WalletHub — The Return on Investment (ROI) for Taxpayers
Published March 31, 2026 at 3:34 PM · News Releases and Bulletins
As the annual April 15th income tax return deadline approaches, Weekly Industry News has been doing a series of stories on taxes. We’ve looked at taxes passed and proposed on millionaires and billionaires and at the states with the highest and lowest tax burden.
The first three stories in this week’s Weekly Industry News will focus on taxes from three different angles starting with our return on investment (ROI) of taxes.
After all, we do invest quite a bit of our income and earnings into federal, state and local governments. A lot of us — actually, most of us — have no idea what we get in return. Many believe if we get anything, it’s not all that much.
This statement comes from a look at WalletHub’s Taxpayer Survey. It says 66% of the people in this country say their tax rate is too high. That leads one to ask is what I pay in taxes worth what I’m sending to those governments?
To answer that, WalletHub’s Chip Lupo said WalletHub researchers looked at state and local taxes collected and compared them to the services given by government for those taxes. They used 19 metrics to come to their conclusions.
“There can be a tradeoff between how much tax you pay and what you receive in return from the government. Several of the states with the best taxpayer ROI don’t charge any income tax, and residents pay less at tax time while receiving good-quality (though not necessarily the best) government services,” Lupo said. “At the same time, while people pay more in states that do charge income tax, they may benefit from better infrastructure, education, safety or public health as a result.”
Here are the results. The lowest number in the statistics below represents the lowest total taxes paid per capita and the best government services.
1. New Hampshire
Total taxes paid per capita ranking: 1
Overall government services ranking: 1
2. Florida
Total taxes paid per capita ranking: 2
Overall government services ranking: 23
3. South Dakota
Total taxes paid per capita ranking: 6
Overall government services ranking: 18
4. Missouri
Total taxes paid per capita ranking: 4
Overall government services ranking: 34
5. Ohio
Total taxes paid per capita ranking: 9
Overall government services ranking: 25
6. Georgia
Total taxes paid per capita ranking: 8
Overall government services ranking: 33
7. Iowa
Total taxes paid per capita ranking: 23
Overall government services ranking: 11
8. Indiana
Total taxes paid per capita ranking: 21
Overall government services ranking: 16
9. Utah
Total taxes paid per capita ranking: 29
Overall government services ranking: 5
10. Virginia
Total taxes paid per capita ranking: 30
Overall government services ranking: 4
Four of the 10 PIA Western Alliance States — Hawaii, California and New Mexico — sit in the bottom 10 with the worst ROI. Montana, Oregon and Washington are in the bottom 20 with Oregon and Washington sitting in the bottom 15.
14. Arizona
Total taxes paid per capita ranking: 10
Overall government services ranking: 39
26. Alaska
Total taxes paid per capita ranking: 3
Overall government services ranking: 48
27. Idaho
Total taxes paid per capita ranking: 31
Overall government services ranking: 19
30. Montana
Total taxes paid per capita ranking: 25
Overall government services ranking: 30
34. Oregon
Total taxes paid per capita ranking: 22
Overall government services ranking: 42
36. Washington
Total taxes paid per capita ranking: 37
Overall government services ranking: 26
45. Nevada
Total taxes paid per capita ranking: 36
Overall government services ranking: 46
48. Hawaii
Total taxes paid per capita ranking: 49
Overall government services ranking: 24
49. California
Total taxes paid per capita ranking: 47
Overall government services ranking: 37
50. New Mexico
Total taxes paid per capita ranking: 46
Overall government services ranking: 50
The ROI for school systems is very good in Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Jersey, Virginia and New Hampshire. WalletHub says those states have the best school systems.
WalletHub says all but one of the worst states for school systems are in the PIA Western Alliance states with the three worst being Oregon, Arizona and Alaska.
50. New Mexico
49. Oklahoma
48. Alaska
47. Arizona
46. Oregon
The survey says taxpayers in red states get a better return on investment than blue states, 33.26% to 20.74%.
Source link: WalletHub — https://bit.ly/4saqyPg