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
However well-intended they may be, sales tax holidays remain the same as they always have been—ineffective and inefficient.
12 min read
Policymakers are increasingly considering taxes on data processing and other businesses’ digital services, but these taxes increase costs at many stages of the production process for virtually all businesses, not just tech-oriented businesses.
7 min read
The five states with the highest average combined state and local sales tax rates are Louisiana (10.13 percent), Tennessee (9.61 percent), Washington (9.57 percent), Arkansas (9.48 percent), and Alabama (9.46 percent).
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As the alcohol industry innovates with newer products like high alcohol content beer or ready-to-drink cocktails, the efficacy of a categorical system continues to break down.
Whether a sommelier or a casual enjoyer, wine drinkers may not be aware of just how much they are paying in taxes to uncork their drink of choice.
6 min read
In the United States, taxes are the single most expensive ingredient in beer. The tax burden accounts for more of the final price of beer than labor and materials combined—the many different layers of applicable taxes combining to total as much as 40.8 percent of the retail price.
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Illinois plans to impose a complicated, legally fraught new social media tax based on a few pages of confused, contradictory, and almost laughably incomplete legislative text embedded in the new budget.
10 min read
Policies that increase the tax burden on high earners makes states less competitive, increase revenue volatility, discourage investment, and risk accelerating outmigration of talent and capital. Many top-earners are already leaving high-tax states for Florida, North Carolina, and other low-tax jurisdictions.
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Alcohol taxes in Illinois have been broken for decades, and the state is now considering a “fix” that moves policy in the wrong direction.
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The significant disparity in tax rates across states underscores the complex tax and regulatory environment governing distilled spirits.
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