Putting Taxes on the Map: Federal Tax Burdens by City, County, Congressional District and State

Download Special Report No. 150

Special Report No. 150

Executive Summary
In 2004 the federal government in Washington spent $2.18 trillion, roughly one-fifth of the U.S. economy. To finance that spending, it collected $1.91 trillion from taxpayers across the United States. However, the burden of those federal taxes did not fall equally on the cities, counties and states that comprise the diverse geographic landscape of the United States.

Some areas of the nation bear a heavy tax burden, while others pay comparatively little. Many previous Tax Foundation studies have estimated federal tax burdens at the state level, but none has provided detailed estimates down to the narrow geographic areas that taxpayers most closely identify themselves with, such as counties, cities and congressional voting districts.

This report presents the findings of a comprehensive 2007 study which develops the Tax Foundation’s most detailed portrait of the geographic spread of federal tax burdens to date. It provides estimates of all federal taxes—individual income taxes, corporate income taxes, payroll taxes, estate taxes and all federal excise taxes—by major city area, county, congressional district and state, illustrating the striking diversity of impact that federal tax policies established by Congress have on communities across the United States.

Key Findings
• Americans in some cities, counties and congressional districts bear a much heavier burden to finance federal spending than in others.

• America’s highest-federal-tax major city area is Stamford-Norwalk, Connecticut, which pays $82,745 per household. San Francisco pays the second highest taxes at $36,409, and San Jose is third at $ 34,577. America’s lowest-tax city area surrounds Mission, Texas, and pays $7,238 per household.

• The congressional voting district with the highest federal taxes is Connecticut’s 4th district, represented by Christopher Shays (R). The second highest is New York’s 14th district, represented by Carolyn Maloney (D). The lowest federal taxes are in New York’s 16th district, represented by Jose Serrano (D).

• Forty percent of federal taxes are paid by counties that make up only one percent of the nation’s land area. California alone pays roughly 14 percent of federal taxes. Counting out Manhattan’s federal tax bill by hand would require 41 pennies to be stacked on each and every square inch of Manhattan.

Full Datasets

Federal Tax Burden by County

Federal Tax Burden by Major City Area (MSA)

Federal Tax Burden by Congressional District