'Show-Me: The Taxes' — Show-Me Institute Releases New Missouri Tax Estimator April 9, 2008
SAINT LOUIS — Nobody likes to pay taxes, but no matter where you live or work, some level of taxation is a certainty. Not all locations are the same, though. Sometimes, moving just a few miles down the road may have a significant effect on how much of your own money you get to keep.
You might well wonder: How much am I paying in taxes? Are my property taxes comparable to the Missouri average? How much in taxes am I paying on my purchases at the grocery store? Does where I live affect my overall tax burden?
That’s why the Show-Me Institute created "Show-Me: The Taxes" — a Missouri state and local tax estimator. We collected local tax rates from across the state in order to help Missourians better understand the taxes they pay. The estimator can be downloaded from www.ShowMeLiving.org.
"Show-Me: The Taxes" empowers Missourians with the tools they need to make informed decisions when moving to a new city or as they make financial or lifestyle changes. Missourians can even calculate their "Tax Freedom Day," the day on which a household’s cumulative gross earnings match its annual state and local tax obligations.
In conjunction with "Show-Me: The Taxes," the Show-Me Institute has also released an accompanying paper, documenting the workings and assumptions of the tax estimator and detailing how local taxes impact household wealth. For many Missouri families, simple lifestyle changes can amount to tens of thousands of dollars in tax savings during the course of a lifetime.
Show-Me Institute scholars are available for comment on "Show-Me: The Taxes," the effect of state and local taxes on household wealth, and Missouri tax policy in general. Please contact Jenifer Roland, the Show-Me Institute’s director of policy, for questions or to arrange for an interview.
