Are You Prepared for Taxes? Here are the Average Tax Burdens by Age

_The average taxpayer paid about $12,582 in total taxes last year. _

Investopedia / Photo Composite by Elizabeth Guevara / Getty Images

Elizabeth Guevara

Fri, February 20, 2026 at 3:47 AM GMT+9 2 min read

KEY TAKEAWAYS

For 2024, the average taxpayer paid almost $12,600 in federal and state income and payroll taxes.

Taxpayers ages 46 to 55 typically owe the highest amount to the IRS.

The One Big, Beautiful Bill Act is expected to lower the average tax bill by more than $600.

For the 2024 tax year, the average taxpayer paid about $12,582 in total federal and state income taxes, according to an Investopedia analysis of the most recent Census Bureau data.

The good news: that figure is expected to drop as Americans file their 2025 returns this year.

The average American pays most of their income taxes to the federal government, about $7,250 for the 2024 tax year. The average taxpayer also paid about $3,412 in FICA (payroll) taxes and about $1,920 in state income taxes. Taxpayers ages 46 to 55 had the highest average tax bill, about $18,672.

The federal figure is a mean that includes the roughly 40% of households that owe no federal income tax, according to a Tax Policy Center analysis. Most of them are lower-income earners.

Among those who paid taxes last year, the average federal bill for 2024 was more than $24,000 for federal and state income taxes and FICA, Investopedia’s analysis shows.

Unlike federal income taxes, FICA taxes apply to most workers’ paychecks. For lower-income earners, payroll taxes often represent the largest federal tax they pay.

Why This Matters

Tax bills vary widely depending on your age and income, and, for many Americans, the total of federal, state, and payroll taxes runs well into five figures. Knowing where you stand relative to others your age can help you plan ahead and avoid surprises at filing time.

Tax Bills Expected To Be Lower This Year

The One Big, Beautiful Bill Act made more than 100 changes to the tax code that will impact 2025 tax filings, including new and expanded tax credits and deductions that should decrease the taxes Americans pay this year.

A recent analysis by the Tax Foundation shows that tax changes will cut the average taxpayer’s tax bill by about $611 when they file this year. Taxpayers in middle- and upper-income groups will see the largest tax cuts relative to their income.

Early data from the 2026 filing season shows tax refunds are running 10.9% higher than at the same point last year, the IRS reports.

How We Crunched the Numbers

Data drawn from the U.S. Census Bureau’s Current Population Survey Annual Social and Economic Supplement (CPS ASEC) tax model, via IPUMS CPS ASEC microdata, which simulates federal income, state income, and FICA tax liability for each respondent. That allows for estimates of 2024 tax liability, which is more current than the IRS’s own tax-year microdata, which is only up to 2022.

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