Nine states take no income tax from a paycheck - what that is actually worth
Published 2026-11-09 · updated 2026-11-09 · figures for tax year 2026
Nine states collect no income tax on wages. On a $75,000 salary that is worth measurable money every payday — and it is worth precisely the state income tax line the other forty-two states show. Everything else on the stub, federal tax and FICA, is identical wherever you live. What the nine do not have in common is a low total tax burden: that is a question about property, sales and service taxes, none of which appear on a paycheck.
The nine, measured on 75,000
| State | Gross | Take-home | Monthly | State payroll deduction |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alaska | $75,000 | $61,593 | $5,133 | — |
| Florida | $75,000 | $61,593 | $5,133 | — |
| New Hampshire | $75,000 | $61,593 | $5,133 | — |
| Nevada | $75,000 | $61,593 | $5,133 | — |
| South Dakota | $75,000 | $61,593 | $5,133 | — |
| Tennessee | $75,000 | $61,593 | $5,133 | — |
| Texas | $75,000 | $61,593 | $5,133 | — |
| Wyoming | $75,000 | $61,593 | $5,133 | — |
| Washington | $75,000 | $61,158 | $5,096 | $435 |
Read the take-home column from the top: the spread inside this table is $435, and any difference is a state payroll programme rather than income tax. Two states on this list do run one — a paid-family-leave premium in Washington and a payroll tax in a handful of others — which is why the last column is not empty for all nine.
What the same salary looks like where there is a state tax
| State | Take-home | State income tax | Behind the best no-tax state by |
|---|---|---|---|
| Oregon | $55,860 | $5,733 | $5,733 |
| California | $57,952 | $2,665 | $3,640 |
| New York | $58,140 | $3,453 | $3,453 |
On this salary the gap to Alaska ranges from $3,453 a year in New York to $5,733 in Oregon — the difference between a modest one and roughly a month of take-home pay, for the same job at the same salary. That is the entire effect. It does not compound, and it does not depend on how the state raises the money it no longer raises from wages.
Why the gap is not the same as the state tax line
The last column of the second table is not a copy of the state income tax column, and the reason is that a state income tax reduces nothing else. Federal income tax and FICA are computed before any state tax is applied — state tax is not deductible on a federal return for most filers any more, and it never reduces FICA. So the take-home difference is very nearly the state tax itself, and the two columns agree to within a rounding.
The exception is a state that runs payroll programmes of its own — disability insurance, paid family leave, local surtaxes. Those appear as deductions without being income tax, so a state can show a small income tax line and still take more out of a paycheck than its income tax rate implies. Every state in the first table with a non-empty last column is one of those.
What a paycheck cannot tell you
The nine states fund themselves differently, and the difference shows up away from payroll. Property tax rates in Texas are among the highest in the country; Washington leans on sales tax and a gross-receipts business tax; Nevada and South Dakota have narrow bases but wide sales taxes. A household that rents, owns, drives and shops pays some of that back — and a household that does none of those heavily may come out well ahead. The paycheck gap is real and worth knowing, but it is one input into a decision that also has a housing cost, a commute and a job market in it.
One more thing worth stating plainly: the list above is about wage income. States that exempt wages can still tax interest, dividends, retirement withdrawals or business income, and the rules change year to year. A state that appears on the list is a statement about the money on your payslip, not about every dollar you receive.
If you are comparing two offers
Convert both to the same basis before comparing: annual gross to annual take-home in the state where the work is done, using the filing status you will actually file. Then subtract the cost difference and the commute. On a $75,000 salary the tax difference between the extremes above is $5,733 a year, or $478 a month — which is a meaningful raise, and also smaller than a rent difference in most of the places people make this comparison between.
Provincial and state residency rules matter too: you are taxed where you work, not where you were hired, and remote arrangements can move the answer mid-year. The calculator handles the state; it cannot handle a job that spans two of them, which is worth asking payroll about before signing.
Put a number on it
The same mechanisms on an actual salary. Every figure here is computed by the engine that serves the calculators, so it matches the page it opens — nothing is copied.