But according to a new report from The Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, the impact of those federal tax breaks is largely offset by the burden of state and local taxes. Here’s how state and local taxes break down as a percentage of income: The richest Americans pay the least.

Total State and Local Taxes Paid as % of Income

The tax mix changes from state to state. In Washington State, the top one percent pay just one-seventh as much of their income as the poorest twenty percent, largely because the state does not levy a personal income tax. In Kansas, where Governor Sam Brownback’s tax cuts have left the state facing a budget shortfall, the top tax bracket starts at just $30,000 for married couples—so a CEO making six figures pays the same rate as a construction worker making five. Alabama taxes groceries, which absorbs a larger proportion of the household budgets of lower-income families than their richer neighbors. At the other end of the spectrum, Vermont charges low sales and excise taxes and offers a sizable earned-income tax credit for working families. Nevertheless, in every single state “at least some low- or middle-income groups pay more of their income in state and local taxes than wealthy families.” Some states like Texas and Florida have a reputation for being “low-tax.” That may be true for people like NBA player Trevor Ariza, who reportedly left the Washington Wizards for the Houston Rockets this summer in part to save millions on his income tax bill. Someone selling hamburgers at the Wizards’ arena, however, would end up paying a higher proportion of their income in taxes by moving to Texas. These numbers don’t even include the fines and fees that fund nearly half of some municipalities’ budgets—and come disproportionately out of poor peoples’ pockets.

Some of the most regressive aspects of the tax code are designed to advance broadly popular goals. The gas tax, for example, falls hardest on middle-class families, but it may promote environmentally friendly modes of transportation. Tobacco taxes discourage tobacco consumption. Many economists contend that lower rates for capital gains increases business investment, and that hiking the more progressive income taxes could make working less attractive. And in absolute terms, of course, the wealthy pay significantly more in taxes and receive less in direct government benefits than do the poor.

Yet combining America’s regressive state and local taxes with the progressive federal code reveals a system that barely asks more of its most comfortable citizens than of the middle-class. This is what overall effective tax rates looked like in 2014.

Total Effective Tax Rates

Addressing income inequality, long a priority of Democrats, is increasingly becoming a Republican talking point. What does this distribution mean for closing the “income gap”?