See What the Average American Family Takes Home After Taxes in Every State
Nicole Spector
6 min read
ArtistGNDphotography / Getty Images
“In this world, nothing is certain except death and taxes,” Benjamin Franklin once famously said.
All of these years later, he’s still spot on. No matter how lucrative your job is, paying taxes is unavoidable. How much you’ll pay Uncle Sam depends not just on the income bracket you are in, but also on where you live, as every state has its approach to taxes.
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A big question is: How much does the average American household take home after taxes? It’s a complicated question because of the location factor and the fact that every state has a different median income. With exclusive new research, GOBankingRates has broken down the answer, state by state.
Methodology: For this study, GOBankingRates analyzed the median income of each state and calculated the take-home pay for a married couple with a family after federal, state and local taxes. GOBankingRates started by finding the median household income of a married couple with family in each state as sourced from the U.S. Census American Community Survey, the overall cost of living index for each state as sourced from the Missouri Economic and Research Information Center, and the national average overall expenditure cost for a married couple with a family and calculated the overall average expenditure cost in each state. Next, GOBankingRates found the 2023 federal income tax brackets and rates, 2023 state income tax brackets and rates and the 2023 state and local tax rates — all sourced from TaxFoundation — and used in-house calculations to find the marginal tax rate, effective tax rate and total tax paid for federal income taxes, state income taxes, FICA tax and local sales tax. The average home value was sourced from Zillow Home Value Index, and using the median property taxes paid, as sourced from the U.S. Census American Community Survey, the average property tax rate was calculated. The local sales tax was calculated using the average expenditure cost and local sales tax rates. To find the take-home pay after taxes, the federal income tax paid, state income tax paid, FICA tax paid, local sales tax paid, and property tax paid were all taken out of the median household income. All data was collected and is up to date as of Feb. 20, 2024.
