A new voice is chiming in on the state’s ongoing population losses – something that will be an ongoing topic in the election race between incumbent Gov. Kathy Hochul and challenger Bruce Blakeman.

Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli recently unveiled a new taxpayer migration dashboard where users can track the number of personal income tax filers moving in and out of New York. Using data from the state Department of Taxation and Finance, the dashboard contains the latest numbers on part-year resident tax filers and will be updated annually to allow the public the ability to analyze trends on taxpayers moving into and out of the state each year. The information is statewide only, broken down by income levels. There are no county-level statistics.

Part-year resident tax filers made up 2% of New York state filers in 2024, which indicates they are tax filers whose returns indicated they moved into or out of the state during the tax year. Though a small share of all taxpayers, the movement of these part-year residents can affect collections over time, particularly since New York has experienced a net out-migration of resident filers since 2015. However, the net out-migration of tax filers is not equal to state population gained or lost.

The statistics show New York has lost more than 27,000 tax filers every year from 2015 through 2022. Most years, the loss is between 27,000 and 39,000, though the COVID-19 pandemic year of 2020 saw 112,458 tax filers leave New York state. The rate of loss has slowed down in 2023 and 2024 to 15,681 taxpayers lost in 2023 and 13,662 lost in 2024. The total outmigration of tax filers from 2015 through 2024 is 351,447.

Outmigration of high-income earners ($500,000 or more) was slightly more than -1% from 2015 through 2019 before increasing to -4.52% in 2020, -2.75% in 2021, -1.37% in 2022, and then less than -1% in 2023 and 2024. While the rate of outmigration for high earners is slowing, it is still the highest level of outmigration in the state by income level.

In 2024 there were 256,164 part-year filers; of these filers, 121,251 moved into New York, while 134,913 left the state, a net out-migration of 13,662 taxpayers–a loss of approximately 1 in 1,000 resident taxpayers. The greatest net loss of taxpayers was among married filers with incomes between $100,000 and $500,000 – a net loss of 8,200, or more than half of the total net out-migration, in 2024. Net out-migration rates increase at higher income levels; in 2024, net out-migration averaged 1 in every 100 resident filers with incomes over $500,000. DiNapoli said one positive post-pandemic trend is that there has been a net in-migration of single filers each year since 2022.

“Personal income taxes are New York’s largest tax revenue source, accounting for more than one out of two tax dollars collected by the state,” DiNapoli said. “When personal income taxes drive so much of the state’s revenue, even small shifts in the number of tax filers can have an impact over time. The pandemic caused a large movement of taxpayers out of New York in 2020, but the dashboard shows this was an aberration. Although out-migration has continued, it slowed considerably and was well below pre-pandemic levels in 2024. I remain very concerned about the net loss of married, middle-class filers, and urge policymakers to continue their efforts to improve affordability for New York’s families.”