Income Tax in The United States - State, Local and Territorial Income Taxes

State, Local and Territorial Income Taxes

Main article: State income tax

Income tax is also levied by most U.S. states and many localities on individuals, corporations, estates, and trusts. These taxes are in addition to federal income tax and are deductible for federal tax purposes. State and local income tax rates vary from 1% to 16% of taxable income. Some state and local income tax rates are flat (single rate) and some are graduated. State and local definitions of what income is taxable vary highly. Some states incorporate the federal definitions by reference. Taxable income is defined separately and differently for individuals and corporations in some jurisdictions. Some states impose alternative or additional taxes based on a second measure of income or capital.

States and localities tend to tax all income of residents. States and localities only tax nonresidents on income allocated or apportioned to the jurisdiction. Generally, nonresident individuals are taxed on wages earned in the state based on the portion of days worked in the state. Many states require partnerships to pay tax for nonresident partners.

Tax returns are filed separately for states and localities imposing income tax, and may be due on dates that differ from federal due dates. Some states permit related corporations to file combined or consolidated returns. Most states and localities imposing income tax require estimated payments where tax exceeds certain thresholds, and require withholding tax on payment of wages.

Puerto Rico is treated as a separate taxing entity from the USA; its income tax rates are set independently, and only some residents there pay federal income taxes (though everyone must pay all other federal taxes). The unincorporated territories Guam, American Samoa, and the Virgin Islands also impose income tax separately, under a "mirror" tax law based on federal income tax law.

Read more about this topic:  Income Tax In The United States

Famous quotes containing the words local, territorial, income and/or taxes:

    The difference between de jure and de facto segregation is the difference open, forthright bigotry and the shamefaced kind that works through unwritten agreements between real estate dealers, school officials, and local politicians.
    Shirley Chisholm (b. 1924)

    All the territorial possessions of all the political establishments in the earth—including America, of course—consist of pilferings from other people’s wash.
    Mark Twain [Samuel Langhorne Clemens] (1835–1910)

    We commonly say that the rich man can speak the truth, can afford honesty, can afford independence of opinion and action;—and that is the theory of nobility. But it is the rich man in a true sense, that is to say, not the man of large income and large expenditure, but solely the man whose outlay is less than his income and is steadily kept so.
    Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)

    The law before us, my lords, seems to be the effect of that practice of which it is intended likewise to be the cause, and to be dictated by the liquor of which it so effectually promotes the use; for surely it never before was conceived by any man entrusted with the administration of public affairs, to raise taxes by the destruction of the people.
    Philip Dormer Stanhope, 4th Earl Chesterfield (1694–1773)