by Cole Lauterbach
IRS migration data show Arizona gained 80,033 more people from tax-filing families than it lost – mostly from California – gaining billions of dollars in income in the process.
The Internal Revenue Service tracks interstate migration using tax filings that had moved from one state to another and how many dependents they brought along. After subtracting the number of outgoing residents, the state gained 80,033 taxpayers and their dependents that filed in 2019 in another state but filed as an Arizona resident in 2020.
That amounts to a 1.1% increase in the state’s total population, according to IRS data released on May 24.
The IRS also accumulates the adjusted gross income of those taxpayers that moved. The 42,552 more taxpayers that moved to Arizona than left bring with them $4,800,358,000 in AGI. Of all 50 states, seven saw larger income increases. Idaho, which had seen an outsized migration of Californians, gained the largest percentage of population as well as percentage of AGI.
While Arizona saw new resident taxpayers from every state, the vast majority of incoming population migrated from California. Arizona saw a net gain of 37,772 taxpayers and their dependents from the Golden State.
At 38 million people, California also saw a larger net loss of taxpayers than any other state. After subtracting newcomers, California lost 263,344 tax filers and their dependents between 2019 and 2020. That amounted to $17.8 billion in lost adjusted gross income to other states. Of those leaving California, more went to Texas than any other state. More than 87,707 total Californians moved to Texas between the 2019 and 2020 tax filing seasons.
Arizona was the second-most popular for outgoing Californians, with 63,098 filers and their families heading for the border.
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Cole Lauterbach is a managing editor for The Center Square covering the western United States. For more than a decade, Cole has produced award-winning content on both radio and television.
Photo “Arizona Capitol” by Gage Skidmore. CC BY 2.0.
