Tax Facts:
- Wisconsin’s top income tax rate (7.65%) is the 9th highest rate in the country, 2nd highest in the Midwest. IRG Policy Solution Series
- This is a small business tax. 9 out of 10 employers, employing over half of all workers, pay taxes through individual income tax.
- Polling suggests that voters are ready for transformational income tax reform. In a poll conducted in 2022, 59% said state taxes are too high, and a plurality supported eliminating the income tax. That included a majority of Republicans, a plurality of Independents, and even 40% of Democrats.
- 60% of people who leave Wisconsin move to states with low and no income taxes, moving $2.6 billion of income to those states. IRG Lost Revenue report.
- In December 2021, IRG, working with the Center for Research on Wisconsin’s Economy (CROWE), Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce (WMC), Americans for Prosperity – Wisconsin (AFP-WI) and Americans for Tax Reform (ATR), released a plan to completely eliminate the state’s personal income tax, offsetting part of the revenue with a slight bump in the sales tax.
- According to economists at CROWE, the 2021 plan would have cut taxes by $3.5 billion overall, $1,700 per household. They also found that eliminating the income tax at that time would have increased take home pay by 9.4% while helping employers hire 175,000 new workers.
- States currently without a personal income tax include Alaska, Florida, Nevada, New Hampshire, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Washington and Wyoming.
- Several states around the country are working to eliminate their income tax, including Arkansas, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Mississippi, Georgia, Louisiana, Iowa, and Colorado.