New IRS and New York tax data show billions in income and tens of thousands of taxpayers leaving New York, exposing the steep bill for Albany’s “tax the rich” experiment.
Story Snapshot
- New York lost about 74,500 tax returns and roughly $9.9 billion in income in one year.
- Over recent years, New York has seen more than $10 billion in taxable income walk out the door.
- Florida and other lower-tax states are gaining the income and people New York is losing.
- State analysts now admit even a small number of millionaire departures can punch a big hole in revenue.
IRS data reveal heavy losses in people and income
Internal Revenue Service migration numbers from 2022 to 2023 confirm that New York lost just under 72,000 to about 74,482 net tax filing households to other states, and with them went roughly $9.9 billion in adjusted gross income. New York’s own Department of Taxation and Finance reports the same net outflow figure of 74,482 returns for 2022–2023, with most movers between ages 26 and 44, the core working and earning years. These are not abstract percentages; they are families, paychecks, and future taxpayers leaving.
Across the 2021 and 2022 calendar years, other analyses of Internal Revenue Service data found New York lost more than $14.1 billion in state-adjusted gross income as residents relocated to states like Florida and New Jersey. That two-year loss reflects more than 222,000 people leaving and taking their income with them. Florida alone received tens of thousands of former New Yorkers and billions of dollars in income, while other lower-tax or nearby states also benefited. The pattern is clear: money is following people out of New York.
The decade-long shift of wealth away from New York
Looking beyond a single year, longer-term figures paint an even more serious picture for New York’s tax base. Over roughly the 2019 to 2023 period, estimates built from Internal Revenue Service migration tables show New York down about $111 billion in net income, while Florida gained around $196 billion over the same stretch. During this time, New York’s top state income tax brackets and New York City’s high local tax burden remained among the heaviest in the country, while Florida continued to advertise its lack of a state income tax.
New York’s own migration tables acknowledge that almost 1,700 millionaires changed their address to another state in 2024, and the agency warns that, while this is small compared with the total millionaire count, “the resulting loss of tax dollars can be significant” because so much liability is concentrated at the top. That admission matters because New York’s budget leans heavily on a narrow slice of high earners. When even a modest share of those top filers pack up, it shakes the revenue base that funds everything from schools to transit. For taxpayers who stayed, that often means pressure for higher rates or fewer services down the line.
Manhattan’s warning sign: more filers, poorer tax base
Recent Internal Revenue Service data at the county level shows how this plays out on the ground. Between 2022 and 2023, Manhattan actually gained more new tax filers from other states than any county in the country, yet it still lost about $922 million in adjusted gross income. Higher earners moved out, while lower-earning newcomers moved in, leaving the borough with more people but a weaker tax base. Queens, the Bronx, and nearby suburban counties like Nassau and Suffolk also ranked among the top ten in the nation for net losses of tax filers.
This shift means the city and state are trading fewer high-earning taxpayers for more residents who often need more services while paying less in income tax. For a government that already leans on the top few percent of earners to supply a large share of personal income tax revenue, that is a dangerous trade. It can also deepen inequality between high-tax “donor” jurisdictions and lower-tax destinations that suddenly enjoy stronger finances without having to educate or raise those earners in the first place.
Debate over what is driving the exodus
Supporters of New York’s “tax the rich” approach argue that higher rates on top earners are fair and that fears of wealth flight are exaggerated. The Fiscal Policy Institute, using state tax data, claims that high earners historically move less often than middle-income residents and found no unusual surge in millionaire departures right after the 2021 tax hikes. Their research labels “tax flight” a myth and says pandemic disruptions and housing costs play a larger role in recent moving patterns.
Mamdani’s FY2027 budget is a $125.8 billion exercise in fiscal illusion, class-war posturing, and deferred catastrophe.
It balances this year only through a combination of Albany bailouts, pension-accounting sleight-of-hand, one-shot “savings,” a new tax on second homes, and…
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Yet the new Internal Revenue Service migration tables and New York’s own migration summaries show continued net outflows of both people and dollars, with clear links to lower-tax destinations. A nationwide look at 2022–2023 Internal Revenue Service data shows states with the highest top income tax rates, such as New York and California, suffered some of the steepest losses in both taxpayers and adjusted gross income, while no-income-tax states like Florida and Texas saw the largest gains. Even if not every move is “about taxes,” the combined impact of high taxes, high costs, crime concerns, and aggressive “tax the rich” rhetoric is reshaping where wealth lives and where future investment will go.
Sources:
timesunion.com, fiscalpolicy.org, upstateunited.com, cnbc.com
