What the Nine No-Income-Tax States Charge Instead

Nine states take nothing out of your paycheck for state income tax.

On an $85,000 salary a single filer keeps $68,628 in every one of them — the same figure in Anchorage, Miami, Las Vegas, Manchester, Sioux Falls, Nashville, Houston, Seattle and Cheyenne, because once state tax is zero the only things left are federal income tax and FICA, and those do not vary by state.

Against Oregon, the highest-taxing state at that salary, that is $6,864 a year — $572 a month.

But "no income tax" is not the same as "no tax", and in one of the nine it is not even the same as "no tax on income." This article says what each state charges instead, and where the phrase breaks down.

A note before you start. This is general education, not tax advice. Take-home figures are computed by this site's own tax engine for tax year 2026 on a single filer taking the standard deduction with no dependents or pre-tax deferrals, using federal figures from IRS Revenue Procedure 2025-32. Sales tax, property tax and severance tax rates are outside this dataset and are described qualitatively.

1. The nine, and what they are worth

Those are the highest take-home figures available in the United States at each salary. No state beats them, because zero is the floor.

What the advantage is actually worth, at $85,000:

The full spread across all fifty states at $85,000 is $6,864 — from Oregon to the nine. That is real money and it is smaller than most people assume, because federal tax and FICA take $16,373 of that salary in every state before any state touches it.

2. There are actually ten states that charge you nothing at $45,000

This is the finding most lists miss.

North Dakota's lowest bracket is 0%. A single filer earning $45,000 takes the federal standard deduction, arrives at taxable income below North Dakota's first threshold, and owes the state nothing at all.

So at $45,000 and at $60,000, North Dakota's take-home is identical to Texas's, Florida's and the rest — $38,338 and $50,390 to the dollar.

North Dakota is not a no-income-tax state. It has brackets, it collects revenue, and above roughly $60,000 the bill starts. But for a very large share of American workers, North Dakota belongs on the list, and it never appears there.

A related point worth holding onto: North Dakota's return starts from federal taxable income, so the federal standard deduction is already inside the number the state begins from. That is what makes the zero bracket reach as far up the income scale as it does.

3. Washington is not a no-tax state for an investor

This is the sharpest exception in the group and it is easy to miss.

Washington levies no tax on wages. Its take-home at every salary is identical to Texas's.

But chapter 82.87 RCW imposes an excise tax on individuals' long-term capital gains allocated to Washington, above a standard deduction — $278,000 for the figures this site records, which is the confirmed tax year 2025 amount carried forward because the Department of Revenue had not published a 2026 figure when this dataset was compiled. This site discloses that rather than guessing at an inflation adjustment.

The rate is 7% on the first $1,000,000 of taxable Washington capital gains. Beginning with tax year 2025, ESSB 5813 added a further 2.9% on the portion above $1,000,000, so the marginal rate above that point is 9.9%.

What is and is not in the base matters enormously:

Only long-term gains count. Short-term gains are outside the tax entirely.

Real estate is expressly exempt — all of it, including interests in privately held entities to the extent the gain is attributable to real estate the entity owns. Retirement account assets are exempt. So are depreciable business assets, timber and timberlands, certain farming and ranching livestock, commercial fishing privileges, and condemnation proceeds.

The practical shape: a Washington resident who sells a house owes nothing under this tax. A Washington resident who sells $500,000 of appreciated index funds from a taxable brokerage account owes 7% on roughly $222,000 of it.

So "Washington has no income tax" is true of your salary and false of your brokerage account. If you are choosing a no-income-tax state partly for investment reasons, that distinction is the whole decision.

4. Texas closed the same door constitutionally

On 4 November 2025 Texas adopted Article VIII, Section 24-b, which provides that the legislature may not impose a tax on the realized or unrealized capital gains of an individual, family, estate or trust — including a tax on the sale or transfer of a capital asset payable by the seller.

That last clause is the point. Washington structured its capital gains tax as an excise on the transaction precisely to survive a state constitutional challenge, and Texas's amendment forecloses that framing specifically as well as the ordinary one.

Subsection (b) preserves property tax, sales tax and use tax, so the prohibition is aimed at a gains levy rather than at transaction taxes generally.

Texas and Washington are therefore exact mirrors: two states with no general income tax, one of which enacted a standalone capital gains excise and one of which constitutionally forbade it.

Nevada and Florida sit closer to Texas. Nevada's Article 10, Section 1(9) says plainly that no income tax shall be levied on the wages or personal income of natural persons, and gains realized by a natural person fall inside it. Florida's Article VII, Section 5(b) is a constitutional preemption of taxing the income of natural persons; its corporate income tax is authorised by a different subsection and does not reach individuals.

5. None of the nine allows a local income tax

This is worth stating because twelve states do allow one, and in those states a take-home figure that ignores it is materially wrong — Ohio, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Kentucky, Michigan, Indiana, New York, Missouri, Alabama, Delaware, Iowa and Oregon all have local income taxes somewhere.

In the nine, there are none — and in several the prohibition is express rather than incidental:

Washington. RCW 36.65.030 provides that a county, city or city-county may not levy a tax on net income. This was litigated rather than merely assumed — Seattle enacted one and it did not survive.

Wyoming. Wyo. Stat. 39-12-101 preempts the field for the state expressly.

Nevada. The constitutional bar in Article 10 has no qualification and applies to every level of government, so the state has no such power to delegate.

Florida. Article VII, Section 7 is a constitutional preemption, not an absence.

Texas, Tennessee, South Dakota, New Hampshire and Alaska. Confirmed negatives — no municipality, county, school district or special district levies a tax on personal income or earnings in any of them.

So in all nine states the take-home figures in section 1 are complete. That is not true of most states in this series, and it is the quiet second half of the no-income-tax advantage.

6. What each one charges instead

No state runs on nothing. Here is where the revenue comes from, described qualitatively because rates are outside this dataset.

Alaska. The only state with no state sales tax and no state income tax — but roughly a hundred municipalities levy their own sales tax, commonly 2% to 7.5%. Anchorage levies none; Juneau does. Whether you pay sales tax in Alaska depends entirely on which community you live in. Alaska also runs a live corporate income tax among the higher ones in the country, plus fisheries, mining and oil and gas production taxes — industry levies, not individual ones. The Permanent Fund Dividend is a payment out, not a tax, and it is federally taxable income.

New Hampshire. No income tax and no general sales tax either — which leaves property tax doing almost all the work, at effective rates among the highest in the country. The Interest and Dividends Tax has been repealed. New Hampshire never taxed capital gains, even before that repeal; RSA chapter 77 reached interest and dividends only.

Texas. No income tax and no capital gains tax, offset by property tax rates among the highest in the country plus a state and local sales tax.

Tennessee. Sales tax at a combined state and local rate among the highest in the country, applied to groceries as well as general merchandise. The Hall income tax on interest and dividends was repealed for tax periods beginning on or after 1 January 2021 and no longer exists.

Wyoming. Severance tax on mineral extraction funds a substantial share of state government and is paid largely by industry rather than by households. Wyoming's sales tax rates are among the lower ones in the country — it is the only one of the nine where the household-level offset is genuinely small.

Nevada. Sales tax at combined rates among the higher ones nationally, plus gaming and tourism taxes paid substantially by visitors.

Florida. Sales tax, plus tourism levies. Property tax rates sit near the national middle, and Florida's homestead exemption and Save Our Homes assessment cap are unusually favourable to a long-term owner-occupier.

South Dakota. Sales tax at a state rate plus municipal rates, applied to groceries.

Washington. Sales tax at combined rates among the highest in the country, plus the capital gains excise in section 3.

7. What this means for an actual decision

Three honest conclusions, in order of how much they should weigh.

The wage advantage is real, identical across all nine, and worth $6,864 a year at $85,000 against the worst case. That is not nothing. It is also less than the difference between two rent areas in most states — Chicago and downstate Illinois are $10,380 apart on a two-bedroom.

The offset is invisible in every take-home figure, including this site's. A household spending $25,000 a year on taxable goods in a state with a 9% combined sales tax pays $2,250 — a third of the entire Oregon-to-Texas income tax gap, and it appears in no calculator on this site. In New Hampshire the offset is property tax and it reaches renters through their rent.

And if investments are a large part of your picture, check the capital gains treatment separately. Washington taxes long-term gains and eight of the nine do not. That single fact can outweigh every wage figure on this page.

8. Three things people get wrong about this list

"There are seven no-income-tax states." There are nine. The count was seven for a period when New Hampshire and Tennessee still taxed interest and dividends; both of those taxes have since been repealed, and both states are now fully on the list for wage earners.

"No income tax means low tax." It means no tax on this particular base. New Hampshire's property tax rates and Tennessee's and Washington's sales tax rates are among the highest in the country, and a household's total burden depends on what it spends and owns, not only on what it earns.

"Moving there saves me my marginal rate." It saves you your effective state rate, which is lower. On $85,000 a Californian's marginal state rate is well above what the $3,660 bill implies as a share of salary — and $3,660 is what moving would actually save, not the marginal figure.

9. Where to see your own numbers

Every figure on this page is computed, not estimated. Run your own salary:

• Take-home pay calculator — switch states and compare side by side.
• Marginal vs. effective tax rate — why the rate you save is not the rate you are in.
• Pre-tax deferrals and your paycheck — the lever that works in all fifty states.

Frequently asked questions

Which states have no income tax? Nine: Alaska, Florida, Nevada, New Hampshire, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Washington and Wyoming. New Hampshire and Tennessee joined the list after repealing taxes on interest and dividends.

How much is no state income tax actually worth? On an $85,000 salary for a single filer, $6,864 a year against Oregon — the widest gap available. Against Ohio it is $1,622 and against North Dakota $377. All nine states produce the same $68,628 take-home.

Is there really a tenth state that charges nothing? At $45,000 and $60,000, yes. North Dakota's first bracket is 0% and a single filer's taxable income at those salaries falls entirely inside it, so North Dakota's take-home matches the nine exactly. Above roughly $60,000 the bill begins.

Does Washington tax investment income? Yes, unlike the other eight. Chapter 82.87 RCW imposes a 7% excise on long-term capital gains above a standard deduction — $278,000 in the figure this site records — rising to 9.9% above $1 million. Real estate, retirement accounts and short-term gains are outside it entirely.

Can a city in a no-income-tax state levy its own? No, in all nine. In Washington, Wyoming, Nevada and Florida the prohibition is express — constitutional or statutory — rather than a mere absence. Washington's was litigated when Seattle tried.

Do these states have higher sales or property taxes? Generally yes, and it varies. New Hampshire has no sales tax and among the highest property taxes; Tennessee, Washington and Nevada have among the highest sales taxes; Texas has among the highest property taxes; Wyoming leans on severance tax and its household-level rates are comparatively low. None of it appears in a take-home figure.

Is the Alaska Permanent Fund Dividend tax-free? No. It is a payment from a sovereign wealth fund, its amount varies year to year with fund performance and legislative appropriation, and it is federally taxable income.

When did the list become nine states? When New Hampshire and Tennessee finished repealing their taxes on interest and dividends. Tennessee's Hall income tax ended for tax periods beginning on or after 1 January 2021, and New Hampshire's Interest and Dividends Tax has since been repealed as well. Neither ever reached wages, and neither ever reached capital gains — so for a wage earner both states have effectively always belonged on this list, and older sources saying "seven" are counting a tax that no longer exists.

Should I move to a no-income-tax state? The wage advantage is real and identical across all nine, and it is smaller than most people assume — $572 a month at $85,000 against the worst case. Weigh it against the sales or property tax you would pay instead, and against Washington's capital gains excise if investments matter to you.

What to do next

The advantage is real, it is the same in all nine states, and every one of them collects the money somewhere else.

• Take-home pay calculator — your own salary, any state.
• Marginal vs. effective tax rate — the rate you save is not the rate you are in.
• The twelve states with local income tax — where a state figure is not the whole bill.
• Your paycheck in the USA in 2026 — all fifty states.

Every figure on this site is sourced and dated. How we source every number.

Take-home figures are computed by this site's own tax engine for tax year 2026 on a single filer taking the standard deduction with no dependents or pre-tax deferrals, using federal figures from IRS Revenue Procedure 2025-32. Washington's capital gains excise is recorded under chapter 82.87 RCW with the rate increase from ESSB 5813 (ch. 421, Laws of 2025); its $278,000 standard deduction is the confirmed tax year 2025 figure carried into this record because no 2026 amount had been published, which this site's dataset discloses rather than estimating. Texas's Article VIII, Section 24-b was adopted 4 November 2025. Sales tax rates, property tax rates, severance tax and Permanent Fund Dividend amounts are outside this dataset and are described qualitatively. This is general education and not tax advice.