I share the same story as yours except 53 years in AK. The IRS only allows a deduction for state income tax OR sales tax. Since I and many other working people in AK already pay borough and local sales tax my preference is a state sales tax so I can deduct it off my Federal tax. Food excluded, and a cap. But I would be interested to see a study of how much money we would lose by not taxing out of state workers and hypothetically the lost tax revenue if retirees and potential retirees leave because of an income tax. Count me in as one of the latter if there's a progressive AK income tax when I retire. I'll just come back in the summer using that saved tax money and not pay anything to the state.