Nevada Is Already Winning the Tax Game.  The Rest of America Should Follow

Nevada has long known a truth Washington often forgets: giving people more of their own money drives growth, not government. We’ve seen it in our booming tourism industry, our thriving small businesses, and in the families that choose to build their lives here instead of fleeing high-tax states. 

Now, federal researchers have put hard numbers behind something Nevadans already feel every day: that no state income tax is a massive competitive advantage. 

A new economic analysis shows that eliminating state income taxes isn’t just a slogan. It is a proven engine for growth. States that ditch the income tax see measurable increases in GDP, startup activity, and wages. Under scenarios studied, average incomes would rise by around $4,000. Startups could jump 16 to 19 percent. Gross state product would expand by up to 1.6 percent, all because workers keep more of what they earn instead of watching it leak out to the state government. 

This is not abstract theory. It is the lived experience of states like Nevada.

We already have no personal state income tax, and it shows. People and businesses vote with their feet. Nevada is in the same club as Texas, Florida, Tennessee, and Wyoming when it comes to tax structure, and those states consistently rank at the top for net migration and economic expansion. There is a reason that once-high tax states like California and New York see people and high-income taxpayers leaving in droves: income taxes sap opportunity, and goodness knows Nevada is benefitting from that outflow.

Nevada’s mix of no state income tax and competitive sales and property taxes means workers get to hold onto far more of what they earn. That matters in a state driven by hospitality, service jobs, and small business growth, sectors where every dollar in take-home pay counts. When families don’t have to hand their earnings over to state collections, they spend locally. They open businesses. They hire neighbors. They plant roots instead of packing up. That is exactly the growth this report validates.

Contrast that with states belatedly debating phasing out income taxes. They are looking at Nevada and asking why their most competitive neighbors are booming while they lag behind. The federal report makes the case: income tax elimination boosts economic dynamism, draws high-income taxpayers, fuels entrepreneurship, and combats brain drain, all things Nevada has been doing without up-front political drama. 

Of course, critics will always wave scare stories about budget gaps or cuts to services. But Nevada’s constitution already demands fiscal discipline, forcing careful budgeting rather than ad hoc tax grabs. We don’t borrow from families’ paychecks to fund more bureaucracy. We keep money where it belongs in citizens’ pockets, and that builds real prosperity.

Washington policymakers should take note. Instead of insisting that every state adopt more sales taxes, they should study Nevada’s model. A state that does not tax income is not weaker; it is freer, more competitive, and more attractive to residents and businesses alike. The federal research proves what Silver Staters already know: less tax burden means more economic life.

Nevada wins because we choose growth over government, and the rest of America deserves the same shot. Keep the momentum going. Other states should take Nevada’s playbook, and Washington ought to stop penalizing success.

Nevada is proof that putting taxpayers first doesn’t just feel right, it produces results. 

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