by Jon Styf
Tennessee saw the fifth-largest influx of taxpayers in 2020 as the COVID-19 pandemic began, according to new data released by the United States Internal Revenue Service.
Tennessee saw 214,731 new taxpayers filing either a 1040 or W-2 that came from other states while it lost 152,716 for a net gain of more than 62,000 in new tax forms filed in 2021.
Tennessee trailed just Florida, Texas, North Carolina and South Carolina in gains.
That amounted to a net increase of $4.1 billion in adjusted gross income when outgoing tax dollars are subtracted, according to the new IRS data.
The data is compiled by comparing the addresses of taxpayers before and after they change states and then shifting their gross income. People who didn’t file taxes aren’t reflected in the data. A return received in 2020 represents a taxpayer’s residence in 2019. The agency’s latest data reflects 2020 tax filings sent in 2021.
During the year, the state saw 23,403 more taxpayers from California along with 21,582 from Florida and 14,631 from Georgia.
In turn, Florida was the main state where Tennesseans landed when they left the state with 18,263 moving to Florida and 14,525 going to Georgia.
Tennessee saw the largest in-migration in its history in 2022, according to a report on U.S. Census Bureau data. Those numbers, however, will be reflected in 2023 income tax data, which likely will not be available until 2025.
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Jon Styf is an award-winning editor and reporter of The Center Square who has worked in Illinois, Texas, Wisconsin, Florida and Michigan in local newsrooms over the past 20 years, working for Shaw Media, Hearst and several other companies.
Photo “Tennessee Welcomes You Sign” by Sixflashphoto. CC BY-SA 4.0.
