MacIver News Service | October 30, 2012

A new report from the non-partisan Tax Foundation concluded that in Fiscal Year 2010, Wisconsin had the fifth highest tax burden among the 50 states when measuring state and local taxes on a per capita basis.

Wisconsin was ranked right in the middle of the country for income–25th with income levels of $39,536 per capita. The Tax Foundation found that the total tax paid per capita was $4,379. This means that on a per capita basis, Wisconsin residents pay 11.07% of their income to some form of government at the state or local level.

Here is a map of the State-by-State breakdown:

The focus of the study is on the taxpayer, which is why all the data are measured on a per capita basis. Wisconsin’s 2010 top five ranking continues to make the case for reform, as even our profligate spending neighbors to the south in Illinois checked in outside the top ten at #11.

Wisconsin was also dead last in tax friendliness in the Midwest/Great Lakes region, proving that more work must be done if the Badger State expects to be competitive in the future.

Links to the study can be found here, and a direct link to the PDF can be seen here.

Next year’s index will mark the Tax Foundation’s first measure of reforms made by the Wisconsin State Legislature during the 2011-12 legislative session, including Act 10.