Nine states have no income tax, but only seven of them take nothing at all from your paycheck at state level. Alaska and Washington both have no income tax and still deduct something, which makes the usual list of nine slightly misleading if what you actually care about is take-home pay.
States with no income tax in 2026, and what they still deduct
In these states, the state and local lines on your pay stub read zero and there is nothing else in their place. Federal tax, Social Security and Medicare are the entire deduction stack.
| State | State income tax | Other state deductions | Take-home on $60,000 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Alaska | None | AK Unemployment Insurance, 0.5% | $50,090 |
| Florida | None | None | $50,390 |
| Nevada | None | None | $50,390 |
| New Hampshire | None | None | $50,390 |
| South Dakota | None | None | $50,390 |
| Tennessee | None | None | $50,390 |
| Texas | None | None | $50,390 |
| Washington | None | Paid Family & Medical Leave 0.807% + WA Cares 0.58% | $49,557.70 |
| Wyoming | None | None | $50,390 |
On a $60,000 salary, all seven leave exactly $50,390 a year. Not approximately, identically, because there is nothing left to differ about once the federal lines are the same. Two people on the same salary in Nashville and Cheyenne take home the same amount to the cent, which is not true of any other pair of states in the country. If you want the line-by-line version for one of them, what comes out of a Texas paycheck walks the same three federal deductions in detail.
And the two that still take something
These two are on every “no income tax” list, and both deduct from your wages anyway through separate state programs.
Washington deducts more than some states with an income tax. North Dakota, which does levy income tax, takes $46.31 a year on the same $60,000, or 0.077 percent. Washington takes eighteen times as much while appearing on every no-income-tax list. “No income tax” describes the statute, not your pay stub.
What the state actually costs you
state cost = income tax + local tax + program contributions
Only the first of those three is what "no income tax" refers to
What the difference is actually worth
Set the seven zero states against the heaviest, on the same $60,000:
- The seven zero states: $50,390 take-home, nothing deducted at state level
- Pennsylvania: $48,506, so $1,884 goes
- Illinois: $47,420, a flat 4.95 percent
- California: $47,638, including $780 of disability
- Maryland: $45,890, of which $1,811 is local rather than state
- Oregon: $45,733, the heaviest at 7.761%
Top to bottom that is $4,657 a year, about $179 a paycheck. Real money, and worth putting beside the fact that housing costs vary by far more than that between the same states.
The local line people forget
State income tax is not the only state-level deduction, and in a few places the local one is larger than you would guess.
- Maryland: $1,811 of local tax on $60,000, on top of $2,689 of state.
- Indiana: $1,212 of local against $1,770 of state, so local is over 40 percent of the total.
Comparing two states on their headline income tax rate alone can therefore point you the wrong way. Indiana looks like a low-tax state at 1,770 dollars of state tax, and finishes at 4.97 percent all in, which is heavier than Illinois.
The states that barely charge anything
Between the seven zeroes and the heavy end sits a group that levies income tax and takes very little of it, which is the part of the picture the binary question hides entirely.
- North Dakota: $46.31 a year on $60,000, or 0.077%
- Arizona: $1,200, a flat 2 percent
- Louisiana: $1,456, 2.427 percent
- Mississippi: $1,668, 2.78 percent
- Ohio: $1,432, 2.387 percent
North Dakota is the striking one. It has an income tax, and on this salary it takes less than a twentieth of what Washington takes without one. If the question you are actually asking is “where does the least come out of my check”, the list of nine is not the list you want.
How they pay for it
A state without an income tax still has roads, schools and courts, so the revenue comes from somewhere else. The usual places are sales tax, property tax, and in a few cases taxes on a particular industry: severance taxes on oil and gas in Alaska, Wyoming and Texas, and tourism in Nevada and Florida.
Which of those reaches you depends entirely on your circumstances. A renter who spends little pays almost none of a property tax increase directly. A homeowner may find the property tax bill exceeds what an income tax would have cost. The paycheck comparison above is real, and it is one line in a longer sum.
It also matters that these taxes behave differently as your income changes. An income tax scales with what you earn, so a bad year costs you less. A property tax does not care what you earned this year, and a sales tax falls hardest on people who spend most of what they make. Two households on the same salary in the same no-income-tax state can end up paying quite different totals.
Before you compare two offers
Use the same salary
Employers price roles to local markets, so the same job often pays differently in the two places you are comparing. Comparing $60,000 in Texas against $60,000 in Oregon isolates the tax, which is useful, but it is not the offer you were made.
Check the city, not just the state
A state with no income tax can still sit next to a city that has one. The reverse is also true, and the local line is the one most likely to surprise you on the first pay stub after a move.
Watch for programs, not just taxes
Paid family leave, disability and unemployment contributions are not income tax, and they still come out of your check. That is the whole reason Washington and Alaska are on this list twice, in a sense: no income tax, and a deduction anyway.
The calculator below runs your own salary against every state, so you see the whole deduction stack rather than a headline rate. The Texas paycheck calculator covers one of the seven in detail, and the California paycheck calculator is a useful opposite end to test against.
Compare your salary across states
Frequently asked
Nine: Alaska, Florida, Nevada, New Hampshire, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Washington and Wyoming. Only seven of them deduct nothing at all, because Alaska and Washington still take state program contributions from wages.
No, they deduct something. On $60,000 Washington takes $832.30 a year across two programs, which is 1.387 percent of gross, and Alaska takes $300, or 0.5 percent. Neither is income tax, and both come out of your paycheck.
On $60,000, take-home is $50,390 in the seven zero states against $45,733 in Oregon, the heaviest. That is about $4,657 a year, or $179 a paycheck, and the gap narrows considerably against a low-tax state.
No. Local income tax can be substantial, and it is easy to miss: Maryland takes $1,811 of local tax on $60,000 and Indiana $1,212. Disability and paid leave programs are separate again.
Mostly through sales and property taxes, and in some cases severance taxes on oil and gas or revenue from tourism. Whether that costs you more or less than an income tax depends on whether you own property and how much you spend.