Illinois has a flat 4.95 percent individual income tax rate. Illinois has a 9.50 percent corporate income tax rate (7 percent plus a 2.5 percent personal property replacement tax), a 6.25 percent state sales tax rate, and an average combined state and local sales tax rate of 8.96 percent. Illinois has a 1.88 percent effective property tax rate on owner-occupied housing value. Illinois has an estate tax. Illinois’s gas tax is 66.4 cents per gallon, and its cigarette excise tax is $2.98 per pack of 20 cigarettes.
Illinois raises tax revenue primarily through property taxes (32.3 percent of total state and local tax revenue), individual income taxes (20.7 percent), and other taxes (20.0 percent). Illinois collects $8,339 in state and local tax collections per capita, carries $10,363 in state and local debt per capita, and has a 54 percent funded ratio of public pension plans. Illinois’s tax system ranks 38th overall on the 2026 State Tax Competitiveness Index.
Each state’s tax code is a multifaceted system with many moving parts, and Illinois is no exception. Use the tabs below to compare Illinois taxes with other states and to see how Illinois raises tax revenue. You can also browse our tax maps, which are compiled from our annual publication, Facts & Figures 2026: How Does Your State Compare?
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The State Tax Competitiveness Index enables policymakers, taxpayers, and business leaders to gauge how their states’ tax systems compare. While there are many ways to show how much state governments collect in taxes, the Index evaluates how well states structure their tax systems and provides a road map for improvement.
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Facts & Figures serves as a one-stop state tax data resource that compares all 50 states on over 40 measures of tax rates, collections, burdens, and more.
2 min read
Individual income taxes are a major source of state government revenue, accounting for more than a third of state tax collections. How do income taxes compare in your state?
9 min read
Retail sales taxes are an essential part of most states’ revenue toolkits, responsible for nearly a quarter of combined state and local tax collections.
18 min read
Forty-four states levy a corporate income tax, with top rates ranging from a 2 percent flat rate in North Carolina to an 11.5 percent top marginal rate in New Jersey. Four states—Georgia, Nebraska, North Carolina, and Pennsylvania—reduced their corporate income tax rates effective January 1, 2026.
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Property taxes are the primary tool for financing local governments. While no taxpayers in high-tax jurisdictions will be celebrating their yearly payments, property taxes are largely rooted in the benefit principle of taxation: the people paying the property tax bills are most often the ones benefiting from the services.
9 min read
Legal sports betting has grown rapidly since the Supreme Court granted states the ability to establish online sports betting markets in Murphy vs. NCAA in 2018.
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California levies the highest tax on gasoline at 70.9 cents per gallon (cpg), followed by Illinois at 66.4 cpg and Washington at 59.0 cpg.
8 min read
As the market share of electric vehicles (EVs) on the road grows, the gas tax’s ability to fund road projects and decrease traffic congestion erodes. Both federal and state real tax revenue per vehicle mile traveled has been on a steady decline for decades, creating a fiscal gap for road expenditures even as the demand for road infrastructure improvements has grown.
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Growing cigarette tax levels and differentials have made cigarette smuggling both a national problem and a lucrative criminal enterprise.
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For Congress, work on the One Big Beautiful Bill Act is done. But in state capitols, the work has not yet begun. Many of the tax changes in the federal reconciliation act flow through to state tax codes—automatically in some states, and subject to an update in states’ Internal Revenue Code conformity date in others.
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However states choose to respond to other tax provisions of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, they should conform to the pro-growth provisions, which represent a marked improvement in the corporate tax code.
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However well-intended they may be, sales tax holidays remain the same as they always have been—ineffective and inefficient.
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The One Big Beautiful Bill’s changes to the taxation of international income have surprising implications for state codes, yielding tax increases and a revised tax base that, through quirks of state incorporation, bears very little resemblance to the federal base and almost nothing of its purpose.
10 min read
The five states with the highest average combined state and local sales tax rates are Louisiana (10.11 percent), Tennessee (9.61 percent), Arkansas (9.48 percent), Washington (9.47 percent), and Alabama (9.44 percent).
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Summer has arrived, and states are beginning to implement policy changes that were enacted during this year’s legislative session (or that have delayed effective dates or are being phased in over time).
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