By Stacker
- The top 1% of earners across the U.S. earn an average of 19.5% of all income, but pay 37% of total income taxes
- California’s top 1% in pays over $122B per year in income taxes
The top 1% of earners across the U.S. earn an average of 19.5% of all income, but pay 37% of total income taxes. This cohort thus contributes the largest chunk of funding for infrastructure, healthcare, welfare programs, and more, despite advantages that may enable them to minimize their taxes through professionally guided strategies or more tax-friendly locations. With this in mind, SmartAsset examined the latest IRS data to determine where the top 1% of earners contribute the most and least in taxes.
Why This Matters: Policies that propose taxing higher-income households more can potentially offer more tax revenue, but also have the potential to scare away that tax revenue and any additional spending with local businesses that may come with it.
Key Findings
- The top 1% pays more than 50% of all income tax revenue in three states. Wyoming has the highest contributions from the top 1% of earners, with 54.7% of income tax revenue coming from 2,611 households. Florida follows closely, with 105,101 top 1% households contributing 53.6% of all income taxes collected. Nevada ranks third with 51.1% of income tax revenue coming from its 14,754 highest-earning households.
- In New York, the top 1% of earners contribute 46.2% of all income taxes. New York ranks fourth studywide for the income tax contributions made by the top 1%. The average AGI across these 91,840 households is $3.13 million. Overall, New York’s elite earners pay roughly $79.5 billion in income taxes per year.
- The top 1% in California pays over $122 billion per year in income taxes. The highest gross income tax collections come from Californians, where 175,045 households make up the top 1% of earners. These households average an AGI of $2.60 million, and contribute 38.6% of total income taxes collected from state residents. Overall, this puts California in 13th place studywide for contributions made by its top 1%.
- Top earners in Connecticut face the highest effective tax rates. Effectively, Connecticut’s top 1% pays an average of 28.09% on their $3.43 million average household AGI. This generates just over $16 billion in taxes collected, or 43.85% of all income taxes collected from state residents. Meanwhile, Wyoming’s top 1% faces the lowest effective income tax rate at 23.1%.
Data and Methodology
SmartAsset analyzed the most recent data from the IRS for personal income tax returns (tax year 2022) to rank states by the total income tax paid by the top 1%. The effective tax rates for the 1%, total income taxes paid by this cohort, average AGI per top 1% household, number of top 1% earning households, and percentage of all personal income earned by the top 1% are also examined. Tax returns are assumed to represent a single household.
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