ITEP Report: Tax Fairness in Pennsylvania

Every few years, the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy releases its survey of taxes in the states, “Who Pays?” Click here to read the seventh edition, released on January 9, 2024.  A summary of the data for Pennsylvania is found below. This year’s report continues to tell the same story that we have seen for decades. Taxes in Pennsylvania are among the most upside-down in the entire country. The report shows that The lowest-income 20 percent of taxpayers face a state and local tax rate that is 152 percent higher than the top 1 percent of households. The average effective state and local tax rate is 15.1 percent for the lowest-income 20 percent of individuals and families, 11.4 percent for the middle 20 percent, and 6 percent for the top 1 percent. Pennsylvania has the highest tax rate on low-income families in the entire country at 15.1%. Pennsylvania has… Continue reading

Press Release: Taxes in Pennsylvania Are Upside-Down

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: January 10, 2024  Contact: Kirstin Snow at Penn Policy Center snow@pennpolicy.org or Jon Whiten at ITEP jon@itep.org. RELEASE: Pennsylvania’s Tax System Exacerbates Inequality, In-Depth National Study Finds State Has the 4th-most Regressive Tax Code in the Nation Harrisburg, PA — Pennsylvania’s tax system is upside-down, with the wealthy paying a far lower share of their income to taxes than low- and middle-income families. That’s according to the latest edition of the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy’s Who Pays?, the only distributional analysis of tax systems in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. In sharing the data, Marc Stier said, “The new report from our national partner, the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, shows that Pennsylvania has one of the most upside-down state and local tax systems in the country. We should be ashamed to live in a state with the highest rate of… Continue reading