Think Taxes Are High In Washington State? Not So Much.

There’s no debate that Washington has a high sales tax rate, it’s the fourth highest in the nation. But the truth about taxes in the Evergreen state is that overall they’re a lot lower than people think. According to the Tax Foundation study on tax burdens across states, Washington ranked number 29 with an overall tax burden of 9.3 percent. Let’s take a closer look at the facts.

While Washington has both state and local retail sales taxes that can take a whooping amount of change from each purchase, the state doesn’t have a personal income tax. A lack of personal income taxe leaves a lot more cash available to the average working Joe (and Jane) making the tax burden a little lighter. Even corporate entities can slash their tax bill because Washington doesn’t have a state corporate income tax (but they do have a business and occupation tax). The only area besides retail sales tax where Washington takes a serious chunk of cash from residents is their property taxes. But the upside is that property taxes can be deducted when filing federal taxes. Read tax Publication 530 to learn more about how you can deduct real estate taxes on your federal tax forms.

Feel free to leave comments or questions! 🙂