A Flat Tax in Fargo? You Betcha

North Dakota is one of the nation’s flattest states, like a pancake on the prairie, but not when it comes to income taxes. The state has five brackets that range from 1.1% to 2.9%. That’s low compared with the 9.85% top rate in big-city Minnesota, but South Dakota doesn’t tax income at all. In the competition to be the best Dakota, this matters, and don’t even mention Mount Rushmore.

Now the folks in Bismarck are moving to raise their game. Last month the state House passed two alternative tax-cut proposals. One is a flat tax of 1.5%. Another is a flat tax of 1.99%. Republican Gov. Doug Burgum supports the first plan, and the details make it more ambitious than it might sound at first. That 1.5% flat tax would apply to income above $45,000 a year for singles and $75,000 for couples, which means about 60% of taxpayers would owe nothing.