What state consumes the most turkey per person on Thanksgiving?  Why, California, of course--the largest state in the Union.  Besides turkeys consumed, California also has the most federal taxpayers, according to the IRS.  However, in 2023 California lost the most tax filers, 1,277,731 to be precise.  No other state lost tax filers.

And where did those tax filers go?  Well, maybe they wll be eating turkey in Florida and Texas, which both saw an increase of over one million tax filers.  No other states came even close to gaining that many taxpayers. So is California a turkey state in more ways than one?

The United States Internal Revenue Service (IRS) which is responsible for collecting taxes and administering the Internal Revenue Code, collects and publishes historical data related to taxation across the 50 states.  This includes total tax revenue, total number of tax returns,the  number of people that file income tax returns, total state income tax revenue, etc.

The most recent information regarding the total number of persons who filed income tax returns across the 50 states was taken from Table 3. Number of Returns and Other Forms Filed, by Type and State, Fiscal Year 2023 for this data series.  For more information about this table see the IRS Data Book.

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Truth in Accounting's most recent Financial State of the States, which came out on October 3, 2024, shows that only three out of the seven swing states had a Taxpayer Surplus^TM according to their ACFR data for 2023.  All the swing states had a Taxpayer Burden^TM  between 2014 and 2020.  The states that switched from having a burden to having a surplus were Georgia, North Carolina, and Wisconsin.  The other four swing states--Arizona, Michigan, Nevada, and Pennsylvania--maintained their burden status at least through 2022.  Two of those states, Arizona and Nevada, did not release their financial statements in time to be included in our report.  

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According to the Mercatus Center, the state of New York came in second highest in terms of state regulations. The Center quantifies the number of regulations because their "research indicates that regulatory accumulation worsens economic conditions, inadvertently increasing poverty rates, destroying jobs, and raising prices. The path to reversing these trends is clear: Improve regulations by reducing their number. Our State RegData project has produced "snapshots" of state regulations that can help policymakers engage in that process."

In addition, New York ranks highest in terms of lawyers per 10,000 residents according to the American Bar Association and TIA calculations.  It has 95.72 lawyers per 10,000 residents, while Massachusetts, the next highest state, has 61.06 lawyers per 10,000 residents.  Is this a coincidence, a correlation, or a cause?  You decide and check the numbers for your state at Data.Z.org.

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Timeliness of an annual report is the number of days between a city or state's fiscal year-end and the date it publishes its Annual Comprehensive Financial Report (ACFR). For the publishing date, TIA uses the date on the letter of transmittal, which is typically found near the beginning of the ACFR.

It is crucial for citizens to have their government’s financial information in a timely manner. Due to the tardiness of Arizona, California, Iowa, Oklahoma and Nevada in releasing their financial reports, we were unable to include the newest data in our Financial State of the States 2023 report which was published in October 2023.  In mid July 2024 we were finally able to update our data on Data-z.org to include the 2022 data from those five delinquent states. 

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Last week we showed you the top five losers in the migration of adjusted gross income for 2022 (the latest year available).  Those five states lost a total of over $57 billion dollars.  And where did that money go?  Well, overwhelmingly to Florida which saw an influx of over $36 billion. The other four states (Texas, South Carolina, Tennessee, and North Carolina) combined received over $24 billion in increased income from taxpayers moving to those states. Large numbers of taxpayers have been moving to these states at least since 2012.  

To learn more about where your state ranks in net migration of AGI, taxpayers, and exemptions, go to Data-Z.org.    READ MORE

What do California, Illinois, Massachusetts, New Jersey, and New York have in common?  Well, according to the latest IRS tax migration data, those five states all rank at the bottom of the list for losing the most taxpayers, the most adjusted gross income (AGI), and the most AGI per taxpayer.  Since 2012 all of these states have lost millions of income dollars through the outmigration of taxpayers.

And where did those taxpayers go?  Mainly to Florida, North Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and South Carolina.  The average net migration of AGI for all 50 states was just under $30 million, while the average outmigration of dollars for the bottom five was $11.5 billion. California alone lost over $24 billion. 

To learn more about where your state ranks in net migration of AGI, taxpayers, and exemptions, go to Data-Z.org.    READ MORE

In 2023 the average state GDP per capita ranged from $214,285 in Washington. D.C., to a low of $30,105 in Mississippi, with a 50-state average of $64,760.  The chart below leaves out D.C. because it is such an outlier.  New York has the second highest per capita GDP while West Virginia has the second lowest.  Since 2014 per capita GDP in the states has increased an average of 13 percent.  Check out your state on Data-Z.org.    READ MORE

"State Government Spending as Percent of GDP" shows the percentage of a state's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) that comprises a state government's total spending. This figure is useful for comparison of state spending levels, although each state faces unique economic circumstances.  For 2022 the states with the lowest percentage were Georgia, Texas, Florida, Nebraska and Colorado.  Three of these states, Florida, Nebraska and Colorado also have Taxpayer Surpluses in TIA's Financial State of the States.  READ MORE

To encourage the publication of transparent and accurate government financial information, Truth in Accounting created a Transparency Score for financial reporting. We score each government’s annual comprehensive financial report (ACFR) on eight criteria.  For 2022, two states were tied with the best score: New York and Wyoming with a score of 86.  The two worst states were Illinois and Georgia, with scores of 42 and 46 respectively.  The average score for all the states was 72.

To read more about how the scores are calculated see https://www.data-z.org/glossary/detail/transparency-score.  The entire report can be found here:  Financial Transparency Score 2024.

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According to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, for the last quarter of 2023 average student debt per capita in the United States was $5635.  The District of Columbia far surpassed all the other states with an average student debt per capita of $12,900!  The next highest student debt per capita averages were found in Maryland and Georgia at over $7,000. The states with the lowest student debt per capita were Wyoming, Hawaii, and New Mexico.  Should taxpayers in those states subsidize people in states with higher student debt per capita?  READ MORE