Avoyelles has state's lowest tax burden

   Avoyelles Parish has the lowest tax burden in the state and ranks 45th in the nation, a financial technology company found in a nationwide comparison of over  3,300 counties and parishes.

    SmartAsset conducted a nationwide study of tax burdens on a parish (county) level. Its study gave Avoyelles a tax burden score of 83.14. The lowest tax burden in the nation was given 100 and all other scores are relative to that performance, Steve Sabato, a SmartAsset public relations associate, said. 

    The tax burden score measures the total amount of taxes a person making the national median household income of $43,000 who owns a $250,000 home and spends about 35 percent of his take-home pay on sales-taxable items. 

The fuel tax estimate is based on that taxpayer driving a typical vehicle the estimated average miles in a particular parish or county. The survey does not look at the typical resident of a parish or county, but rather what the hypothetical “average” taxpayer would pay in the various parishes and counties. 

   “Where you live can have a big impact on both which types of taxes you have to pay each year and how much money you spend on them,” he said.

   Whether that ranking is “positive” or “negative” could -- like so many things -- be subject to interpretation.

   What the study shows is that Avoyelles Parish residents pay lower state and parish sales taxes and very little property tax. The study did not take municipal sales taxes into consideration in its figures because it was attempting to compare communities at the county/ parish level.

   Sabato said the study was done to give communities information on how they compare to other areas and with which they might want to make decisions to either increase or decrease taxes.

   "Taxes can be controversial, but we think education and information are powerful,” said A.J. Smith, managing editor of SmartAsset.Com. “Seeing where your county or parish ranks on tax burden compared to the rest of the country can help everyone determine whether or not they are satisfied with where they stand.” 

   “If you have bad roads, you might determine that taxes should be raised to fix them,” Smith continued. “If you have a high tax burden, you may feel it should be reduced to reflect the areas around you. With our studies, we hope to provide information people can use to make their own decisions.”

 

   Based on the “typical American” model in its survey,  SmartAsset found the “average  taxpayer” would have spent about $10,758 in various taxes in Avoyelles -- $8831 in state and federal income tax, $1172 in state and parish sales taxes, $577 in property taxes and $178 in fuel taxes.

     Avoyelles’ closest rival for the No. 1 spot in the survey was Webster Parish, at the tip-top of the state, with a tax burden index score of 82.91, to place 48th in the nation.

     Webster’s neighbor, Claiborne Parish, was third with an 82.09 score and 65th nationally.

   The other top 10 parishes in the SmartAsset study were (4) E. Feliciana, 81.78; (5) Evangeline, 81.31; (6) Winn, 81.08; (7) Assumption, 81.02; (8) Richland 80.94; (9) Franklin, 80.59; and (10) Pointe Coupee, 80.24.   

    Sabato said Louisiana’s income tax rate is slightly higher than the national average. The average sales tax in the Bayou State is the third highest in the country. Where local and state taxpayers make up ground in the tax burden race is in property taxes, with the nation’s third-lowest average rate.

    All of the parishes started out even in the comparison, with all being estimated to pay an average of $8,831 in income taxes.

All parishes also have 4 cents of state sales tax.

   Avoyelles combined a fifth- lowest parish sales tax rate and an estimated third-lowest average property tax payment to finish at the top of the low-burden chart for Louisiana.

 

    A survey is only as good as the methodology behind it.

    Sabato said SmartAsset used the national median household income to better compare all counties and parishes across the country. 

    “We then applied relevant deductions and exemptions before calculating federal, state and local income taxes,” he said.

    To determine the sales tax burden, SmartAsset estimated that 35 percent of the taxpayer’s take-home pay is spent on taxable goods.     It then multiplied the average sales tax rate for the parish by the household’s after-tax income and multiplied by 35 percent to get an estimate of how much the taxpayer paid in sales taxes.

     For property taxes, “we divided each parish’s median property tax paid by median property value to determine the median property tax rate,” Sabato explained. “We then applied this rate to a hypothetical $250,000 property in each county (parish) to calculate a representative property tax paid.”

    To estimate fuel tax expenditures, the company determined the average miles driven in a parish and divided by licensed drivers to get the average miles driven by “Mr. Typical” if he lived in Avoyelles Parish. SmartAsset used a national fuel economy figure to get the miles-per-gallon figure. That was then multiplied by the local fuel tax to get that tax expenditure. 

  After all of those steps were completed for each of the more than 3,300 counties and parishes in the nation, the company determined what “Mr. Average American’s” tax burden would be if he lived there.