Compare Tax Burden Across Cities

Last Updated: July 2026

Texas has no income tax. California takes 13%. So Texas is cheaper, right? Not always. A homeowner in Houston might pay about $10,000/year in property tax on a $500,000 house, since Harris County runs near 2%. That same house in San Jose? Closer to $5,000. When you compare city tax burden properly, with income, sales, and property combined, the "no-tax" state sometimes comes out even or higher. Most people look at one tax type and stop. That's how they end up surprised by the first property tax bill.

This tool stacks all three tax layers for two cities at once. You'll see where you actually lose money and what drives the difference.

One boundary worth stating. This tool adds up the whole picture: state and local income tax, sales tax, and property tax across two cities. If all you want is a clean state-versus-state income-tax comparison for a move, without the sales and property layers, the State Tax Move Impact tool does exactly that side.

Total Tax Impact: What You Actually Pay

Your real tax burden is the sum of three things: income tax (state and local), sales tax on everyday purchases, and property tax if you own. Skip any one of these, and your comparison is incomplete.

Example: $100,000 income, $400,000 home

Austin, TX

• Income tax: $0
• Sales tax (~$25k spending): $2,100
• Property tax (1.8%): $7,200
• Total: $9,300

San Francisco, CA

• Income tax (~6% effective): $6,000
• Sales tax (~$25k spending): $2,150
• Property tax (0.7%): $2,800
• Total: $10,950

The difference is $1,650/year, not the $6,000 gap you'd expect if you only looked at income tax. Austin's high property tax eats most of California's income tax hit.

This is effective tax rate (what you actually pay), not marginal rate (the bracket you're in). Marginal rates make headlines. Effective rates matter for your budget.

State vs Local: Where the Difference Comes From

State tax gets the attention. But local taxes can swing your burden by thousands. Some cities stack income, sales, and property taxes on top of state levies. Others have no local taxes at all.

Cities with local income tax

NYC adds 3.5 to 3.9% on top of NY state tax. Philadelphia adds ~3.8%. Yonkers, Newark, and other metro-area cities have their own rates. If you're moving to these areas, the city tax is real money.

Local sales tax add-ons

Louisiana has a 4.45% state rate, but combined local rates push many parishes past 10%. Tennessee's state rate is 7%, but Nashville's combined rate is 9.25%. The state number understates the bill.

Property tax is almost always local

New Jersey averages 2.1%, but some towns hit 3%+. Within Texas, rates range from 1.5% to 2.5% depending on county and school district. Same state, very different bills.

When the calculator shows a breakdown, look at which layer is driving the gap. If it's property tax, your choice of neighborhood matters as much as your choice of state.

Sales and Property Taxes People Forget

Income tax dominates the relocation conversation. But sales and property taxes affect you every day, and you just don't see them as clearly.

Sales tax: death by a thousand cuts

You might spend $30,000 to $50,000/year on taxable goods and services. At 8%, that's $2,400 to $4,000 annually, real money, just spread thin.

Some states exempt groceries (most food purchases). Others tax everything. Oregon has no sales tax at all.

Property tax: the big hit for owners

On a $400,000 home, the difference between a 0.5% rate (Hawaii) and a 2.2% rate (New Jersey) is $6,800/year. Over 10 years, that's $68,000.

If you're renting, property tax is baked into your rent. High property-tax areas have higher rents, even if you never see the bill.

The calculator estimates these based on your inputs. If you know your actual spending patterns (more or less than average on taxable goods), adjust the spending field for a more accurate picture.

Household Edge Cases (Renters, Owners, Retirees)

Your tax profile changes the math. A homeowner in New Jersey faces very different numbers than a renter in Texas. Retirees have their own set of rules.

Renters

No direct property tax bill, but it's reflected in your rent. If you're comparing two rental markets, property tax differences still matter, and they show up as rent differences instead. Focus on income and sales tax as your direct burden.

Homeowners

Property tax becomes your biggest variable. A no-income-tax state with 2% property tax on a $500,000 home is $10,000/year, more than most people pay in state income tax. Run the numbers for your specific home value.

Retirees

Many states exempt Social Security from income tax. Some exempt pension income too. If your income is primarily retirement benefits, a "high-tax" state might effectively be no-tax for you. Check the specific exemptions for your income sources.

High earners

At $300,000+ income, California's top bracket (13.3%) creates serious dollars of difference. But at $80,000, the effective rate is closer to 5%. Income level changes the comparison dramatically.

Select the profile that matches your situation. The defaults assume typical deductions for each type, but your mileage will vary based on specific circumstances.

Interpreting "Low Tax" Claims

State marketing campaigns love to advertise "no income tax." Real estate agents mention "low property taxes." These claims are technically true but often misleading. Here's how to read them:

1. "No income tax" doesn't mean low total burden. Texas, Washington, and Florida have no state income tax, but Texas has high property tax, Washington has high sales tax, and both affect your wallet.
2. "Low property tax" often comes with high assessments. California's 1% cap sounds low, but assessed values in desirable areas can exceed $1 million. New Jersey's 2.2% on a $300,000 home might be less than California's 1% on an $800,000 home.
3. Rankings depend on assumptions. "Tax-friendly" lists often assume a specific income, home value, and spending pattern. If you don't match those assumptions, the ranking doesn't apply to you.
4. Effective rates beat marginal rates. California's 13.3% top bracket only applies above $1M. Most people pay 4 to 7% effective. The scary headline number isn't your number.

Run the calculator with your actual income and home value. The result will look different from generic state comparisons because it's tailored to your situation.

Reading States by Their Tax Mix

States don't line up on a single high-to-low axis. They trade one tax for another, and the mix is what decides whether a place is cheap for your specific household. A few patterns are worth recognizing before you run two cities.

The no-income-tax states pay for it somewhere. Texas leans hard on property tax. The statewide effective rate is around 1.5% of value by Census Bureau data, one of the highest in the country, but it isn't uniform: high-tax counties like Harris and Travis push past 1.8%, so a $450,000 house can run anywhere from about $6,800 to $8,500 a year depending on where you land. New Hampshire does the same thing from the other direction: no tax on wages and no sales tax, but property rates near 1.8 to 2.0% that fund almost everything local. Tennessee took yet another route after repealing its Hall tax on interest and dividends in 2021. Property tax there stays low, often under 0.7%, and the gap gets filled by a combined sales tax that reaches about 9.5% in Nashville.

On the other side sit the high-income-tax states with softer property bills. California tops out at 13.3%, but Proposition 13 caps how fast an assessment can grow, so a long-held home often carries an effective property rate near 0.7%. Hawaii runs the lowest effective property tax in the country, roughly 0.3%, while charging income rates up to 11% and a general excise tax that quietly touches almost every transaction. Oregon skips sales tax entirely and makes up the difference with income rates that climb to 9.9%. That's why a high earner and a retiree living mostly on Social Security can reach opposite conclusions about the same Oregon city.

The flat-tax states are the easiest to reason about. Colorado at about 4.4%, Illinois at 4.95%, and North Carolina near 4.5% apply one rate to every dollar of taxable income, so your effective and marginal income rates nearly match. The property side still varies a lot. Illinois carries some of the steepest property taxes in the country, close to 2.1%, while Colorado sits nearer 0.5%. Two states with almost identical income rates can produce very different total bills once the house goes into the model.

Reading the Estimate and Its Limits

Treat the total here as an estimate, not your actual tax bill. It's built from effective rates and typical deductions, and your real number depends on filing status, the specific deductions and credits you claim, your mix of income sources, and local variations that a two-city model can't capture. It's meant for comparison and planning, not for filing a return. That's also why the figure can differ from other calculators you might run. Each one makes its own assumptions about effective rates, what share of income is taxable, and which taxes to fold in, so there's no single correct answer and all of them are approximations. What this tool does differently is put income, sales, and property tax in one view, where many calculators show only one layer.

Taxes are also just one part of a move. A $5,000 tax saving means nothing if rent runs $10,000 higher, so it's worth pairing this with the Cost of Living Comparison tool to see the full picture before you decide. A few situations need extra care. If you work remotely for an employer in another state, some states tax based on where the employer sits rather than where you live. New York's "convenience of employer" rule, for instance, can reach a remote worker living elsewhere. This calculator assumes you live and work in the same state, so a cross-border arrangement is worth running past a tax professional.

Watch the age of the rates as well. They come from published state and local data and get refreshed on a cycle, but a county or city can move its rate mid-year without waiting for anyone. If your move is close to happening, don't take this figure as final. Pull the live number straight from the tax authority for that specific county or city first. Federal taxes, by contrast, don't enter into any of this. They're the same no matter which state you pick, so they wash out of a city-to-city comparison. This tool stays on the state and local layers, which are the part that actually varies by location.

Where the Rates Come From

The federal side of any tax question starts with the IRS, the authority for what counts as taxable income and how filing status and deductions work before a single state rate touches the number. For the state and local comparison this tool actually runs, two sources carry most of the weight. The Tax Foundation publishes the combined state-and-local rate tables and effective-burden rankings that make cross-state figures comparable, including the sales tax averages and property-tax-as-percent-of-value numbers cited throughout this page. Because a county or city can move its own rate without warning, the individual state Departments of Revenue are the last word on the bill you'll actually pay. The Federation of Tax Administrators keeps a directory linking straight to every state's revenue agency, which is where to confirm a live rate before a move rather than trusting any aggregate.