Washington federal returns by AGI class: income types and joint returns, 2019-2022

What this dataset measures

Built to show, from official records, which kinds of income and households ESSB 6346 reaches beyond people who earn $1 million a year in wages: married couples sharing one deduction, retirees and heirs with one-time distributions, households whose capital gains push wages over the line, and future households as the threshold loses value. The amendment votes record which of these the Legislature considered and rejected.

Geography

Washington, United States

Unit of observation

Varies by table: federal individual income tax returns by AGI class and year; floor amendments; illustrative households; tax years

Update cadence

Irregular; update when IRS releases tax year 2023 state data or the law changes

Curator

FactHub Research Team

Curated data tables

Washington federal returns by AGI class: income types and joint returns, 2019-2022

All returns and the two top AGI classes from the IRS state file for Washington.

Unit of observation: Tax year and AGI class

irs_wa_top_returns.csv text/csv · 2.1 KB (2,103 bytes)

All 12 rows 17 columns Download the file

All 12 rows

taxYear	agiClass	returns returns	jointReturns returns	agiDollars US dollars	wageReturns returns	wagesDollars US dollars	pensionReturns returns	pensionDollars US dollars	iraReturns returns	iraDollars US dollars	taxableSocialSecurityReturns returns	taxableSocialSecurityDollars US dollars	partnershipSCorpReturns returns	partnershipSCorpDollars US dollars	charityReturns returns	charityDollars US dollars
2019	$1,000,000 or more	15890	13490	51161583000	13200	15504913000	2300	153220000	2570	188257000	2670	84032000	9640	7300242000	10780	2700754000
2019	$500,000 under $1,000,000	37660	32760	25146406000	33040	15276626000	5620	326743000	6350	354367000	5210	159137000	15450	3526630000	21880	440041000
2019	All returns	3757740	1436870	345740032000	3104160	238278074000	668200	19407736000	396940	8932680000	558960	9696705000	217680	16192639000	378700	5419475000
2020	$1,000,000 or more	19280	16280	62680798000	16250	19596885000	2210	171936000	2010	312077000	2840	90905000	10600	8014894000	12170	4252731000
2020	$500,000 under $1,000,000	45510	39270	30425938000	40680	19168674000	5810	356300000	5070	350304000	5410	166009000	15710	3528053000	23670	469980000
2020	All returns	3847130	1433330	368399292000	3067320	246162291000	695670	20117247000	324060	7893336000	569660	10001703000	216600	15550954000	337610	6905487000
2021	$1,000,000 or more	28930	24150	100005720000	24060	29290622000	3790	329438000	4450	770963000	4590	150795000	15620	13430655000	16990	5229241000
2021	$500,000 under $1,000,000	62240	52580	41773589000	54360	25121701000	9250	574109000	9870	745479000	8800	280508000	20680	4374039000	27870	584101000
2021	All returns	3760050	1417580	437733612000	2990270	269505639000	679580	21227876000	394130	11354687000	593960	11191131000	221300	23332667000	314520	7982523000
2022	$1,000,000 or more	21530	18180	65956796000	17920	19550299000	2800	324378000	3350	503414000	3670	129791000	12960	12163922000	12830	4156109000
2022	$500,000 under $1,000,000	58200	50310	38667311000	51380	24866198000	7730	533824000	8470	699091000	7650	262913000	19980	4438655000	26590	524458000
2022	All returns	3757410	1429600	416412736000	3028550	281935415000	695680	22283487000	412730	12095341000	605850	12177773000	224350	22362564000	321280	6910218000

17 field definitions

Field	Type	Meaning	Units	Value type
taxYear	integer	Federal tax year	—	observed
agiClass	string	IRS size-of-AGI class: All returns, $500,000 under $1,000,000, or $1,000,000 or more	—	observed
returns	integer	Number of returns (N1)	returns	observed
jointReturns	integer	Number of joint returns (MARS2)	returns	observed
agiDollars	number	Adjusted gross income (A00100)	US dollars	observed
wageReturns	integer	Returns with salaries and wages (N00200)	returns	observed
wagesDollars	number	Salaries and wages (A00200)	US dollars	observed
pensionReturns	integer	Returns with taxable pensions and annuities (N01700)	returns	observed
pensionDollars	number	Taxable pensions and annuities (A01700)	US dollars	observed
iraReturns	integer	Returns with taxable IRA distributions (N01400)	returns	observed
iraDollars	number	Taxable IRA distributions (A01400)	US dollars	observed
taxableSocialSecurityReturns	integer	Returns with taxable Social Security benefits (N02500)	returns	observed
taxableSocialSecurityDollars	number	Taxable Social Security benefits (A02500)	US dollars	observed
partnershipSCorpReturns	integer	Returns with partnership or S corporation net income or loss (N26270)	returns	observed
partnershipSCorpDollars	number	Partnership and S corporation net income or loss (A26270)	US dollars	observed
charityReturns	integer	Returns itemizing charitable contributions (N19700)	returns	observed
charityDollars	number	Charitable contributions deducted by itemizers (A19700)	US dollars	observed

Supporting files

Source snapshots, manifests, quality reports, documentation, and other materials used to produce or review this release.

• build_reach.js Transformation manifest · text/javascript · 13.7 KB (14,012 bytes)

  Node.js script that builds every table and result from the IRS files, the roll-call XML and the threshold projection.

Derived from

This dataset uses data from these FactHub dataset versions.

• Washington millionaires tax: who files over $1 million, how the threshold holds up, and how volatile the base is Version 2

Sources

1. Internal Revenue Service, Statistics of Income Primary data: Washington returns by AGI class (files 19in55cmcsv.csv to 22in55cmcsv.csv, e.g. https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-soi/22in55cmcsv.csv)

   Retrieved October 21, 2026. Public domain (U.S. government work). Unrestricted

   Reliability: Government. Compiled by the IRS from filed individual income tax returns; state tables are published annually with a lag of about three years. Counts are rounded and amounts are in thousands of dollars.

2. Washington State Legislature web services Primary data: recorded floor votes on ESSB 6346 and its amendments

   Retrieved October 21, 2026. Public record of the Washington State Legislature. Public record

   Reliability: Government. The Legislature's official roll-call record, served as XML. Each record gives the motion (floor amendment number and sponsor), date and yea/nay counts.

3. Washington State Legislature Primary record: amendment list, floor numbers, outcomes, and each amendment's official EFFECT statement (texts at lawfilesext.leg.wa.gov/biennium/2025-26/Htm/Amendments/)

   Retrieved October 21, 2026. Public record of the Washington State Legislature. Public record

   Reliability: Government. Official bill page. EFFECT statements are written by nonpartisan legislative staff for each amendment.

4. Washington State Legislature Primary law used for the household calculations (Secs. 201, 205, 301, 302, 314, 316)

   Retrieved October 21, 2026. Public record of the Washington State Legislature. Public record

   Reliability: Government. Enacted session law, chapter 238, Laws of 2026. The Department of Revenue had issued no rules interpreting it as of October 21, 2026.

5. Washington State Legislature Capital gains tax rates, exemptions and deductions used in the household calculations (RCW 82.87.040, .050, .060)

   Retrieved October 21, 2026. Public record of the Washington State Legislature. Public record

   Reliability: Government. Codified statute. RCW 82.87.050 exempts all real estate and retirement-account assets from the capital gains tax.

6. Washington State Standard (via The Inlander) The Department of Revenue's estimate of 25,000 paying households, the starting point of the projection

   Retrieved October 15, 2026. News report; facts only used. Not redistributed; linked

   Reliability: News report. Nonprofit news outlet reporting the Department of Revenue's July 2026 revision of its payer estimate.

Limitations and reproducibility

Reproducible: build_reach.js regenerates every table from the public IRS SOI state files (19-22in55cmcsv.csv), the Washington Legislature's roll-call web service for ESSB 6346, and the threshold projection in FactHub dataset wa-millionaires-tax-reach (versions 1 and 2 hold the same projection). The household examples are deterministic arithmetic from the statute text.

• IRS figures count federal returns, not households, and federal AGI includes long-term capital gains that ESSB 6346 mostly removes from its base, so returns over $1 million of AGI are not the same group as payers of the tax.
• Tax year 2022 is the latest IRS state release used; the tax starts in tax year 2028.
• Return counts for an income type include any return reporting that item, however small; the IRS rounds state counts to the nearest 10.
• The household examples are illustrations of the statute as written, not estimates of how many such households exist. They hold the capital gains standard deduction at its 2025 value of $278,000 and assume no other deductions or credits.
• The payer projection holds real incomes and population constant and uses a Pareto approximation of the income distribution near $1 million, so it isolates the effect of the indexing rule; it is not a forecast. Real income growth would add payers under either indexing rule.
• No public data separates two-earner couples by each spouse's income, so the dataset cannot count couples who pay only because they share one deduction.