By Jillian Delaney
Staten Island Advance, N.Y.
(TNS)
Most Americans agree that the ultra-wealthy should pay more taxes; but what do they pay right now?
Stacker, a website specializing in publishing data, found that the American elite—the top 1%—pay, on average, roughly 37% of overall income taxes and earn 19.5% of salaries nationwide.
Still, depending on what state that the well-to-do live in, that figure can either sit several points higher or slip into ranges that could irritate everyday Americans.
New York’s top 1%, about 91,840 households in the state, pay roughly 46.26% of income taxes. That percentage amounts to the wealthy paying $79.5 billion in annual income taxes.
This is the fourth highest state for the rich to live in when thinking in terms of income taxation.
Out of all 50 states, Wyoming’s elite pay the most in the country: They pay 54.67% of the state’s income taxes. Wyoming’s top 1% make up roughly 2,611 households.
The most affordable state for the wealthiest residents to live in, on the other hand, is Alaska. Its top 1%, comprised of 3,223 households, only pay 26.37% of the state’s income tax.
As listed on the Stacker website, this is how much the wealthiest residents in each state pay in overall income tax compared to the rest of the state’s residents:
- Wyoming: 54.67%
- Florida: 53.62%
- Nevada: 51.12%
- New York: 46.26%
- Texas: 44.52%
- Connecticut: 43.85%
- Montana: 42.92%
- Arkansas: 42.22%
- Utah: 41.16%
- Tennessee: 41.04%
- South Dakota: 40.46%
- Louisiana: 38.72%
- California: 38.6%
- Illinois: 38.39%
- Georgia: 38.31%
- Mississippi: 38.29%
- Idaho: 38.2%
- Massachusetts: 38.19%
- Arizona: 38%
- Oklahoma: 37.8%
- Missouri: 37.16%
- South Carolina: 37.05%
- Nebraska: 37.03%
- Alabama: 36.15%
- Kansas: 35.79%
- Wisconsin: 35.54%
- Indiana: 35.52%
- New Hampshire: 35.41%
- North Carolina: 35.28%
- Pennsylvania: 35.09%
- Michigan: 35.01%
- Ohio: 34.6%
- Colorado: 34.51%
- North Dakota: 34.41%
- Kentucky: 34.26%
- New Jersey: 33.78%
- Rhode Island: 33.58%
- Hawaii: 33.57%
- Iowa: 33.16%
- Virginia: 32.94%
- Minnesota: 32.64%
- New Mexico: 32.3%
- Washington: 32.06%
- Vermont: 32.04%
- Maine: 30.48%
- Maryland: 30.45%
- Delaware: 30.38%
- Oregon: 30.37%
- West Virginia: 30.28%
- Alaska: 26.37%
Photo credit: farakos/iStock
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© 2026 Staten Island Advance, N.Y. Visit www.silive.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency LLC.
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Tags: Income Taxes, states, Taxes, wealthy
