Wall Street Journal, Editorial Board, The High-Tax Wealth Flight Continues (March 27, 2026),

As Democrats across the country seek to raise income taxes, the IRS on Friday released new data on state income migration that is a reality check on their ambitions. Even after the pandemic, high-tax states continue to lose tens of billions of dollars in taxable income to low-tax states.

The latest IRS data includes the adjusted gross income (AGI) of tax filers who moved between and within states between 2022 and 2023. Not surprisingly, overall migration ebbed from record highs in 2020 and 2021 during the Covid lockdowns. A mortgage lock-in effect and rising interest rates also resulted in fewer people moving.

Yet states with the highest taxes continue to lose the most income to other states. California lost on net $11.9 billion, mostly to Texas, Nevada and Arizona. Other big losers include New York ($9.9 billion), Illinois ($6 billion), Massachusetts ($4 billion), New Jersey ($2.6 billion), Maryland ($1.8 billion) and Minnesota ($1.5 billion)….