These are the results of an annual survey by the Bloomberg wealth Manager magazine. For the survey, they compare the impact of state taxes on salary, real estate, personal property, and retirement assets for 4 hypothetical families. The editors of the magazine run exhaustive research on tax codes and effects in each state.
The results of this survey vividly demonstrate how tax bite can vary from state to state, and how each state's burden can change depending on the nature of one's assets. For example, the identical set of financial parameters that would have generated a tax bill of $10,504 last year in tax-friendly Wyoming, would have cost a family $68,583 in tax-hell Rhode Island.
There are also significant inequities found in just crossing state lines. Tax-friendly Wyoming's neighbor to the north, Montana, was #6 among the most "wealth-hostile" states, with a "D-" grade overall for wealth-friendliness".
| State | Grade | Ranking |
|---|---|---|
| Wyoming | A+ | 1 |
| Alabama | A+ | 2* |
| Nevada | A+ | 2* |
| Tennessee | A+ | 3 |
| Louisiana | A | 4 |
| Washington | A | 5 |
| Colorado | A | 6 |
| Alaska | A | 7 |
| Delaware | A- | 8 |
| Arizona | A- | 9 |
| Florida | A- | 10 |
| New Hampshire | A- | 11 |
| South Dakota | B+ | 12 |
| Mississippi | B+ | 13 |
| Hawaii | B+ | 14 |
| Maryland | B+ | 15 |
| Utah | B | 16 |
| Georgia | B | 17 |
| Arkansas | B | 18 |
| Indiana | B | 19 |
| South Carolina | B- | 20 |
| Virginia | B- | 21 |
| Massachusetts | B- | 22 |
| Pennsylvania | B- | 23 |
| Kentucky | C+ | 24 |
| Michigan | C+ | 25 |
| Texas | C+ | 26 |
| West Virginia | C+ | 27 |
| Oklahoma | C | 28 |
| New Mexico | C | 29 |
| Missouri | C | 30 |
| Illinois | C | 31 |
| Iowa | C- | 32 |
| Washington, D.C. | C- | 33 |
| Connecticut | C- | 34 |
| Idaho | C- | 35 |
| California | D+ | 36* |
| North Carolina | D+ | 36* |
| North Dakota | D+ | 37 |
| Kansas | D+ | 38 |
| New Jersey | D | 39 |
| Minnesota | D | 40 |
| Ohio | D | 41 |
| Oregon | D | 42 |
| Nebraska | D- | 43 |
| Montana | D- | 44 |
| Maine | D- | 45 |
| New York | D- | 46 |
| Wisconsin | F | 47 |
| Vermont | F | 48 |
| Rhode Island | F | 49 |
Footnotes:
An asterisk denotes a tie for that particular ranking.
For a recent (Aug. 2004) article on the Bloomberg "Wealth Friendliness" of States, follow this link.