Personal income tax
New York State’s largest revenue source
The Tax Department collected over $61 billion in personal income taxes in fiscal year 2024–2025. This is the state’s largest revenue source, supporting programs and services including education, health, and public safety.
This line graph shows the amount of personal income tax collected from fiscal years 2019 to 2025. For exact numbers, see data table.
Personal income tax filers
Tax year 2024 continues the long-term trend of growth in the number of filers, nearly reaching the peak of 11 million filers in 2020.
This line graph shows the number of personal income tax returns filed from tax year 2017 to preliminary numbers for 2024. For exact numbers, see data table.
Fast refunds
The Tax Department processes a large majority of personal income tax refunds within 15 days. In 2025, the department issued refunds to 7.2 million taxpayers for tax year 2024 for a total of $14.9 billion.
This bar graph shows the percentage of refunds issued in time intervals between return filing and refund issuance.
Progressive tax system
New York State's progressive tax system imposes a lower tax rate on lower-income taxpayers. A small number of high-income taxpayers pay most personal income tax.
| Taxpayer categories | Number of taxpayers | Percent of total taxpayers | Liability (in millions)* |
Percent of total liability |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total | 10,930,094 | 100.0% | $71,916.3 | 100.0% |
| Top 200 | 200 | 0.002% | $5,509.6 | 7.7% |
| New York source millionaires | 99,404 | 0.9% | $32,071.8 | 44.6% |
| Top 200,000 | 200,000 | 1.8% | $37,337.1 | 51.9% |
| Top 25% | 2,732,524 | 25.0% | $64,399.6 | 89.5% |
| Top 50% | 5,465,047 | 50.0% | $71,742.7 | 99.8% |
| Lower 50% | 5,465,047 | 50.0% | $173.6 | 0.2% |
| Lower 25% | 2,732,523 | 25.0% | -$1,559.3 | -2.2% |
*New York State income tax liability plus state pass-through entity tax (PTET) credit claimed.
This pie chart illustrates that the top 200 taxpayers paid 7.7% of the personal income tax collected in tax year 2024, while all other taxpayers paid 92.3%.
This pie chart illustrates that New York State millionaires paid nearly half of the personal income tax collected in tax year 2024—millionaires paid 44.6%, while all other taxpayers paid 55.4%.
This pie chart illustrates that the top 200,000 taxpayers paid a little more than half—51.9%—of the personal income tax collected in tax year 2024 while all other taxpayers paid 48.1%.
This pie chart illustrates that the top 50% of taxpayers paid nearly all of the personal income tax collected in tax year 2024—99.8%—while the lower 50% paid .2%.
New York millionaires
There were over 99,000 millionaire returns in 2024, surpassing the previous high set in 2021 by almost 9,000.
This stacked bar graph shows the number of New York State income tax millionaires in 2016 and the change in number from the previous year by tax year through the 2024 preliminary numbers. For exact numbers, see data table.
Changes in millionaires
The number of millionaires fluctuates with the New York State economy, but not with any single economic indicator.
This line graph shows New York State millionaires relative to economic indicators (from the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis and Investing: NYS GSP; personal income; dividends, interest, rent; and S&P 500 Index) by tax year from 2011 to 2024 preliminary numbers. For exact numbers, see data table.
Tax filing composition in New York State
The filing composition of New York residents has remained remarkably consistent, with singles continuing to comprise the majority of filers.
| Filing status | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024* |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Single | 48.4% | 48.9% | 49.9% | 52.1% | 51.6% | 51.1% | 51.1% | 51.4% |
| Married filing jointly | 32.8% | 32.6% | 31.9% | 30.3% | 30.3% | 30.7% | 30.4% | 30.1% |
| Head of household | 16.3% | 16.1% | 15.5% | 14.7% | 15.1% | 15.3% | 15.4% | 15.3% |
| Married filing separately | 2.3% | 2.4% | 2.6% | 2.8% | 2.9% | 2.8% | 3.0% | 3.1% |
*Tax year 2024 values are preliminary and subject to change as the department continues to process returns.
The number of dependents on resident returns has remained relatively stable over the last five years, with over 4.7 million dependents reported in tax year 2024.
This line graph shows the number of dependents claimed from tax year 2017 to 2024 preliminary numbers. For exact numbers, see data table.
This bar graph shows the percentage returns with dependents claimed from tax year 2017 to 2024 preliminary numbers. For exact numbers, see data table.
Composition of income
The nature of income varies considerably as incomes rise. For taxpayers under $1 million, the primary source of income is from wages and salary. As income rises above $1 million, however, wages and salary are displaced by other sources of income, most notably "unearned income" such as dividends and capital gains.
This stacked bar graph shows the comparison of income composition by income level in New York State. For exact numbers, see data table.
Capital gains are highly variable
After a historic high in 2021 of over $200 billion, capital gains decreased the following two years. However, capital gains have rebounded in 2024, with taxpayers reporting nearly $130 billion.
The share of filers reporting these gains is relatively stable at around 20% of all returns.
This bar and line graph shows the percentage of taxpayers reporting capital gains, the percentage of NYAGI from capital gains, and the total amount of capital gains reported from tax year 2017 to 2024 preliminary numbers. For exact numbers, see data table.
Distribution of capital gains
Capital gains are more concentrated among high-income taxpayers, with millionaires accounting for over 75% of all reported capital gains.
This pie chart shows the distribution of capital gains by levels of New York adjusted gross income in tax year 2024 preliminary numbers. For exact numbers, see data table.
Voluntary contributions
While the number of voluntary contribution funds and the corresponding contribution amounts have increased, the number of contributions has not kept pace with the increase in funds. In fact, the number of contributions in 2025 that directed money to 36 funds is less than the number of contributions to the one fund available in 1993.
This bar and line graph shows voluntary contributions history including the number of funds, the number of contributions, and the total amount contributed from 1993 to 2025. For exact numbers, see data table.