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1 Scott A. Hodge, States Vary in Distribution of Who Bears the Burden of Federal Income Taxes 1 (2010)

handle is hein.taxfoundation/ffcdbxz0001 and id is 1 raw text is: FISCAL FACT June 2, 2010 No. 231 States Vary in Distribution of Who Bears the Burden of Federal Income Taxes By Scott A. Hodge Recently released IRS data for 2008 shows how progressive the U.S. income tax system has become. Taxpayers earning under $50,000 collectively earned 22 percent of the total adjusted gross income (AGI), but paid just 8 percent of all income taxes at an effective tax rate of 5 percent. Meanwhile, taxpayers earning over $200,000 collectively earned 29 percent of total AGI but paid more than half of all income taxes at an effective rate of 22 percent. While the national figures are quite progressive, the distribution of federal income taxes varies quite widely for each state. Some states have a fairly even distribution of federal income tax liability while other states have a far more progressive distribution than the national average. The table below displays the distribution of income and federal income taxes by income group for each state. It also shows the effective tax rate - or share of income paid in taxes - for each income group. Connecticut by far has the most progressive distribution of federal income taxes. Taxpayers earning under $50,000 earned 13 percent of the AGI in the state, but paid 5 percent of the federal income taxes paid by all taxpayers in the state. By contrast, taxpayers earning over $200,000 earned 44 percent of the AGI, but paid 66 percent of the income taxes. Scott A. Hodge is President of the Tax Foundation. TAXO FOUNDATION