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State Income Tax Help

State income tax is an income tax in the United States that is levied by each individual state. Seven states choose to impose no income tax. These states are Alaska, Florida, Nevada, South Dakota, Texas, Washington, and Wyoming. Additionally, New Hampshire and Tennessee limit their state income taxes to dividends and interest income only. As of 2007, the highest rate of state income tax is that of California, with a maximum rate of 10.3%. Of those states which impose an income tax, the lowest maximum rate is that of Illinois, which levies a flat tax of 3%. Most states (34) have a progressive income tax, where the rate rises as an income gets larger. In California, for instance, the rate begins at 1% at $6,622 in income and rises to 9.3% over $43,468. In 2005, California added a mental health tax of 1% on incomes greater than $1 million, making the marginal income tax rate in California 10.3% at the extreme income ranges.

State income taxes are on top of the federal income tax, which currently tops out at 35%, as well as payroll taxes (contributions to Social Security and Medicare). Therefore, the maximum total rate is 35% of income in the states of Florida, Texas, and Washington, but 44.5% of income in Vermont and 45.3% in California, in addition to payroll taxes. However, these figures do not reflect the fact that some state and local taxes (including state income taxes) are deductible for federal tax purposes. Due to Alternative Minimum Tax, or AMT, itemization may not yield much, if any, tax savings on the federal return. For those not affected by AMT, the federal government effectively subsidizes a portion of an individual's state income tax, but only for individuals whose total deductions are greater than the standard deduction, which means the subsidy falls almost entirely to middle class payers.

In addition, some states allow cities and/or counties to impose income taxes above and beyond the federal and state income taxes. An example is New York City, where there is both a state income tax of up to 8.14%" and a city income tax, up to 4.00%. The maximum rate in the city limits of New York City (as of 2007) is therefore 47.14% (approximately one-half of marginal income), or 1.35 times the 35.0% rate (approximately one-third of marginal income) inside "federal income tax only" cities such as Seattle, Houston, Dallas, and Miami.

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