wine, and spirits tax rates.
50-State Table of State and Local General and Selective Sales Tax Collections Per Capita

Illinois Property Taxes: Comparatively High
Illinois is one of the 37 states that collect property taxes at both the state and local levels. As in most states, local governments collect far more. Illinois' localities collected $1,528.87 per capita in property taxes in fiscal year 2006, which is the latest year for which the Census Bureau has published state-by-state data. At the state level, Illinois collected $5.07 during FY 2006. Combined state/local property taxes were $1,533.94, which rank10th highest nationally.
State property tax collections per capita by state

Federal Tax Burdens and Expenditures: Illinois is a Donor State
Illinois taxpayers receive less federal funding per dollar of federal taxes paid compared to the average state. In 2005, Illinois citizens received approximately $0.75 in the way of federal spending per dollar of federal taxes paid. This ranks the state 45th nationally and represents a slight rise from 1995, when Illinois received $0.74 per dollar of taxes in federal spending and ranked 47th nationally. Neighboring states and the amount of federal spending they received per dollar of federal taxation paid were as follows: Wisconsin ($0.86), Iowa ($1.10), Missouri ($1.32), Kentucky ($1.51) and Indiana ($1.05).
Comparing the amount of federal taxes sent to Washington with the amount of federal spending coming back to the state

[DaShi]

**** that ****. I want partisan outrage!

[Arrian]

Clearly. Numbers are, like, boring...

-Arrian

[rah]

It will be interesting to see how the new comparisons will be since all the major components (except sales tax) have gone up over 50% compared to the numbers you posted for Illinois.

[Arrian]

The state will certainly move up the rankings. I wonder if you'll crack the top 10.

-Arrian