Taxes: States where the wealthy pick up the tab
New data released by the Internal Revenue Service reveals how progressive the U.S. income tax system has become. According to research conducted by the non-partisan Tax Foundation, taxpayers making under $50,000 collectively earned 22% of the total adjusted gross income (AGI), but paid just 8% of all federal income taxes. Meanwhile, more affluent taxpayers – those earning over $200,000 collectively – earned 29% of total AGI but paid more than half of all income taxes.
The distribution of federal income taxes varies for each state. In some locales, wealthy and less affluent taxpayers shoulder the state's total federal tax burden more equally. But in ten states, wealthier taxpayers pay a far greater share of their states' total federal taxes than the national average mentioned above.
Here those states are, ranked in order of ascending tax burden shouldered by the wealthy (all data from the Tax Foundation)