(The Center Square) – A recently-released report on tax competitiveness by the Tax Foundation put Florida in a familiar spot of fourth place.
Florida, like all of the states without a personal income tax, ranked first on individual taxes, 14th on sales taxes, 16th on corporate taxes and 21st on property taxes.
The report by the nonpartisan nonprofit group gave high marks to the state’s lack of a personal income tax, a competitive 5.5% corporate income tax and a sales tax that is lower than many neighboring states. Florida levies a 4% sales tax, but cities and counties are able to add local taxes that add up to a 7% combined average.
That is still lower than Georgia (7.38%), Alabama (9.29%), South Carolina (7.5%), Mississippi (7.06%), Louisiana (9.56%) or Tennessee (9.55%).
One demerit was the approach of Florida’s tax code in regards to capital investment, allowing corporate taxpayers to only claim 15% of first-year expensing of machinery and equipment offered under the federal tax code.
The group also were critical of the personal property exemption, which at $25,000, was said to be “relatively low and offers a possible avenue for improvement.”
Despite a major change to the Tax Foundation’s methodology in compiling the data, Florida remained where it has been since 2020’s report.
That methodology scores the states and the District of Columbia for five different subcategories representing a major component of state tax codes that includes corporate taxes; individual income taxes; sales, use, and excise taxes; property and wealth taxes and unemployment insurance taxes.
Regionally, the Sunshine State was tops in the Southeast, followed by Tennessee (eighth) and North Carolina (12th).
Georgia was 26th, followed by Mississippi (27th), South Carolina (33rd), Arkansas (36th), Alabama (37th) and Louisiana was worst regionally at 40th.
The top five states were Wyoming, South Dakota, Alaska and Montana. New York was last, followed by New Jersey, California, District of Columbia and Connecticut.
