In contrast, the Fair Tax would increase effective tax rates by 2.4 percent for the top 1 percent while cutting taxes for taxpayers whose incomes fall in the bottom 95 percent, improving Illinois’s tax system from the 8th most regressive in the nation to the 20th. Currently Illinoisans in the bottom 20 percent of income-less than $21,800 in income-pay 14.4 percent of their incomes in combined state and local taxes, while the top 1 percent-$537,400 and higher in income-pay only 7.4 percent. The Fair Tax would improve the fairness of Illinois’s combined state and local taxes (Figure 2).

Under the Fair Tax, 97 percent of taxpayers with income tax liability would receive a tax cut and only the wealthiest 3 percent would pay more. A “yes” vote on the Illinois Fair Tax constitutional amendment will make effective legislation that will replace the current flat tax rate of 4.95 percent with graduated rates that cut taxes for those with taxable income less than $250,000 and institute higher marginal rates on taxable incomes greater than $250,000 (Figure 1).

This November, Illinoisans will decide whether to amend the state constitution to allow a graduated income tax.

Flat tax illinois