Top 1% pay over a third of Pennsylvania's personal income taxes
The wealthiest households in Pennsylvania are carrying over a third of the state’s personal income tax burden, according to a new study.
The top 1% now pay 35.09% of all personal income taxes collected in the Keystone State, the study by finance company SmartAsset found, which examined the latest IRS data from tax year 2022.
In Pennsylvania, roughly 58,541 households make up the top 1% of earners, with an average annual income of $1,728,864. Together, they account for 18.42% of the state’s total earned income.
Collectively, they pay more than $26.1 billion in taxes, according to SmartAsset.
Three states — Wyoming, Florida and Nevada — see their top 1% pay more than half of all income taxes in the state, the study found.
Pennsylvania ranks 30th highest in the U.S. in terms of the percentage of income taxes paid by the top 1%. Wyoming ranks first at 54.67%, while Alaska comes in 50th at 26.37%.
Nationally, the top 1% of earners take in an average of 19.5% of all income and pay 37% of total income taxes, according to SmartAsset.
Megan Swift is a TribLive reporter covering trending news in Western Pennsylvania. A Murrysville native, she joined the Trib full time in 2023 after serving as editor-in-chief of The Daily Collegian at Penn State. She previously worked as a Jim Borden Scholarship intern at the Trib for three summers. She can be reached at mswift@triblive.com.
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