What are the top 5 states with the highest average federal tax payments per person?

1. Conflicting top-five lists — Delaware and DC both appear as leaders in different reports

Two of the supplied analyses give sharply different top-five rosters: one lists Delaware, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Connecticut and Washington with precise per-person amounts for 2023, while another places District of Columbia, Connecticut, Massachusetts, New York and Puerto Rico at the top for 2024 ^{[1] [2]}. The first analysis reports per-person federal payments such as $24,575 for Delaware and calls out DC as an outlier at $54,612 for an unspecified year; the second gives DC $31,757 and frames the national average as $17,766 ^{[1] [2]}. These differences reflect divergent data vintage and geographic inclusion rules — notably whether DC and territories like Puerto Rico are counted alongside states — and produce mutually inconsistent top-five lists.

2. Methodology matters — per-person, per-capita, and revenue totals differ and shift rankings

The analyses show methodological variation that materially alters rankings: some measures are labeled “average federal tax payments per person,” others report federal revenue collected per resident or income taxes only, and some combine multiple revenue streams ^{[1] [3]}. One source explicitly compares absolute federal revenue to per-capita contributions and notes that large states like California and Texas contribute more in total but less per person than smaller, wealthier states ^[1]. When states are ranked by per-capita federal receipts versus total federal revenue or by income-tax-only measures, the top five change, so the question needs a clear metric and fiscal year to be answerable without contradiction.

3. Year-to-year change and sample framing explain contradictory top states

The supplied reports cite different years — a 2023 breakdown and multiple references to 2024 and FY2024 — and those timing differences explain some discrepancies ^{[1] [2] [3]}. Economic shifts such as income growth, migration of high earners, and one-time tax events can alter per-person federal tax tallies year to year. DC repeatedly appears as an extreme outlier in all assessments that include it, but its rank varies because some analyses use different denominators or broader revenue definitions; this volatility underlines that a single “top five” claim must specify the fiscal year and whether DC and territories are in scope.

4. Evidence gaps — several supplied items lack relevant state-level data or are focused elsewhere

Not all provided analyses contain the necessary state-by-state federal tax-per-person numbers; a few focus on unrelated tax topics such as tax contributions of undocumented immigrants or national income-tax shares without state breakdowns ^{[4] [5] [6]}. Those documents cannot confirm or refute the original statement and instead highlight that authoritative ranking requires a state-by-state table from a consistent source. The analyses that do present rankings vary in sourcing and precision, so relying on a single table published by a central dataset (e.g., the dataset a report cites) is essential for a definitive answer ^{[1] [3]}.

5. Bottom line and practical recommendation for verification

Given the conflicting lists, the original statement — “top 5 states with the highest average federal tax payments per person” — cannot be verified as presented without specifying the exact year, whether DC/territories are included, and which federal tax aggregates are measured. The competing analyses point to Delaware/Massachusetts/Minnesota/Connecticut/Washington in one account and to DC/Connecticut/Massachusetts/New York/Puerto Rico in another, with Massachusetts and Connecticut recurring as high contributors across datasets ^{[1] [2] [3]}. To resolve this definitively, obtain a single, state-by-state table for the chosen fiscal year and metric (per-person federal tax payments) from the underlying dataset cited by these reports and re-rank accordingly ^{[1] [3]}.