(MONEY Magazine) – Taxpayers in 35 states may get more than they expected from the revised U.S. tax code. The unbidden surprise: higher state income taxes. The biggest losers, says the National Association of State Budget Officers, a Washington research group, may be residents of Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Kansas, Louisiana, Missouri, Montana, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Carolina and Utah. They could see their state tax bills rise 15% to 20% next year as a direct result of federal tax reform. Residents of the other 24 states, including such populous ones as California, Connecticut, New York and Ohio, may face state tax increases of anywhere from 1% to 15%. By contrast, taxpayers in Nebraska, North Dakota, Rhode Island and Vermont may be in for a mini-windfall of 6% on average because of the way their state levies are tied to the federal tax code. Taxes in two states -- New Jersey and Pennsylvania -- will stay the same. The remaining nine states have no personal income tax. The principal reason for the upheaval at the state level is that most of the 41 states with broad-based personal income taxes pattern their tax structure - after federal tax laws. Many have their residents simply apply the state rate to either their adjusted gross income or their taxable income on their federal returns. For example, in South Carolina, where the highest marginal rate is 7%, a top-bracket resident with taxable income on his federal return of $44,650 would pay the state $2,680 for 1986. Because of the elimination of many federal tax deductions, most taxpayers' adjusted gross incomes and taxable incomes on their federal returns will rise in the post-reform era. Hence, many will pay higher state taxes. The taxpayer in South Carolina, for instance, would pay $2,989 to the state in 1987. In the states where taxes will fall after reform, an individual's state tax liability is calculated simply as a percentage of his federal tax. Vermonters, for instance, currently pay 24% of their federal tax bill to the state. When federal taxes fall, as they will for most taxpayers because of lower rates, so will local income taxes in such states. In the states where taxes will stay the same, the tax structures are not linked to the federal system. If you live in one of the states where local tax collections may rise, you have few options. One is to write urging your state legislators to cut state taxes. Or you could move. So far, the governors of Michigan, New York and Ohio have pledged to return all of the state income tax windfall to taxpayers by, say, reducing sales taxes or income tax rates. On the other hand, the treasuries of Idaho, Louisiana and Montana, where state revenues plunged with oil and mineral prices, may keep whatever extra money comes their way. Says Gerald Miller, executive director of the National Association of State Budget Officers: ''This is going to be a major issue in state legislatures for the next 12 months at least.'' You probably won't know precisely how much state tax you will owe until the spring of 1988 when you sit down to do your 1987 taxes. Some investors can reduce their state taxes by carefully managing when they take capital gains. Starting Jan. 1, you will no longer be able to exclude 60% of long-term capital gains from your federal adjusted gross income -- a pivotal change for taxpayers in states that tie their taxes to the federal tax structure. For example, an investor in Colorado with a capital gain of $10,000 would owe $320 on it to the state this year but $800 on the same gain in 1987. The obvious advice: if you are planning to take a capital gain soon, do it before the end of 1986. Although the phase-in of the new tax law will produce a maximum federal tax rate of 38.5% in 1987, the top rate on long-term capital gains will be 28%. Because of this, Douglas Green, a tax partner with Peat Marwick Mitchell in New York City, has an imaginative suggestion for investors who have big portfolios and are self-employed or have employers who are willing to go along with his scheme: live off capital gains during 1987 and defer your salary and bonus until 1988, when you will be taxed at a top rate of 28%. By then your state may have changed its tax code to your advantage.