Just 4% of Oregon tax filers earn more than $300,000 in taxable income. But they pay more than a third of the state’s personal income taxes, over $4 billion in 2024 alone, according to state data.
Rich people pay the most taxes because of Oregon’s progressive income tax structure, and — as in the rest of the country — because the wealthy earn an outsized share of the state’s income.
In Oregon, the top 1% of earners earn 1.7 times more than the bottom 40%, combined.
“There are vast differences in income,” said Portland State University economics professor Rajiv Sharma. And yet, he said, those vast differences obscure even greater differences in wealth.
Oregon taxes adjusted gross income, a figure that typically doesn’t include the value of contributions working people make to their retirement plans — or that their employers make on their behalf. Adjusted gross income also doesn’t generally include contributions to employee health care.
Those are benefits typically enjoyed by upper-income workers, Sharma notes. And income taxes don’t apply to the wealth people hold, like the value of their homes or gains on the value of investments they haven’t sold.
“Extremely wealthy people,” he said, “have very little of what would be captured in adjusted gross income.”
Affordability and income inequality were two of the central issues in national political campaigns this fall. Many voters felt the rich weren’t paying their fair share, but there doesn’t appear to be any consensus around how to address the issue.
California voters rejected a “billionaire tax” this month that would have levied a one-time tax on the assets of the wealthiest. In Washington, by contrast, voters embraced a “millionaire tax” that will levy a 9.9% tax on incomes above $1 million.
Washington has long been an attractive destination for affluent Oregonians looking to avoid their home state’s income tax. If Washington’s new tax survives a court challenge, those wealthy Oregon tax refugees may have to find new destinations — or just stay put.
Oregon has some of the highest personal income taxes in the nation, especially in the Portland area. In addition to Oregon’s 9.9% personal income tax for high earners, Multnomah County has a 3% tax on top incomes to pay for its Preschool for All program and Metro’s housing program levies an additional 1% on high incomes.
Activists want to put a statewide wealth tax on the Oregon ballot in 2028, establishing a tax of at least 1% on residents with a net worth of more than $30 million.
Federal data suggests there has been an outflow of high earners from the Portland area in recent years, coinciding with the new local income taxes. If those taxes are indeed prompting an exodus from Portland, though, the effect is less apparent in the statewide data.
The number of Oregon tax filers with incomes over $300,000 increased nearly fivefold from 2010 to 2024. Some of the fastest increases have come this decade. Inflation and one-time capital gains account for a portion of that long-term growth but can’t explain all of Oregon’s big gains in high earners.
The rapid growth in high incomes suggests that Oregon’s taxes aren’t so high, at least not yet, that they’re driving out large numbers of affluent residents.
But the numbers could also be read as a warning sign.
Oregon relies on personal income taxes for nearly two-thirds of tax collections, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. That’s more than anywhere else in the country.
And since Oregon is so reliant on its wealthiest residents for that revenue, if taxes do start scaring off large numbers of affluent residents then the state’s key source of revenue could very quickly erode.
This is Oregon Insight, The Oregonian’s weekly snapshot of the numbers behind the state’s economy. View past installments here.
©2026 Advance Local Media LLC. Visit oregonlive.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
