The taxes which hit the poor hardest are those of local and state governments. Federal government taxes are progressive, which means that people are taxed based on their income - this means that rich people have to pay higher taxes than poor people. On the other hand, local and state taxes are regressive, meaning the taxes are based according to the service bought - it's the same for the rich and the poor, but given that poor people earn much less money than the rich, they will be affected more direly.
Local and state taxes are the ones that hit poor people the hardest. There are several reasons for this. One of these is the fact that state and local taxes change depending on the part of the country people live in. Therefore, poor people who live in states or cities that tax the population heavily are particularly affected by such systems. Moreover, localities and states obtain their taxes from goods and services that are closer to the people being taxed, which also indicates a stronger reliance on these goods. Poor people who rely on these goods and services would struggle to find alternatives to these, which also places them in a worse situation.
