Nine states levy no personal income tax:
| State |
|---|
| Alaska |
| Florida |
| Nevada |
| New Hampshire |
| South Dakota |
| Tennessee |
| Texas |
| Washington |
| Wyoming |
New Hampshire taxes interest and dividend income but not wages. Washington levies a capital gains tax on high earners but not ordinary income.
What it is actually worth
Against a state charging 5%, which is a typical middle rate:
| Gross salary | Annual saving |
|---|---|
| $40,000 | ~$1,400 |
| $52,000 | ~$2,000 |
| $60,000 | ~$2,500 |
| $75,000 | ~$3,300 |
| $100,000 | ~$4,700 |
Against California's top marginal brackets the figure is larger; against a state charging 3% it is roughly half.
For most working people the number is $1,500 to $4,000 a year. That is real money and it is routinely overstated in conversation.
What replaces it
States need revenue and none of these nine has found a way around that. The money comes from somewhere else:
Sales tax. Tennessee and Washington run among the highest combined state and local sales tax rates in the country, above 9% in many localities. On a household spending $30,000 a year on taxable goods, a 9% rate against a 5% one is $1,200 — over half the income tax saving, gone.
Property tax. Texas and New Hampshire have some of the highest effective property tax rates in the country, well above 1.5% of value in many counties. On a $300,000 home that is $4,500 or more a year, against $900 in the lowest-tax states.
Severance revenue. Alaska and Wyoming fund much of their budget from oil, gas and mineral extraction, which is why they can run low taxes across the board. That model does not transfer to states without the resources.
The comparison people skip
A $700 monthly rent difference is $8,400 a year — roughly double or triple the entire income tax saving at most incomes.
Housing is the largest line in nearly every household budget and it varies far more between metros than tax does. Any comparison that gets housing right and ignores tax will be closer than one that gets tax right and ignores housing.
The honest sequence: subtract tax, subtract housing, then compare.
Moving for tax reasons, honestly
Three things are worth knowing before treating tax status as a reason to move.
Residency is not a postal address. States with income tax audit departures, and the tests are behavioural rather than administrative: where you spend your days, where your family lives, where your car is registered, where you see a doctor. New York and California in particular pursue this actively, and a nominal move with the old life intact is the case they win.
You still owe tax where you earn. Income sourced to another state is generally taxable there, whatever your residency. Someone living in a no-tax state and working across a border commonly files in both, and remote work has made this messier rather than simpler — several states tax remote employees of in-state companies regardless of where the desk is.
The saving is annual, the move is once. Relocation costs, a higher-rate mortgage, and a period of lower earnings while re-establishing a customer base or a licence can consume several years of tax saving. In the trades that last point is substantial: licences do not always transfer, and reciprocity agreements between states are specific and incomplete.
Where trade wages sit in these states
Two of the nine — Washington and Alaska — pay near the top for several trades. Washington leads insulation work at $78,280 and sits second for electricians at $94,470; Alaska tops concrete finishing at $100,010.
The other seven mostly sit mid-table or lower. Texas ranks in the bottom third for nearly every trade tracked here despite enormous construction volume, and Florida and Tennessee are similar.
So "no income tax" and "good wages for this trade" overlap in two states and diverge in seven. Checking the wage table for your specific trade is worth more than the tax status of the state.
The full state-by-state wage figures are on their own pages, and the way to compare two offers properly is after tax and after housing.