Federal tax burden rises across U.S., including California

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(The Center Square) – According to numbers from the national firm J. David Tax Law, federal income tax burdens have grown dramatically across the country – with California in fifth place nationally.

That law firm’s study shows that Massachusetts, Washington state, Minnesota and Nebraska’s federal tax burden has increased the most dramatically per filer between 2021 and 2025. Massachusetts' federal income tax filers saw an average uptick to $30,578, while Washington’s residents saw an increase to $29,669. Minnesota’s federal income tax filers experienced an increase to $27,918, and Nebraska saw an uptick to $27,253.

Californians saw an average increase in their federal income taxes to $26,588 per filer. Delaware, interestingly, saw a decrease between 2021 and 2025 to $33,353 per filer.

Overall, federal taxpayers saw an increase in the federal income taxes they paid from an average of $12,279 in 2021 to an average of $22,081 in 2025. That’s an average of $9,801 more in federal income taxes paid per filer in that time frame, according to the study.

Representatives from J. David Tax Law did not respond to The Center Square before publication time on Wednesday.

“We had the COVID-19 recession in there, and California has a more volatile economy, so you would see a greater swing,” said Wayne Winegarden, a senior fellow in business and economics at Pasadena-based Pacific Research Institute. He told The Center Square on Wednesday that may explain California's No. 5 ranking.

Some states are wealthier than others, Winegarden said, and tax loopholes create winners and losers.

“You got to remember we have a lot of poverty in California,” said Winegarden. “So that’s going to impact the federal tax liability. You’re going to have more [electrical vehicle] purchases in California, so you get the EV tax credit, and that’s going to have an impact.”

As California’s economy experiences more impact from the artificial intelligence boom, numbers like ones published in the J. David Law firm study could go significantly up or down, Winegarden said.

“We see that in our income tax revenues in California,” Winegarden said. “So that’s going to happen with federal income tax revenues, too. So I would imagine that you’ll see California’s tax burden going up.”