Monday Map: Nonpayers By State

Today's Monday Map updates a map we did a couple of years ago looking at the geographical distribution of households that pay no income tax (using 2008 data). After Mitt Romney was taped controversially raising the nonpayers issue, our map got some attention, so we've updated it with the latest available data (tax year 2010.) Mississippi leads the nation in nonpayers – 44.5% of filers have no liability. Alaska is last, with only 22% of filers not owing anything. (To answer a common question: Mitt Romney's 47% figure refers to the percentage of households owing no income tax; our percentages are lower because we're looking only at the percentages of households filing a return and don't account for the "non-filers.")

Click on the map to enlarge it.

View previous Monday maps here.