The amount varies widely as not all states have the same sources of revenue. Some get more from business levies than others. Some have a statewide sales tax. Some cities and towns tax property based on value, while others don’t. The issue of what people are taxed at the state and local level is complex, among other reasons, because states often receive a large amount of their tax receipts from sources other than the simple payments of state residents.

• Read The States Where People Pay The Most In Taxes
• Read The States Where People Pay The Least In Taxes

The Tax Foundation report, “State-Local Tax Burdens Fall in 2009 as Tax Revenues Shrink Faster than Income,” shows the extent of the differences. The most important reason for the variation is that some states generate a significant amount of their tax revenue from businesses and out-of-state residents, thereby minimizing the burden of taxes borne by residents. Alaska, for example, gets 80% of tax receipts from such sources. State residents get the equivalent of a subsidy from some of the world’s largest oil companies.

Conversely, states with low out-of-state business receipts must collect a higher percent of taxes from their residents. This is case in New Jersey, which gets only 20% of its tax receipts from such sources. As a matter of fact, most of the really large companies in the region are on the other side of New Jersey’s northeast border in New York State, thereby creating a higher burden on residents.

Mark Robyn, economist at the Tax Foundation and author of the report, told 24/7 Wall St. that the “study accounts for the fact that all states are able to some extent to shift their tax burden onto the taxpayers of other states. Much of this ‘tax exporting’ happens naturally through no special effort by policymakers, but some states have special sources of revenue that allow them to export more of their burden to non-residents. For example, Nevada relies on tourism taxes, while Alaska, Wyoming and North Dakota rely heavily on oil taxes that are passed on to consumers around the country.”

The Tax Foundation’s report divides state tax revenue into two categories: the amount contributed by residents, including income, property and sales tax, and the amount contributed by non-residents, including taxes paid by out-of-state businesses and taxes collected by in-state business and paid by out-of-state residents. According to the Tax Foundation, because residents effectively pay more as consumers and receive less as employees as a result of corporate taxes, some business tax is also considered borne by the resident. Taxes paid by out-of-state business to the state include the tax Alaska collects from out-of-state oil companies to operate in the state. Taxes collected by in-state business from out-of-state residents include tax on things like sales tax and revenue from tourism.

In addition to the report from the Tax Foundation, 24/7 Wall St. reviewed data from the Census Bureau, the Federation of Tax Administrators, and the Mercatus Center at George Mason University.

The total tax burden an individual pays refers to the percentage of state residents’ income that goes to state and local taxes, and, on top of that, what each person must pay the federal government. The equation that puts all of those numbers together is complicated, and is among the reasons that the debate over federal taxes is so heated. People often end up with payments to several tax authorities. Their nominal federal tax rate may mean very little when it comes to what must be paid to all applicable government bodies at the end of each year. The amount that a person keeps from each dollar that he or she earns can be affected more by local government needs than those of the federal government.

These are the states where residents pay the most and least in taxes.

Overall, banks reported having ceased tightening of lending standards, though they are not unwinding the tightening that ensued over the last two years.  Larger banks (those with over 20 billion dollars in assets) reported easing credit terms for large and mid-sized firms.  The attributed this loosening to increased competition from bank and nonbank lenders as well as an improving economic environment.  Meanwhile, smaller banks on average reported reduced lending to all varieties of borrowers.  Demand for loans from both businesses and households declined in the fourth quarter.

The exception to the loosening trend in the fourth quarter was commercial real estate.  Banks expect rising delinquency rates in commercial real estate in the near future, as well as declining demand for loans among prime borrowers.

Most banks reported increased willingness to make consumer installment loans for the first time in close to three years.  However, they reported declining demand for consumer credit.  Banks also reported having reduced the credit limits on may credit cards, as well as having reduced new credit card issuances.

Garrett W. McIntyre

The American government owes just shy of $3.5 trillion to foreign governments, corporations and individuals.  The lion’s share of this is owned to China and Japan, which own 22.8% and 21.5% of U.S. debt owed to foreign parties.  See who owns the rest after jump.

Posted in Active Trader, Charts, China, Economy, International Markets Tagged: China, Debt, Economy, Japan, U.S. Debt ]]> http://247wallst.com/2010/01/13/which-countries-own-americas-debt/feed/ 0 ChinaDebtEconomyJapanU.S. Debt pkmac47 Money Image Who Owns America's Debt? http://247wallst.com/2009/02/10/forgetting-about-japan/ http://247wallst.com/2009/02/10/forgetting-about-japan/#comments Tue, 10 Feb 2009 10:26:07 +0000 Douglas A. McIntyre http://247wallst.com/?p=23742 Most of the focus of the recession has been on the US and China. It makes sense to try to examine economic activity in the world’s largest consuming economy and the world’s largest exporting economy to search for a bottom in the current crisis. The GDP forecasts for the two countries do not seem to fit together. The US jobless rate and contraction are getting worse at a much faster rate than they are in China, or at least that is what the numbers from the Chinese government show.

Japan gets into the business headlines, but only now and then. It has been lost on many observers that it is still the world’s second largest economy. According to the CIA, Japan’s GDP for 2008 is estimated at $4.8 trillion against the US at $14.3 billion and China at $4.2 trillion. In comparison to China, Japan’s GDP per employed worker is sharply higher.

The Japanese economy is falling apart faster than any other large economy in the world. Looking at the economy on the island, the FT reports that “Polls of economists suggest GDP will have fallen more than 3 per cent compared with the previous quarter – an annualised decline of more than 10 per cent.” If the US economy was contracting that fast, people would be in bread lines. In China, it would likely cause an overthrow of the government.

Those willing to whistle as they pass the graveyard would say that the Japanese economy is structurally and materially different than those of the US and China. That case is actually hard to prove. Japan’s middle class as a portion of its total population is fairly large. It relies on exports for a great deal of its GDP, which makes it not unlike China. At least the US and Japan have formidable middle classes which can drive some level of consumption during a downturn. China’s middle class, largely created in the last two decades, is disbursing itself back into the rural areas from whence it came. Factory closings in the large cities are forcing people to return to farms to live.

To say that Japan’s economy is terribly different from either the US or China would be to disregard the effect of financial globalization which had a meltdown during the last year and damaged the banking and credit systems everywhere. This line of reasoning would also support the idea that one huge national economy is fundamentally unlike those of the other dozen largest economies in the world. But, no individual national economy is that “special.”

If Japan is struggling with rising bankruptcies and big drops in factory and consumer spending, it is probably a foreshadowing of what the next several quarters will look like in the world’s other economic superpowers.

Douglas A. McIntyre

The Fannie Mae (FNM) and Freddie Mac (FRE) rescue pushed the market higher and may do so for a few days. In Asia, they know better. The rally never made it beyond the first 24 hours. Markets turned down in Day Two.

The overwhelming evidence is that almost no one benefited from the government taking over the agencies. The rest of the economy is in the toilet. A lot of data has come out in the last day underscoring that point.

The well-regarded Manpower Employment Outlook Survey’s look at corporate hiring plans found that a net 9% of firms expect to hire in the fourth quarter, down from 12% in the previous quarter, and 18% for the fourth quarter a year ago. According to MarketWatch, this is the longest string of quarterly declines in two decades.

A quick glance over at the Forrester study of IT spending found that 43% of companies have cut IT spending this year. How can companies like Oracle (ORCL), Microsoft (MSFT), and IBM (IBM) have strong earnings into next year with that kind of trend?

A Bloomberg News survey of 39 economists showed that they believe pending US home sales dropped again in July.

All three pieces of data are less than 24 hours old.

The market really did not rally. A few stocks did. GE (GE) sits at $29, still relatively near multi-year lows. Boeing (BA) faces a strike which could go on for months. That will hurt earnings and employment at scores of its suppliers. Boeing’s shares could clearly drop. Ford (F) is barely off a 20-year low. The same could be said of Microsoft (MSFT).

If the stock prices of Washington Mutual (WM) and Lehman (LEH) tell any tale it is that they will have to be rescued or cease to exist as independent companies.

Most of the seminal stocks in key industries are still well down and have little prospect of recovery.

If a recession is defined by the breadth of its damage, this is already a powerful one.

Douglas A. McIntyre