Which states paid the most federal taxes per capita in 2024?

1. The headline: D.C. tops per-capita federal tax lists

Multiple analyses that disaggregate federal-tax burdens find Washington, D.C., at or near the top of per-capita measures: MoneyRates’ state-level work identifies the District as having the highest federal taxes paid per capita and the highest tax burden as a share of income, and National Taxpayers Union research likewise reports the highest average federal income tax rates and average taxes paid in D.C. ^{[1] [2] [5]}. These findings reflect the unusually high incomes concentrated in the capital and the way annual averages and per-resident calculations treat the District’s relatively small population ^{[2] [5]}.

2. Big states pay the most in aggregate, but per-capita tells a different story

In absolute dollars, California, Texas, New York and Florida supplied more than a third of all federal revenue in FY2024 — California alone accounted for roughly 15.9% of the total — yet that total-dollars frame masks variation in per-person contributions across states ^{[3] [4]}. VisualCapitalist and USAFacts emphasize that the “per capita view tells a different story,” meaning some smaller or wealthier states and the District can outpay larger states on a per-person basis even if they do not produce the most total revenue ^{[4] [3]}.

3. Who else ranks high per person — and why the data vary

While the sources converge on the District’s lead, they also signal a pattern where high-income Northeastern states and those with concentrated business or corporate tax bases tend to show elevated per-capita federal revenue (for similar patterns see USAFacts’ discussion of business-tax impacts in Nebraska and Delaware’s corporate registrations) ^{[3] [6]}. However, methodological differences matter: some studies focus solely on individual income taxes and divide by adult residents (MoneyRates), others use broader IRS collections or USAFacts’ state-level federal revenue totals that include payroll, corporate, estate and excise taxes ^{[1] [3]}. That divergence explains why lists of “top per-capita states” vary among outlets and datasets ^{[1] [3]}.

4. The low end: Appalachia and parts of the South pay the least per person

On the opposite side, the per-capita bottom of federal receipts is occupied by poorer states: West Virginia, Mississippi and New Mexico each paid under $6,000 per person in federal revenue according to the mapped USAFacts dataset republished by VisualCapitalist ^[4]. Newsweek’s coverage of USAFacts’ balance-of-payments map further illustrates geographic patterns where many recipient states receive more in federal spending than they contribute in taxes ^[6].

5. Interpretation, agendas and limits of the record

Readers should note the political valence behind some sources: the National Taxpayers Union emphasizes distributional burdens and can frame results to support tax-cut arguments, while nonprofit data compilers like USAFacts present raw collections and balances without advocacy framing ^{[2] [3]}. Equally important, several sources focus on specific tax categories (individual income tax vs. total federal collections), and not every outlet publishes a complete ranked list of “per-capita federal taxes in 2024,” so precise rank ordering beyond the District’s prominence depends on which dataset and tax categories are used ^{[1] [3]}. The available reporting therefore supports the clear conclusions that D.C. tops per-capita measures, large states dominate total collections, and lower-income states pay the least per person — but it does not provide a single definitive, source-agnostic ranked table within the reviewed material ^{[1] [3] [4]}.