During the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, more than two percent of New York City tax filers fled the state, according to figures reviewed by the state comptroller.
In a report released Tuesday, state Comptroller Tom DiNapoli found the number of people filing income taxes in New York state dropped dramatically in 2020, likely a result of outmigration caused by the pandemic.
“The pandemic upended everyone’s life and caused a big shift in the movement of New York taxpayers in 2020,” DiNapoli said.
According to the comptroller’s analysis, around one in every 100 residential income tax filers left New York state in 2020.
New York City taxpayers accounted for nearly three quarters of the state’s outmigration that year.
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DiNapoli found that the most recent figures for 2021 show a significant rebound from 2020, but net outmigration is still up a third from the pre-pandemic average, a potentially frightening trend for the number one cash source for state coffers.
“Policy makers need to make sure the state remains an attractive, affordable place to work and to live,” DiNapoli said. “Doing so will help maintain the state’s largest revenue source to ensure vital services continue in order to provide a high quality of life for all New Yorkers.”
Particularly worrying is the shift of the state’s richest taxpayers. Filers making over $1 million left at rates four times higher in 2020 compared to 2019.
That trend continued into 2021 with those millionaires still leaving at double the average prior to the pandemic.
Those millionaire taxpayers, according to DiNapoli, made up just 1.6 percent of filers in 2021 but constituted 44.5 percent of all personal income tax revenues. More than half already live outside of state, but pay income taxes on cash earned in New York.
