The Florida tax system is the most unfair on the poor in the entire country, according to a new study, with the lowest-income 20 percent in the state paying much more of their income in taxes than the wealthiest 1 percent.
The Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP), a nonprofit, nonpartisan think tank based in Washington, D.C., released its latest report analyzing tax distribution in all 50 states. It ranked Florida as the most regressive tax system in the United States, with low-income families paying nearly five times as much as the wealthy in taxes.
Newsweek reached out to the ITEP for comment via email on Wednesday.
This ranking might come as a surprise, as Florida is generally considered "low tax" because of the lack of personal income taxes—the reason why many people decide to move to the state from more expensive places like California or New York.
But Florida—as well as other similar "low tax" states like Tennessee and Texas—is only really convenient from a tax perspective for high-income families, while low-income families carry a heavier burden. According to ITEP, Florida and the other "low tax" states "levy some of the nation's highest tax rates on the poor."
The lowest 20 percent in Florida earns less than $19,600, with the average income in this category being $11,400.
The think tank said that this is not an exception in the American system, with researchers finding evidence that states with lower taxes for their highest-income earners tend to have higher taxes for their lowest-income residents, asking the most of the least.
In Florida, the lowest 20 percent (those with the lowest income) was taxed 13.2 percent of their family income, while the middle 60 percent was taxed 9.1 percent and the top 1 percent only 2.7 percent. The poorest Floridians also paid the biggest share of their family income in sales and excise taxes and property taxes than the entire population of the Sunshine State.
According to the ITEP report, the inequality in Florida's tax system is mostly due to "the state levying no personal income tax and relying heavily on sales and excise taxes."
These taxes make up over half of Florida's total tax collections, while in the rest of the country that's on average about a third lower than that, at 34 percent.
After Florida, the states with the most unfair tax systems were Washington, Tennessee, Pennsylvania, Nevada, South Dakota, Texas, Illinois, Arkansas and Louisiana. All were found to tax their poorest residents at rates three times higher than those asked of their richest residents.
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