High earners in Tampa-St. Pete, Sarasota-Bradenton have light tax load

Recent income research finds Tampa-St. Pete-Clearwater area is highly ranked — in low taxes for high earners.

Sarasota-Bradenton-North Port's high earners make more annually, the same research found, but they also pay more in taxes.

Flippa — a firm that helps people sell and buy websites, stores and apps — reported in its Feb. 20 blog that it examined Tampa-St. Pete area households earning more than $200,000 per year. They found these households averaged $574,286 annually. And they paid more than $7,700 in state and local taxes a year.

"These high-earning households in the Tampa metro area pay an average of $7,759 per year in taxes, representing 1.4% of the average high-earning household income," Flippa says in its report.

The tax burden was so low, Tampa-St. Pete area ranked No. 4 in the lowest state and local taxes paid when compared to all large metros in the U.S., Flippa found.

Meanwhile, in the Sarasota-Bradenton-North Port area, high-earning households make a bit more and pay a lot more in taxes.

Flippa found that high earners in the area earning over $200,000 per year in the Sarasota-Bradenton-North Port metro area earn an average of $685,083 annually.

But they pay 69.1% more in local and state taxes, Flippa says. The high-earning households in that metro area pay an average of $13,121 per year in taxes, representing 1.9% of the average high-earning household income, Flippa says.

Both metro areas pay well under the national average in local and state taxes paid annually, which is $23,211 per year. (This makes sense, obviously, since Florida doesn't have any state income tax.)

The largest metro area with the lowest local and state tax burden for high earners? Orlando-Sanford, with $7,044 paid a year from earners who average $521,000 annually.

San Francisco-Oakland led the nation in highest local and state tax burden, where it collects $53,463 a year from high earners who average $647,185 annually.