It’s tax day: Which state pays most?
Wisconsin is No. 26, at $8,115 per person
WASHINGTON - With Tax Day upon us Tuesday, show some love for the good people who live in the nation’s capital.
Washington, D.C., that swampy den of iniquity that politicians love to scorn, sends the most tax dollars per person to the U.S. government.
Last year, the District of Columbia paid Uncle Sam $37,000 per person in federal income, payroll and estate taxes. The next closest was Delaware, at $16,000 per person.
“It’s where the money is,” said Roberton Williams, a fellow at the Tax Policy Center. “The reason the District pays so much in taxes is that there are a lot of high-income people there.”
West Virginia, Mississippi and New Mexico have low median household incomes, which helps explain why they their residents pay far less in federal taxes. West Virginia paid $3,600 per person last year, while Mississippi paid $3,900 per person and New Mexico residents paid a little more than $4,000.
Wisconsin tips the scales at $8,115 per capita, ranking it 26th.
The Associated Press calculated each state’s per-capita tax bill using data from the IRS and population estimates from the Census Bureau.
The deadline to file federal tax returns is Tuesday. It was pushed back because the usual April 15 deadline was Saturday, and because Monday is a holiday in the District of Columbia. The deadline for Wisconsin returns is also Tuesday.
The nation’s capital gets a good return on its tax investment. For every dollar the District sends to the federal government, it gets back almost $4, according to a 2015 study by the New York state comptroller.
Washington, D.C.’s rate of return is higher than any state — most of it comes from wages for federal
“People view the world as cut my taxes and cut his spending.”
ROBERTON WILLIAMS, TAX POLICY CENTER
employees. The closest state is Mississippi, which gets back $2.57 in federal spending for every dollar it sends to Washington. New Mexico, West Virginia and Alabama are also big winners when it comes to federal taxes and spending.
These states are big takers because they have a lot of residents who get federal benefits, including Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, disability benefits and food stamps.
So why do so many of these states that benefit from the federal government produce conservative politicians who complain that the government is too big?
“There is this perception that so much money is being spent on things that don’t benefit them,” Williams said. “They ignore the things that do benefit them.” Williams cited foreign aid as a favorite target. “People view the world as cut my taxes and cut his spending,” Williams said.