Where our numbers come from

Why this table exists

Almost nothing in this category publishes its sources. When we audited it, sites ranking on the first page for "2026 income tax calculator" were serving the previous year's standard deduction while linking to the correct IRS page from the same screen — and there was no way for a reader to tell.

So every figure here names its document and its date. Not the department's home page: the specific publication, with a link, so you can open it and check the number rather than take our word for it.

The dates matter as much as the sources. State legislatures change rates on their own calendars and frequently backdate, so a figure verified in March and a figure verified in September carry different amounts of confidence — and a single site-wide "last updated" would be true of only one of them.

Of 42 states reviewed against their own department of revenue, 14 matched the compiled sources everyone uses and 22 did not. Those corrections are listed on the changelog with what changed and why.

The Canadian half of the table works the same way and is harder to assemble, because Canada devolves more of its tax. There is no national register of municipal property tax rates, of provincial dividend credits or of probate fees: each figure exists only in the by-law, form or court schedule of the body that levies it, so each row below names that document. Where one could not be read, the figure is not here — and the methodology page lists those gaps with the reason for each.

And the data itself, with a DOI

A table of sources asks you to take our reading of them on trust. So the data is also deposited in a public research repository, under a permanent identifier, where it can be downloaded, recalculated and used to contradict us without coming through this site.

DOI [10.5281/zenodo.22670573](https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.22670573) — Zenodo, published September 9, 2026, CC BY 4.0. Three files: condados.csv (3,132 rows), precios.csv (51 rows), comparativas.csv (1,275 rows).

The deposit records the exact commit of the engine that produced it, so the files can be regenerated byte for byte rather than merely believed. If a figure here is wrong, the deposit is what lets someone else prove it.

To cite it: Ruiz Quintero, P. (2026). US state and local tax, cost of living, and relocation comparisons (2026 tax year) [Data set]. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.22670573

To link to it in general rather than to this version, use the concept DOI [10.5281/zenodo.22670572](https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.22670572), which always resolves to the most recent release.

Questions

Where do your federal figures come from?

The IRS revenue procedure for the tax year, read off the document itself rather than off a summary of it. The citation and link are in the table above, with the date we checked.

Where do state figures come from?

Each state's own department of revenue publication, read one state at a time. The table names the specific document for each, not the department home page.

Where do Canadian figures come from?

The CRA for federal figures, Revenu Québec for Quebec, each province for its own rates, and each city for its property tax — read off the by-law or rate schedule itself. Provincial dividend and donation credit rates come from each Form 428 and its worksheet, because those percentages are published nowhere else.

What if a figure has not been verified?

The page says so. A figure read off a primary source and a figure taken from a compilation are marked differently throughout the site, because "we have not looked" and "it does not exist" are different claims.

How often is this table updated?

Whenever a figure changes. Each row carries its own date rather than a site-wide timestamp, and every change is recorded in the tax data changelog.