States by Top Income Tax Rate

US states ranked by top marginal individual income tax rate, updated as state revenue departments publish new schedules.

Research period: 2026-05-16

Research question

Across US states and the District of Columbia, which carry the highest individual income tax top marginal rates, and how does the top of the distribution compare to states with no broad-based income tax?

Methodology

This ranking reflects the current dataset, sourced from the agency referenced in the citation below and updated automatically as new filings are processed.

Coverage and exclusions: the source agency occasionally suppresses values for confidentiality, small sample size, or quality control, and suppressed rows are excluded from this ranking rather than shown as zero. If the agency later revises a figure, the revised value replaces the old one automatically the next time our data is refreshed.

Data provenance: we pull each release as it becomes available and normalize it into our database; a later release simply supersedes the one before it, so readers never see a mix of old and new figures on the same page.

Comparability across years: when the source agency revises its release schedule, definitions, or coverage, we note the affected years on the methodology page so readers can compare like-with-like rather than across a changed measurement.

Editorial governance: a named editor reviews every ranking page before publication (see the byline above). If an entity disputes a figure attributed to it, corrections are checked against the official source record before any change is made.

Every number on this page can be traced back to its source by following the entity links and the citation below, so independent verification never requires anything beyond the original public source.

See the methodology page for the complete data-update process, source vintage, and field definitions.

The ranked top 10

Every row below reflects the current 10-record dataset. Reload the page after new data is processed to see the latest values.

#	State	Top marginal rate	Code	Notes
1	California	0.133	CA	Progressive 1-12.3% plus 1% Mental Health Tax above $1M = 13.3% effective top.
2	Hawaii	0.11	HI	Progressive 1.4-11%; top bracket above $200K (single) / $400K (joint).
3	New York	0.109	NY	Progressive 4-10.9% (top bracket above $25M); NYC adds 3.078-3.876% city tax.
4	District of Columbia	0.108	DC	Progressive 4-10.75% (top bracket above $1M).
5	New Jersey	0.108	NJ	Progressive 1.4-10.75% (top bracket above $1M).
6	Oregon	0.099	OR	Progressive 4.75-9.9% (no general sales tax — income tax dominant).
7	Minnesota	0.099	MN	Progressive 5.35-9.85%.
8	Massachusetts	0.09	MA	5.0% flat plus 4% surtax above $1.083M = 9% effective top (Fair Share Amendment).
9	Vermont	0.088	VT	Progressive 3.35-8.75%.
10	Wisconsin	0.077	WI	Progressive 3.5-7.65%.

Source: U.S. State Revenue Departments, State individual income tax schedules curated from state revenue-department filings. Values reflect the current dataset, refreshed as new filings are processed.

Findings

Top entity in the ranking

The top-ranked record in this dataset is California, with a value of 0.133 on the Top marginal rate column. The full top-10 set is rendered in the table above. Every value comes directly from the current dataset; no number is hardcoded into this page. When the source agency publishes a revision, the ranking and the prose around it update automatically.

Distribution shape

The gap between the top-ranked record (0.133) and the 10th-ranked record (0.077) characterizes how concentrated the top of the distribution is. Where the top value is many multiples of the median value of the visible set, the population is highly concentrated, a small number of entities accumulate the bulk of the measured quantity. Where the top and bottom of the visible set are close together, the distribution is relatively flat across the top end. The full distribution beyond this top-10 cut is summarized in the aggregate context section below and explored in the linked entity profiles.

Aggregate context

Across the full population behind this ranking, here are the summary statistics: how many records exist in total, the sum of the ranking metric across all qualifying records, and the mean per-record value. The methodology page documents the exact filter applied (records with null or zero values on the ranking metric are excluded). This aggregate row is computed from the same dataset that powers the ranking above.

Source provenance

The records in this ranking originate from U.S. State Revenue Departments, specifically the State individual income tax schedules curated from state revenue-department filings. PlainTaxCalc ingests the source vintage published by the agency and keeps this page current, there is no static export carrying stale numbers, and a newly published dataset is reflected here within hours. The methodology page documents the source URL, the vintage date, and the steps applied to prepare the data.

Why this ranking matters

Rankings like this one let a reader scan a population quickly and identify outliers, concentrations, and patterns that warrant deeper investigation. The detail pages linked from each entity in the table above give the full per-entity context: time-series history where available, related metrics from adjacent tables, and links onward to the underlying source records. The methodology page explains how an entity earns inclusion in the dataset and how the ranking column is computed at the source.

What this analysis cannot tell us

State top marginal rate is the headline number, not the effective tax rate. Households pay the top rate only on income above the top bracket threshold; effective rates are materially lower for most filers. State brackets also vary widely in their threshold structures, California's top rate applies above a high threshold while some states reach their top rate at much lower income levels, producing larger effective burdens at middle incomes. Some states with no broad-based income tax (FL, TX, WA, NV, SD, WY, AK) still levy state-level taxes on specific income categories or impose comparatively higher sales or property taxes. New Hampshire historically taxed only interest and dividends and is phasing that tax out; Tennessee fully phased out its Hall income tax. The has_income_tax flag may not capture nuances like local-level taxes (e.g. NYC supplemental rate on top of NY state, KY county-level occupational taxes). Tax rates and brackets change via state legislation; this dataset reflects the most recent published vintage. Filing-status-specific brackets (single, MFJ, HoH) are tracked separately but not always reflected in the headline top-rate figure.

Compare top rates with dollar burdens

Headline marginal rates diverge from $100K effective burden; these pages show both views.

Tax data methodology · All state profiles

Sources

Tax Foundation, State Individual Income Tax Rates and Brackets - https://taxfoundation.org/data/all/state/state-income-tax-rates/
Federation of Tax Administrators, State Tax Rates - https://www.taxadmin.org/
State Revenue Department Filings, Individual Income Tax Schedules - https://www.taxadmin.org/state-tax-agencies

What to do with this ranking

California tops the individual top marginal rate at 13.3%, versus a 6.0% average across the 42 states that levy one.

A top marginal rate does not equal a dollar burden, see the same states ranked by actual tax owed at $100K. $100K burden ranking
Read California's full bracket schedule. California profile
States that levy no broad-based individual income tax at all. No-income-tax guide
Stack these state top rates on top of the current federal schedule. Federal brackets

Top marginal rate applies only to income above that state's top bracket threshold, not to the whole income; most filers never reach it.