US States With the Lowest Share of Taxes From Occupation and Business Licences

51 US states ranked by share of taxes from occupation and business licences, from lowest to highest. First are New York (0.0834), Connecticut (0.0997) and Oklahoma (0.197). The middle one of the 51 has 0.938.

What this measures

The percentage from job and business licences not listed anywhere else: the fees a state or city charges for permission to do business. It is a catch-all by design, so it shows how much a state licenses more than it measures any one tax. Source: Census government finances.

For most measures, a national ranking mostly sorts places by income and by how urban they are. Each county’s own page compares it with the 50 counties most like it instead, which is often the fairer view.

Every state

Rank	State	% of all taxes
1	New York	0.0834
2	Connecticut	0.0997
3	Oklahoma	0.197
4	Indiana	0.346
5	Hawaii	0.409
6	Alaska	0.42
7	Texas	0.455
8	Utah	0.472
9	New Mexico	0.493
10	Kansas	0.544
11	Colorado	0.553
12	Arizona	0.569
13	District of Columbia	0.59
14	Minnesota	0.591
15	Mississippi	0.638
16	Massachusetts	0.642
17	Kentucky	0.653
18	Maryland	0.671
19	Georgia	0.713
20	Vermont	0.756
21	Illinois	0.79
22	Iowa	0.822
23	Michigan	0.844
24	New Jersey	0.875
25	Arkansas	0.928
26	North Carolina	0.938
27	Missouri	1
28	Louisiana	1.01
29	Idaho	1.01
30	Nebraska	1.02
31	Rhode Island	1.11
32	North Dakota	1.14
33	Wisconsin	1.15
34	Wyoming	1.18
35	Maine	1.33
36	Washington	1.33
37	Florida	1.38
38	Ohio	1.45
39	Oregon	1.88
40	Tennessee	1.94
41	Pennsylvania	2.1
42	Alabama	2.14
43	Delaware	2.25
44	Nevada	2.28
45	California	2.33
46	Virginia	2.48
47	West Virginia	2.53
48	South Carolina	2.58
49	Montana	2.97
50	New Hampshire	3.2
51	South Dakota	3.34

More on share of taxes from occupation and business licences

A ranking describes places, not the people in them, and a high or low place does not by itself say why. All US rankings.