Study puts Kentucky’s tax burden in the middle
LEXINGTON, Ky. (WTVQ) – With Tax Day delayed to July 15 due to the coronavirus pandemic, the annual moaning and groaning about taxes has been put off a little while for some people.
But with elections out of the way, at least for a little while, Kentuckians will have to have something else to complain about besides the weather and continued coronavirus restrictions so taxes are as good as anything.
With that in mind, the personal-finance website WalletHub released Wednesday its 2020 Tax Burden by State report.
Kentucky ranks 21st, almost right in the middle, according to the survey. It’s 44th in property tax, sixth in income tax and 22nd in sales and excise tax.
Three nearby states — Illinois at 9, Ohio at 12 and West Virginia at 17 — have a higher tax burden while two — Indiana at 35 and Tennessee at 48 — have lower burdens.
Even with the tax deadline delay, some taxpayers still wonder how this year’s Tax Day will affect their finances. One way to compare states is a ration known as the “tax burden.”
Unlike tax rates, which vary widely based on an individual’s circumstances, tax burden measures the proportion of total personal income that residents pay toward state and local taxes. And it isn’t uniform across the U.S., either.
To determine the residents with the biggest tax burdens, WalletHub compared the 50 states across the three tax types of state tax burdens — property taxes, individual income taxes and sales and excise taxes — as a share of total personal income in the state.
| States with Highest Tax Burdens (%) | States with Lowest Tax Burdens (%) |
| 1. New York (12.28%) | 41. South Carolina (7.48%) |
| 2. Hawaii (11.48%) | 42. Alabama (7.36%) |
| 3. Vermont (10.73%) | 43. Montana (7.22%) |
| 4. Maine (10.57%) | 44. Oklahoma (6.94%) |
| 5. Minnesota (10.19%) | 45. New Hampshire (6.85%) |
| 6. Connecticut (9.99%) | 46. Florida (6.82%) |
| 7. New Jersey (9.88%) | 47. Wyoming (6.47%) |
| 8. Rhode Island (9.84%) | 48. Tennessee (6.18%) |
| 9. Illinois (9.62%) | 49. Delaware (5.52%) |
| 10. Iowa (9.53%) | 50. Alaska (5.16%) |
Key Stats
- Americans spend 8 billion hours doing taxes each year. The average person spends 11 hours and $210 completing his or her 1040.
- 90% of tax returns are expected to be filled electronically. The average refund in 2020 is $2,769, as of 6/5/2020.
- Nearly one-third of people (30%) say making a math mistake as well as not having enough money (30%) are their biggest Tax Day fears, edging out identity theft (21%) and getting audited (19%).
- 37% of Americans would move to a different country and 26% would get an “IRS” tattoo for a tax-free future.
- 50% of people would rather do jury duty than their taxes. Nearly 1 in 5 would prefer talking to their kids about sex. More than 10% would swim with sharks, spend the night in jail and drink expired milk.
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