Last week we blogged about Mississippi taxes per capita (Mississippi ranks 46th). Today, we’re going to look at another measure of taxes in the state—taxes as a percent of personal income. Mississippi ranks (27th) in taxes collected as a percent of personal income, collecting 10.3%, according to data from the Census Bureau and the Bureau of Economic Analysis.
On one hand, Mississippi’s taxes as a percent of personal income are in the middle of the pack compared to the other states. On the other hand, it is important to look beyond the figure and consider how families pay taxes in Mississippi.
Data from the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy provide a look at how state and local taxes affect different income groups. As the table below shows, taxes as a percent of income in Mississippi play out much differently depending on your income group.
The lowest, second, and middle 20% of earners pay over 10% of their income in state and local taxes while the top 20% pay less. The top 1% of earners pays only 6.3% of their income in taxes.
Estimated Percent of Income Paid in State and Local Taxes by Income Quintile in 2007
By updating our revenue system, we can make college affordable, build roads and make Mississippi a safe place to live with a high quality of life in a manner that is equitable and sustainable.
Author: Sara Miller, Senior Policy Analyst
Source: MEPC analysis of data from the US Census Bureau, the Bureau of Economic Analysis and the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, “Who Pays? A Distributional Analysis of the Tax Systems in All 50 States,” November 2009
