The lowest return on your tax dollar

Most of us — 66%, according to a recent WalletHub survey — think our tax rate is too high, but perhaps a better metric to look at is how much bang do you get for your tax buck?

When it comes to state taxes, the picture varies wildly, according to WalletHub’s 2026 ranking of the best and worst states for taxpayer ROI, which combines total tax rates with individual state performance on a number of metrics — including quality of schools, roads and bridges, violent crime rate, water quality and many more — to produce an overall score for return on tax investment.

“There can be a tradeoff between how much tax you pay and what you receive in return from the government,” explained WalletHub analyst Chip Lupo. “Several of the states with the best taxpayer ROI don’t charge any income tax, and residents pay less at tax time while receiving good-quality (though not necessarily the best) government services. At the same time, while people pay more in states that do charge income tax, they may benefit from better infrastructure, education, safety or public health as a result.”

Interestingly, relatively few of the states with low ROI made WalletHub’s list of the 10 worst or the 10 best states in terms of overall tax burden.

Below are the 10 worst states for ROI, which represent an interesting mix of high- and low-tax states. You can see the 10 states with the highest return here.