Tax Season: Florida Is the Tenth Best State in U.S. for Taxes

April: Forget about poetry or pleasant showers or even the opening day of baseball season. What the month really means to your average American is taxes. Times to find those mustard-covered receipts under the couch and pray you actually left that W-2 where you think you did. Luckily for Floridians, the Sunshine State is well-known for being one of the top stops in the country for taxes. Case in point: all the Northern snowbirds who duck down here for 49 percent of the year. But according to a new crunching of numbers, Florida is actually only the tenth best state in the union for taxes. 

WalletHub did the analysis. Under the website's rubric, states were ranked on the basis of their local and state burdens, specifically comparing real estate, vehicle property, income, and sales and excise taxes. From this formulation, overall the state came in tenth, with the average Floridian paying $4,776 in state and local taxes. That's 15 percent lower than the national average. The state's lack of vehicle and income tax is what helps its ranking. Overall, the average real estate tax payment in Florida is $1,913, while sales and excise is $2,862. 

Florida comes in just above number 11, Oregon, with an average of $4,854 in taxes. California sits right above us at nine, with $4,776. According to WalletHub's work, the best state in the union for taxes: Alaska, with an average of $2,993. From there, the list's top ten looks like this: 

1. Alaska
2. Delaware
3. Montana
4. Wyoming
5. Nevada
6. Tennessee
7. Idaho
8. South Carolina
9. California
10. Florida

The list upends some of the usual, accepted thoughts about taxes. For one, everybody thinks California is prohibitively taxed high. No so, according to this analysis. The worst state for taxes? Illinois, which comes in with $7,719 in average local and state taxes, 37 percent higher than the national average. Nebraska is next, with $7,298, followed by Wisconsin at $7,159.