Top 1%, 5% and 10% Income by State: IRS AGI Cutoffs, 2023

What the IRS file counts, and what it does not

The Statistics of Income (SOI) Division of the IRS publishes one file, “Adjusted Gross Income Percentiles by State,” built from individual income tax returns (Forms 1040). Many pages that answer “what income is the top 1%” use older tax years or survey data and inflate them to later dollars. This page uses the IRS file for Tax Year 2023, read directly. The IRS tabulated the returns filed from January 1 through December 31, 2024, and states that “Returns received from dependents claimed on another return have been excluded to avoid double counting.” The IRS page lists 2023 as the latest year of the file and shows “Page Last Reviewed or Updated: 09-Sep-2026.”

How we read it, so you can check us:

• The unit is a tax return. A married couple filing jointly is one return and a single filer is one return, and both sit on the same dollar line. Nothing here is a per-person or per-household income (our reading).
• The measure is AGI, the figure on Form 1040 before the standard or itemized deduction. The IRS says AGI percentiles “do not include income from” non-taxable sources, so tax-exempt interest, non-taxable IRA and pension money and non-taxable Social Security are out. Your total income can be higher than your AGI.
• The place is the address on the return. The IRS warns: “The address shown on the tax return may differ from the taxpayer’s actual residence.” Returns with foreign, military (APO and FPO) and territory addresses are in the US total only, so the 50 states and DC add up to 149,278,800 returns, not 150,063,607 (our arithmetic).
• Negative AGI is left out, along with the tax on those returns. The IRS also says the data “do not represent the full U.S. population because many individuals are not required to file an individual income tax return.”
• How the top 1% is cut. The top 1% is the highest 1% of the returns in that jurisdiction by AGI. In the US file that is 1,500,636 returns, 1% of 150,063,607. The dollar figure in the table is the AGI floor of that group. The IRS gives some cutoffs with decimals; we round to the dollar in tables and keep the IRS values in the CSV.
• Money amounts in the IRS sums are in thousands of dollars; cutoffs are in dollars.

AGI needed for the top 1%, 5% and 10%, every state

Sorted alphabetically so you can find your state. “Top 5% starts at” means a return with that AGI or more is in the top 5%. The last column is our arithmetic: where a return with exactly $250,000 of AGI would fall against each line.

The range is wide. The top-1% line in West Virginia ($389,100) is only $24,024 above the top-5% line in Massachusetts ($365,076) and is under 40% of the Connecticut line (our arithmetic). The five lowest top-1% lines are West Virginia ($389,100), Mississippi ($414,431), New Mexico ($425,283), Kentucky ($474,120) and Arkansas ($487,786). The five highest are the District of Columbia ($1,002,079), Connecticut ($978,592), Massachusetts ($895,032), California ($854,315) and New Jersey ($844,417). Florida’s line ($760,086) is above Texas ($673,717) and below Washington ($797,083). At the top-10% line the order is similar: $175,311 in Florida, $184,475 in Texas and $222,069 in California (IRS).

Where $250,000 of AGI lands

Many readers of this site have around $250,000 of income or more from work, rental property, private-fund distributions and sales. Nationally, a return with $250,000 of AGI is in the top 10% and just under the top 5%: $274,943 is the top-5% line, so $250,000 is $24,943 below it (our arithmetic). The state matters more than most people expect.

• In the top 5% (27 states): Alabama, Arkansas, Hawaii, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, Ohio, Oklahoma, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Vermont, West Virginia, Wisconsin and Wyoming.
• In the top 10% but not the top 5% (23 states): Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Texas, Utah, Virginia and Washington. Arizona’s top-5% line is $250,212, only $212 above $250,000 (our arithmetic).
• In the top 25% only: the District of Columbia, where the top-10% line is $265,277.

This is a position among tax returns, not a statement about wealth. A $250,000 AGI and a $250,000 investable-assets balance are different measures, and the table says nothing about assets.

What kind of income the top 1% receives

The same IRS file gives the sums of eight kinds of income for the top 1%, 5% and 10% of returns. National shares (our arithmetic: each group’s sum divided by the US total, both from the IRS file):

Reading the table: the top 1% of returns received 73.7% of all net capital gain reported, and the top 10% received 92.1%. Partnership and S-corporation income, which is where rental real estate partnerships, private funds and operating businesses show up on a Schedule K-1, is similar at 68.5% for the top 1%. Wages are far more evenly spread (10.7% to the top 1%), and the money coming out of IRAs and pensions is concentrated in the middle: 6.1% of taxable IRA distributions and 2.1% of taxable pensions and annuities went to the top 1%, against 40.7% and 25.0% for the top 10% (all our arithmetic). Because AGI includes the gain, a year with a large property sale, a fund exit or a Roth conversion can move a return across these lines for that one year.

The concentration is not the same everywhere. The top 1% of returns received between 51.2% (Alaska) and 87.2% (District of Columbia) of net capital gain, and 57.9% in Washington (our arithmetic, table below). Washington has its own tax on long-term capital gains (see our Washington capital gains tax guide), but this file cannot show whether that explains the lower share and we make no claim.

Share of AGI, capital gains and income tax held by the top 1%, every state

Each column is our arithmetic: the top 1% sum divided by the jurisdiction’s total, both from the IRS file. “Income tax” is the IRS total income tax figure defined in the documentation guide.

Across the 50 states and DC, the top 1% held between 12.3% (West Virginia) and 31.9% (Wyoming) of AGI and paid between 26.4% (Alaska) and 54.2% (Wyoming) of the income tax (our arithmetic). Nationally the figures are 20.3% of AGI and 38.2% of income tax. Florida (28.8% of AGI, 49.9% of tax), Nevada (27.2% and 48.4%) and Wyoming are among the highest on both lines. In a small state that can rest on few returns: the top 1% of Wyoming’s returns is 2,630 returns (IRS).

How the cutoffs line up with the tax rules

AGI is not taxable income, and the thresholds below are in taxable income or modified AGI, so this is a comparison of scale and not a calculation. The rules are those for Tax Year 2023; the 2026 numbers differ and are on our capital gains tax on real estate and 2026 tax brackets pages.

• Net investment income tax. 26 U.S.C. 1411(a)(1) imposes “a tax equal to 3.8 percent of the lesser of” net investment income or the excess of modified AGI over a threshold. Section 1411(b) sets the threshold at $250,000 for a joint return or surviving spouse and $200,000 “in any other case,” with half of the joint amount for a married taxpayer filing separately. These dollar amounts are written into the statute (our reading: they are not indexed). The US top-10% line, $188,714, is just under $200,000, and the top-5% line, $274,943, is above both thresholds. Our guide to the net investment income tax on real estate walks through what counts.
• The 20% long-term capital gain rate. For 2023, Rev. Proc. 2022-38, section 3.03, set the maximum 15% rate amount at $553,850 for joint returns and surviving spouses, $523,050 for heads of household and $492,300 for all other individuals; above that the rate is 20%. Taxable income is AGI less deductions, so it is lower than AGI. The US top-1% line, $682,719 of AGI, is above all three amounts; the top-5% line, $274,943, is below all three (our arithmetic).

What a reader can do with this

What the documents let you check yourself:

• Find your own line. Take AGI from your Form 1040 and compare it with the row for the state on your return. If you are within $25,000 to $50,000 of a line, one asset sale or one Roth conversion can move you across it for that year.
• Look at the mix, not the total. If most of a high AGI is net capital gain, partnership income or dividends, it sits in the categories where the top 10% received 75% to 93% of the national total, and the net investment income tax can reach it. If most of it is wages or pension income, it does not (our arithmetic on the table above).
• Match thresholds to the right measure. The $200,000 and $250,000 net investment income tax thresholds use modified AGI, the capital gain brackets use taxable income, and this table uses AGI. They are three different numbers.
• Do not read a percentile as a plan. The table says where returns fell in 2023; it does not say what you will owe in the year you sell.

The decision, and who makes it. How much of a gain to take in one year, whether to spread income across years, and which accounts to draw from are tax-planning decisions that depend on filing status, state, the mix of income and what else is on the return. They belong to the household and to the CPA or tax attorney who prepares the return. A financial adviser can help with the investment side of the same year: what to sell, what to hold and when the cash is needed. If you are weighing a property or fund sale that would put a large gain on a single return, that is a good time to ask for a second opinion with your own numbers.

This is analysis of public documents, not investment, legal or tax advice.

FAQ

Sources, read and saved on October 31, 2026: IRS Statistics of Income, “Adjusted Gross Income (AGI) Percentile Data by State” page (irs.gov/statistics/soi-tax-stats-adjusted-gross-income-agi-percentile-data-by-state), the Tax Year 2023 file 23instateshares.csv and the Tax Year 2023 documentation guide (23instatesharesdocguide.pdf); 26 U.S.C. 1411 (law.cornell.edu); Rev. Proc. 2022-38, section 3.03 (irs.gov). Shares, ranks, counts of states, differences and the “where $250,000 falls” column are our arithmetic from the IRS values. A line-by-line transcription of the CSV used to check figures is saved with the sources. This is analysis of public documents, not investment, legal or tax advice.