Louisiana Residents Enjoy 5th Lowest Property Tax Burden In US

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How do you feel about your taxes? Mainly your property taxes. It feels like most people, especially in Louisiana, think their taxes are too high. But if you live in Louisiana, that might be more about perception than anything else.

Ever since I moved to Louisiana, I've heard people say that Louisiana is the "most taxed state" or "our taxes are higher than anyone else". Which always sounds a little odd to me. I moved to Louisiana a few years ago, after living in Michigan and Wisconsin. In both of those states, my personal tax burden was way higher than what I experience here in Louisiana.

So I've looked into the numbers a lot. Because I want to know if my perception of the state having low taxes was correct, or if I was way off. But for the last few years, I find the same thing over and over. Louisiana is a low tax state, and is ranked that way by multiple outlets. The Tax Foundation ranks Louisiana as moderate for corporate taxes, low for individual income taxes, but high for sales taxes.

The Tax Foundation also ranks Louisiana as one of the 10 lowest states when it comes to State Tax Collections per Capita.

Now WalletHub has released brand new study on Property Tax Burdens in the United States. Well, actually the study is a very wide-ranging tax research piece, with a lot of experts helping with the research. But the Property Tax Burden is a subject that I've had a lot of conversations about recently.

I have family members that live in Michigan, and recently we were discussing property taxes, and when they found out what we pay here in Louisiana, they thought it was a joke. But in fact, it isn't. Out property tax seems like a punchline to people in other states. So I had to send this WalletHub study to them, and thought I'd share it here.

According to the new report, Louisiana is the 5th lowest state when it comes to Property Tax Burden. Here are the five lowest:

1 (lowest). Alabama - 1.41%
2. Tennessee - 1.71%
3. Oklahoma - 1.74%
4 (tie). Delaware - 1.77%
4 (tie). Arkansas - 1.77%
5. Louisiana - 1.95%

For comparison here are the highest Property Tax Burdens in the US:

1 (highest). Maine - 5.48%
2. Vermont - 5.31%
3. New Hampshire - 5.11%
4. New Jersey - 4.98%
5. Rhode Island - 4.48%

Now again, like previous research pieces, the new WalletHub piece did point at Louisiana's problems with sales taxes. Much like The Tax Foundation, WalletHub ranked Louisiana poorly with Total Sales & Excise Tax Burden, where Louisiana ranked as the 5th worst in the nation.