TRENTON, NJ – New Jersey ranks at the bottom of almost everything in the United States, but for once, the state has finally made the top of a list. That’s right, New Jersey residents can boast that over the course of their lifetime they will pay more in taxes than any other citizen of any other state in America, including Hawaii.
According to a report by Self Inc., residents of New Jersey will pay the most in lifetime taxes ($931,000) and people in West Virginia will pay the least ($321,000).
New Jersey residents will pay an average of $931,000 per lifetime in taxes. That’s nearly $200,000 more than second place Rhode Island at $766,000.
Using state averages, the average American will pay $525,037 over their lifetime, almost 65% of this will purely be tax on earnings. This amount varies drastically by state but uses averages for earnings, expenditures, property and auto taxes.
“We used the Consumer Expenditure Report (2019) from the Bureau of Labor Statistics to understand the main average household spending habits. We took this data and divided it by 2 to create a personal spending report for one American,” the study reported. “We then took this spending data and applied state-specific taxes on each expenditure. Car property tax and sales tax data was also analyzed at a state level based on the average number of vehicles the average American will own over 60 years and a purchase cost of $25,000. The tax paid on earnings was based on state level tax and federal income taxes when applied to the average salaries in each state. While Alaska does not implement a state-wide sales tax it does allow localities to charge local sales taxes which we have gathered as an average to analyze via the Tax Foundation.”