What Would You Do To Avoid Paying Taxes?

Income taxes, property taxes, sales taxes, payroll taxes, excise taxes, taxes on services, the list goes on and on.  The old saying is there are only two things we can be sure of in life; death and taxes.

If you live in New York State there's always been the thought that we pay the highest taxes in the country.  But that's not entirely true.  We come close, but believe it or not in most categories we don't pay the highest taxes in the country.

The personal finance website WalletHub has done an exhaustive research of tax rates among the 50 states and the District of Columbia in four categories; Real-Estate Tax, Vehicle Property Tax, Income Tax and Sales and Excise Tax.  When they crunched all those numbers together people in Alaska emerged as having the least tax burden.  New York came in at Number-48.

In the other various categories New York was;

• 42nd in Real Estate Taxes
• 40th in Income Taxes
• 37th in Sales and Excise Taxes

One category in which New York emerged as the best state in the country was Vehicle Property Tax.  27 states assess an annual tax on the value of your vehicle.  New York doesn't have that tax, but keep it quiet. The lawmakers in Albany are always coming up with creative ways to suck us dry, so if they get wind of a Vehicle Property Tax you can bet we'll be seeing that sometime down the line.  The average driver in Rhode Island pays over $1100 a year in vehicle property taxes.

WalletHub also revealed the results of a taxpayer survey:

• 37% said they'd move to another country to avoid paying taxes
• 15% said they'd go without sex to avoid paying taxes - really?
• 29% said they like their in-laws better than the IRS
• 13% said they'd prefer taking a cold shower than having to their income taxes
• 9% prefer a traffic jam
• 30% fear making a math mistake on their income tax return

Here is the complete WalletHub report.  Some interesting stuff here.