Report ranks Montana No. 1 in country for tax fairness

Tax systems vary dramatically across states and localities.

Nevada ranked 12th overall for being fair.

Connecticut has one of the fairer tax systems in the country, according to WalletHub.com’s 2015 most and least fair state tax systems list.

The site based rankings on the dependency of property taxes, sales and excise taxes, income taxes and other taxes.

Sitting on top of the list was Montana, followed by Oregon and South Carolina, respectively. WalletHub says that regardless of political affiliation, most Americans think wealthy households should be taxed the most.

The financial-services website conducted what it calls “a nationally representative online survey” of 1,050 people to find out what they think a fair state-and-local tax system looks like, then compared the results with the actual tax systems of all 50 states.

The study shows both blue and red voting states are found to overtax the poor and undertax the rich. Indiana ranked 6th for the state where the middle class is most overtaxed.

WalletHub said it believed this is a first-ever ranking of state and local tax fairness that matches data on what is believed to be fair with real numbers. Washington finished last. But was joined by Georgia, Hawaii, Arkansas and Illinois at the bottom.