Figures last verified against primary sources on . See methodology and corrections.
Nine States Have No Income Tax. Only Four Ban It.
Nine states levy no broad-based individual income tax for tax year 2026: Alaska, Florida, Nevada, New Hampshire, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Washington, and Wyoming. Only four of the nine wrote the ban into their constitutions. The rest hold the zero by statute, by a clause that defuses the tax without banning it, or by nothing at all — Washington has already signed a 9.9% tax on income above $1 million, effective January 1, 2028.
The scoreboard, and the law under it
Income-tax rates come from the TaxMath rate tables that power the calculator. Sales figures are the Tax Foundation's combined state and average local rates as of January 1, 2026; property figures are its effective rates on owner-occupied housing for calendar year 2024.
| State | Income tax, 2026 | Sales tax, combined (1/1/2026) | Property tax, effective (2024) | What holds the zero |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alaska | 0.00% | 1.82% (no state tax; all local) | 0.94% | Statute: the tax "does not apply to an individual" |
| Florida | 0.00% | 6.98% | 0.78% | Const. art. VII, §5(a) |
| Nevada | 0.00% | 8.24% | 0.50% | Const. art. 10, §1(9) |
| New Hampshire | 0.00% | 0.00% | 1.50% | Statute: interest and dividends tax repealed from 2025 |
| South Dakota | 0.00% | 6.11% | 1.00% | Nothing: art. XI, §2 empowers the tax |
| Tennessee | 0.00% | 9.61% | 0.52% | Const. art. II, §28 (wages only), plus the Hall tax repeal |
| Texas | 0.00% | 8.20% | 1.40% | Const. art. VIII, §24-a and §24-b |
| Washington | 0.00% | 9.51% | 0.75% | Nothing: a 9.9% income tax is signed for 2028 |
| Wyoming | 0.00% | 5.56% | 0.53% | Const. art. 15, §18 permits it, with a catch |
Two of the sales cells hide their extremes. Wyoming averages 5.56%, yet the state's own rate chart for October 2026 puts the Teton Village and Grand Targhee resort districts at 9% combined, five points of it local. South Dakota's 4.2% state rate carries a scheduled ending: SDCL 10-45-2 holds a second codified version, effective July 1, 2027, at 4.5%. Municipalities there add up to 2% in general sales tax and a further 1% gross-receipts tax on lodging, prepared food, alcohol, and admissions. At the top of the table, Tennessee's 9.61% combined rate is second in the nation behind Louisiana's 10.11%.
Four constitutions ban it, none the same way
Texas is double-locked. Article VIII, §24-a has barred a tax on individuals' net incomes since November 2019, when Proposition 4 also repealed old §24, the 1993 provision that mapped a route to an income tax by statewide referendum. In November 2025, voters added §24-b, banning taxes on capital gains "realized or unrealized," and a new §26 barring estate, inheritance, and transfer taxes. What Texas collects instead: the country's seventh-highest effective property tax rate, all of it levied locally, and a franchise tax on business margin that owes nothing below $2,650,000 of total revenue for report years 2026 and 2027.
Florida split its ban in half. Article VII, §5(a) forbids taxing natural persons' income beyond what federal law would credit back, a credit that has not existed in decades, while §5(b) expressly permits a corporate income tax of up to 5%, or more on a three-fifths vote of each chamber. Both halves are live: the corporate rate for 2026 stands at 5.50% under that supermajority allowance, and the §220.1105 revenue trigger cut it automatically for tax years 2019 through 2021 before the trigger's repeal fixed the rate again from 2022.
Nevada's article 10, §1(9) needs one sentence: "No income tax shall be levied upon the wages or personal income of natural persons." The next sentence reserves the right to tax business income, and Nevada exercises it. The Commerce Tax reaches businesses with Nevada gross revenue above $4,000,000, at industry rates from 0.051% to 0.331%. A $100 million retailer owes ($100,000,000 − $4,000,000) × 0.111% = $106,560 in commerce tax, in a state whose 2026 corporate income tax rate is 0.00%.
Tennessee's zero died twice. The Hall tax on interest and dividends was repealed for tax years beginning January 1, 2021, and capital gains were never taxed even while it stood. Separately, a 2014 amendment to article II, §28 bans any state or local tax "upon payroll or earned personal income" and grandfathers only taxes in effect on January 1, 2011. The grandfather clause is why the Hall tax needed its own repeal.
Two constitutions permit the tax
Wyoming folklore says the constitution forbids an income tax. The text does the opposite. Article 15, §18 presupposes one and attaches a condition: "full credit against such tax liability for all sales, use, and ad valorem taxes paid in the taxable year." In a state funded by exactly those taxes, an income tax that hands them all back raises approximately nothing. Wyoming still measures income: its Property Tax Refund Program qualifies homeowners against published county and state median household incomes.
South Dakota's constitution is blunter: "The Legislature is empowered to impose taxes upon incomes," reads article XI, §2, "and taxes upon incomes may be graduated and progressive." The state used the power once, levying an income tax from 1933 to 1942. Between South Dakota and another one stands article XI, §14: any new state tax needs two-thirds of each chamber or a vote of the people. One income tax survives, and its title names who pays: SDCL chapter 10-43, "Income Tax on Banks and Financial Corporations," at 6% of net income.
Two zeros rest on statute alone
Alaska's fits in a line: the state income tax chapter "does not apply to an individual" (AS 43.20.012). Corporations get the opposite: a graduated schedule starting at zero below $25,000 of taxable income and reaching 9.40% above $222,000. There is no state sales tax, and the local sales taxes boroughs and cities levy average 1.82% across the state. Alaska also pays its residents: the 2025 Permanent Fund Dividend was $1,000 per eligible Alaskan.
New Hampshire's zero is the newest. Its interest and dividends tax stepped down over three years and was repealed for taxable periods beginning on or after January 1, 2025, making 2025 the first year the state taxed no personal income at all. It has never had a general sales tax; the table's 0.00% is a zero at every level of government. What New Hampshire runs on: the fifth-highest effective property tax rate of 2024, a 7.50% business profits tax, and a 0.55% business enterprise tax.
Washington's zero has an end date
The ninth state is moving the other way. Washington taxes long-term capital gains at 7% above an inflation-indexed deduction, $278,000 for tax year 2025, plus another 2.9 points (9.9% total) on the portion of taxable gains above $1,000,000 under RCW 82.87.040, with the million measured after the deduction. The Department of Revenue had not published the 2026 deduction as of August 31, 2026, so treat that threshold as the 2025 figure until it lands. The state supreme court upheld the tax in Quinn v. State (2023) as an excise on the sale rather than a tax on income.
Washington is also the only one of the nine with an estate tax: a $3,000,000 exclusion for deaths on or after July 1, 2026, with the top rate returned to 20% by SB 6347 after 2025 legislation had raised it to 35%. Businesses pay the business and occupation tax on gross receipts, with no deduction for costs.
Then the countdown. SB 6346, signed March 30, 2026, imposes a 9.9% tax on individual income above a $1,000,000 deduction, one deduction per household regardless of filing status, for tax years beginning January 1, 2028, with the first returns due in 2029. The repeal question is already scheduled: Initiative 645, listed by the Secretary of State as "An Initiative Prohibiting Individual Income Taxes," goes to voters on the November 3, 2026 statewide ballot.
Who pays for the zero
ITEP's fifty-state distributional analysis counts six of these nine — Florida, Washington, Tennessee, Nevada, South Dakota, and Texas — among the ten most regressive state and local tax systems in the country. Florida's is the most regressive of all: ITEP puts the effective rate on its lowest-income 20% at nearly five times the rate on its top 1%. Sales-tax reliance is the mechanism; the scoreboard shows where it is steepest.
Migration follows the headline unevenly. Census Bureau estimates credit Florida with the largest net domestic in-migration of any state from April 2020 to July 2025, 890,348 people, with Texas second at 812,735. Washington lost 12,979 residents on net over the same window; Alaska lost 24,270. The IRS migration series, built from tax return addresses, and the Census state-to-state flow tables trace the same moves filer by filer, along with the income that moved.
The nine tie on exactly one line of a return; everything else separates them, and it moves on scheduled dates. South Dakota's sales rate reverts to 4.5% on July 1, 2027. Washington's 9.9% income tax arrives January 1, 2028, unless voters repeal it on November 3, 2026. The fleet ranking prices all 51 jurisdictions for the $65,000 single filer; the calculator breaks the nine-way tie with your own numbers.
Sources
Ordered by authority — the law and the agencies administering it first. Every link is checked for rot; see all sources.
- Primary lawAlaska Statutes 43.20.011–.014 — Alaska Net Income Tax ActAlaska State Legislature · checked 2026-08-31The corporate schedule (zero below $25,000 of taxable income, 9.4% above $222,000) and AS 43.20.012(a): the tax "does not apply to an individual."Other articles citing this source
- Primary lawConstitution of the State of Nevada, Article 10 — TaxationNevada Legislature · checked 2026-08-31Art. 10, §1(9): "No income tax shall be levied upon the wages or personal income of natural persons," with business income taxes expressly reserved.Other articles citing this source
- Primary lawNRS Chapter 363C — Commerce TaxNevada Legislature · checked 2026-08-31The imposition sections: Nevada gross revenue minus $4,000,000, multiplied by a per-industry rate from 0.051% (mining) to 0.331% (rail transportation); retail trade is 0.111%.Other articles citing this source
- Primary lawRSA 77-A:2 — Business Profits Tax, imposition of taxNew Hampshire General Court · checked 2026-08-31The BPT rate steps in statute: 7.7%, then 7.6%, then 7.5% for taxable periods ending on or after 31 December 2023.Other articles citing this source
- Primary lawRSA 77-E:2 — Business Enterprise Tax, imposition of taxNew Hampshire General Court · checked 2026-08-31The BET rate: 0.55% for taxable periods ending on or after 31 December 2022.Other articles citing this source
- Primary lawS.D. Const. art. XI, §14 — Vote required to impose or increase taxesSouth Dakota Legislature · checked 2026-08-31No new state tax without a two-thirds vote of all members of each chamber or a vote of the people by initiative. Approved November 1996.Other articles citing this source
- Primary lawS.D. Const. art. XI, §2 — Classification of property for taxation; incomeSouth Dakota Legislature · checked 2026-08-31"The Legislature is empowered to impose taxes upon incomes and occupations, and taxes upon incomes may be graduated and progressive."Other articles citing this source
- Primary lawSDCL 10-43-4 — Income Tax on Banks and Financial Corporations, rate of taxSouth Dakota Legislature · checked 2026-08-31The 6% rate on financial institutions’ net income, in the one chapter of South Dakota’s code that levies a net income tax.Other articles citing this source
- Primary lawSDCL 10-45-2 — Tax on sale of tangible propertySouth Dakota Legislature · checked 2026-08-31The 4.2% state sales tax rate, with a second codified version effective 1 July 2027 restoring 4.5% — the sunset enacted by SL 2023, ch. 32.Other articles citing this source
- Primary lawSenate Joint Resolution 1 (108th General Assembly) — amendment to Tenn. Const. art. II, §28Tennessee General Assembly · checked 2026-08-31The amendment approved by voters in November 2014: no state or local tax "upon payroll or earned personal income," grandfathering only taxes in effect on 1 January 2011.Other articles citing this source
- Primary lawThe Texas Constitution, Article VIII — Taxation and RevenueTexas Legislative Council · checked 2026-08-31§24-a (individual income tax prohibited, added 5 Nov. 2019, the same election that repealed old §24), §24-b (capital gains tax prohibited, realized or unrealized, added 4 Nov. 2025), and §26 (death and transfer taxes prohibited).Other articles citing this source
- Primary lawConstitution of the State of Florida, Article VII, Section 5The Florida Senate · checked 2026-08-31§5(a) bars taxing natural persons’ income beyond what federal law would credit back; §5(b) permits a corporate income tax up to 5%, or higher on a three-fifths vote of each chamber.Other articles citing this source
- Primary lawFla. Stat. §220.1105 — Tax imposed; automatic refunds and downward adjustmentsThe Florida Senate · checked 2026-08-31The revenue trigger that automatically cut the corporate rate for tax years 2019–2021; repealed for taxable years beginning on or after 1 January 2022, fixing the rate at 5.5%.Other articles citing this source
- Primary lawWashington State Supreme Court opinionsWashington State Courts · checked 2026-08-02Quinn v. State (2023), which upheld the capital gains tax as an excise tax rather than a tax on income.Other articles citing this source
- Primary lawRCW 82.87.040 — Tax imposed (capital gains)Washington State Legislature · checked 2026-08-31The codified rates: 7% on Washington capital gains, plus 2.9% on the portion exceeding $1,000,000 (added by ESSB 5813, 2025 c 421, applying from tax year 2025). "Washington capital gains" is the post-deduction amount, so the $1 million measures taxable gains.Other articles citing this source
- Primary lawConstitution of the State of Wyoming, Article 15, Section 18Wyoming Legislature · checked 2026-08-31"No tax shall be imposed upon income without allowing full credit against such tax liability for all sales, use, and ad valorem taxes paid in the taxable year" — a condition on an income tax, not a prohibition of one.Other articles citing this source
- GovernmentSOI Tax Stats — Migration dataInternal Revenue Service · checked 2026-08-02State-to-state migration counts, built from return addresses, and the AGI that moved.Other articles citing this source
- GovernmentCommerce taxNevada Department of Taxation · checked 2026-08-02Nevada’s gross revenue tax on businesses above the filing threshold.Other articles citing this source
- GovernmentRepeal of the NH Interest and Dividends Tax now in effectNew Hampshire Department of Revenue Administration · checked 2026-08-02The repeal for tax periods beginning on or after 1 January 2025 and the prior 3% rate.Other articles citing this source
- GovernmentMunicipal taxSouth Dakota Department of Revenue · checked 2026-08-31General municipal sales tax rates of 1% to 2%, plus the separate 1% municipal gross receipts tax on lodging, alcoholic beverages, prepared food, and admissions.Other articles citing this source
- GovernmentAlaska Permanent Fund DividendState of Alaska, Department of Revenue · checked 2026-08-02The annual dividend paid to eligible Alaska residents.Other articles citing this source
- GovernmentHall income taxTennessee Department of Revenue · checked 2026-08-02Tennessee’s tax on interest and dividends and its full repeal for tax years beginning in 2021.Other articles citing this source
- GovernmentFranchise taxTexas Comptroller of Public Accounts · checked 2026-08-31The margin tax rates and thresholds by report year — no tax due below $2,650,000 of total revenue for report years 2026 and 2027 ($2,470,000 for 2024 and 2025).Other articles citing this source
- GovernmentProperty taxTexas Comptroller of Public Accounts · checked 2026-08-02Texas property tax administration, exemptions, and the relief measures of recent sessions.Other articles citing this source
- GovernmentAnnual and Cumulative Estimates of the Components of Resident Population Change: April 1, 2020 to July 1, 2025 (NST-EST2025-COMP)U.S. Census Bureau · checked 2026-08-31Vintage-2025 population estimates: per-state net domestic migration, annual and cumulative — the basis for the Florida and Texas in-migration totals.Other articles citing this source
- GovernmentState-to-State Migration FlowsU.S. Census Bureau · checked 2026-08-02Annual domestic migration flows, independent of the IRS series.Other articles citing this source
- GovernmentProposed ballot measure information — 2026 general electionWashington Secretary of State · checked 2026-08-31The measures certified to the 2026 general election ballot, including Initiative Measure No. 645 (IP26-645), "An Initiative Prohibiting Individual Income Taxes."Other articles citing this source
- GovernmentBusiness and occupation (B&O) taxWashington State Department of Revenue · checked 2026-08-02Gross receipts tax classifications and rates.Other articles citing this source
- GovernmentCapital gains taxWashington State Department of Revenue · checked 2026-08-02The 7% rate, the indexed standard deduction threshold, the exclusions, and filing rules.Other articles citing this source
- GovernmentEstate taxWashington State Department of Revenue · checked 2026-08-02Washington’s filing threshold and graduated estate tax rates.Other articles citing this source
- GovernmentProperty Tax Refund ProgramWyoming Department of Revenue · checked 2026-08-31The income-tested refund program, with the published county and state median household income tables applications are measured against.Other articles citing this source
- GovernmentSales/use tax rate chartsWyoming Department of Revenue, Excise Tax Division · checked 2026-08-31The quarterly master rate chart of combined state, county, and resort-district rates — the Teton Village and Grand Targhee resort districts at 9% combined (4% state + 5 points local).Other articles citing this source
- Official recordSB 6346 — Washington State Legislature bill summaryWashington State Legislature · checked 2026-08-02Bill text, fiscal note, and history for the tax on individual income above $1 million.Other articles citing this source
- Official recordSB 6347 — Undoing certain changes to the estate taxWashington State Legislature · published 2026-03-24 · checked 2026-08-31Chapter 209, Laws of 2026, signed 24 March 2026: rolls the estate tax rate schedule back to its pre-2025 form, a 20% top rate, for deaths on or after 1 July 2026.Other articles citing this source
- ResearchWho Pays? A distributional analysis of the tax systems in all fifty statesInstitute on Taxation and Economic Policy · checked 2026-08-02Effective state and local tax rates by income group — the basis for calling sales-tax-reliant systems regressive.Other articles citing this source
- ResearchDemocratic Party Politics and the South Dakota Income Tax, 1933–1942 (South Dakota History, vol. 26)South Dakota Historical Society Press · checked 2026-08-31The scholarly account of the income tax South Dakota levied from 1933 to 1942 — proof the constitutional power in art. XI, §2 has been used.Other articles citing this source
- ResearchEstate and inheritance taxes by stateTax Foundation · checked 2026-08-02Which states levy estate or inheritance taxes, with exemption amounts and top rates.Other articles citing this source
- ResearchProperty taxes by state and countyTax Foundation · checked 2026-08-02Effective property tax rates on owner-occupied housing.Other articles citing this source
- ResearchState and local sales tax ratesTax Foundation · checked 2026-08-02Combined state and average local sales tax rates by state.Other articles citing this source