Civic Technology  ·  Tax Policy  ·  AI-Assisted Research

Understanding Your Tax Dollar: Why We Built the TaxReliefIndex Dashboard

A free, interactive tool that makes federal and state tax burden data accessible to every American family, legislator, and community leader — in seconds, not hours.

By Kavya Chunduri Capital Markets Insights June 2026 AI-assisted research

Tax policy affects every American household — how much stays in your paycheck, what your state can fund for schools and roads, and how communities grow over time. Yet for most people, understanding the full picture of what they actually pay has never been simple or easy to access.

That's what inspired us to build the TaxReliefIndex — a free, interactive dashboard that brings together federal and state tax data in one place, so that everyday Americans, community leaders, and policymakers can see the full picture clearly and make more informed decisions.

States covered
50
+ Washington DC
Income levels
5
quintiles modeled
Tax categories
6
income, sales, property…
Data sources
4+
IRS, Census, BLS, NASBO

The idea behind it

Every year, tremendous amounts of tax data are published by the IRS, the Census Bureau, the Bureau of Labor Statistics, and state budget offices. The data exists. What has been missing is a way for ordinary people — and even local legislators who may not have large research teams — to explore that data intuitively, compare states side by side, and understand what different policy choices might mean for their community.

We asked a simple question: What if anyone could open a dashboard and see exactly how tax burden is distributed in their state, and what other states are doing differently? Not to judge — but simply to inform. Because when people have clear, accessible information, better conversations happen. Better decisions follow.

What the dashboard shows

TaxReliefIndex brings together data across four core areas:

Four features of the TaxReliefIndex dashboard Effective burden, state comparison, policy modeling, and spending context Effective burden Income tax Sales tax Property tax Payroll tax 5 income levels All 50 states Real effective rate State comparison Pick any 2 states Same income level Side-by-side view Seconds, not hours of research Policy modeling Adjust any rate See household impact Revenue effect shown Built for legislators without research teams Spending context Where revenue goes Per-capita spending By service category NASBO data All 50 states
Four core areas of the TaxReliefIndex dashboard

Some patterns worth knowing

As we built and tested this tool, a few patterns emerged from the data — not as criticisms of any policy or government, but as starting points for informed conversation.

Three key data patterns Payroll tax, no-income-tax states, and structural complexity findings 15.3% combined payroll tax rate for a median-wage earner Often exceeds federal income tax — yet rarely included in reform talks 9 states have no state income tax But in 7 of them, low-income households pay above the national average in total effective burden Structure matters as much as the rate itself Brackets, exemptions, and overlapping jurisdictions shape real burden as deeply as rates
Key patterns visible in TaxReliefIndex data — starting points for conversation, not conclusions

What lower-burden states actually did

One of the most valuable things TaxReliefIndex does is surface what's already working. A handful of states have managed to keep burden relatively low while maintaining functional public services. Their structural choices are visible in the data — and worth understanding.

Utah — broad base, low rates, lean administration
Spreads revenue across income, sales, and property taxes at moderate rates. No single category becomes disproportionately heavy on any one group. One of the lowest tax administration overhead ratios in the country — meaning more of what's collected goes to services rather than the cost of collecting it.
Tennessee — strategic exemptions within a no-income-tax model
Funds government primarily through sales tax, but offsets its regressive nature with reduced rates on groceries and full exemptions on prescription medications — protecting lower-income household budgets without requiring large revenue losses.
Indiana — flat tax with constitutional property tax caps
Constitutionally mandated property tax caps (1% of assessed value for homesteads) give homeowners predictability and protection against rapid increases as home values rise. Simplicity and predictability together reduce the real cost of tax compliance.
Colorado — structural spending discipline
Requires voter approval for any tax rate increase and mandates that revenue above a defined cap be refunded to taxpayers. The result has been more controlled per-capita spending growth than the national average over two decades, keeping effective rates moderate.

How this helps reduce burden — for everyone

Lower tax burden and sustainable government finances are not opposites. The data points to several levers that benefit both households and the governments that serve them.

📋
Simplify the code
States with simpler tax codes see higher voluntary compliance — lower enforcement costs and more stable revenue for government.
🛒
Target essential exemptions
Exempting groceries or prescription drugs from sales tax protects lower-income families at modest cost to overall collections.
🔎
Increase transparency
When taxpayers understand what they owe and why, compliance is higher and the administrative burden on government agencies is lower.

Who this tool is for

Families
See your real total burden across all tax categories — not just your federal return
Small businesses
Understand payroll and state tax differences for hiring and location decisions
Legislators
Model policy changes without commissioning a lengthy study
Journalists
Fully documented sources — built to be auditable and challenged
New residents
Understand how the US tax system works and how states compare
Built with AI — transparently

The TaxReliefIndex was built using AI — both in the construction of the dashboard and in the analysis of the underlying data. AI tools helped process large volumes of publicly available federal and state tax data, identify patterns across 50 states and multiple income levels, and surface comparisons that would have taken weeks to produce manually. The analysis and research in this article were developed with AI assistance. All data sources and methodology are fully documented.

A final note

We built the TaxReliefIndex because we believe access to clear, honest information is a public good. Tax data belongs to everyone — it is collected from everyone. Making it understandable and navigable is a small contribution toward better-informed conversations in every community and statehouse across the country.

If you find something worth questioning in the data or the methodology, we welcome it. That's how tools like this get better.

Kavya Chunduri is a Derivative Systems Analyst and Systems Consultant with over a decade of experience in financial markets, and founder of Capital Markets Insights, an independent research and analysis platform. The analysis and research in this article were developed with AI assistance.

Tax Policy Public Finance Data Transparency State Taxes Civic Technology AI Tools Policy Analysis