D.C. taxpayers file higher federal income taxes per return than residents of any state, yet they lack voting representation in Congress.
The Green Party candidate for Washington, D.C.’s nonvoting delegate seat in the U.S. House of Representatives, Kymone Freeman, frames the larger objective as attaining statehood and greater autonomy. In the short term, he suggests using tax resistance as a strategic lever to push that goal forward.
Like many residents of the capital, Freeman views it as inequitable that people living in the district pay federal income taxes while having no voting voice in Congress. He has made exempting D.C. residents from federal income tax until the district secures statehood a central feature of his platform. “We’re marking the 250th anniversary of America’s resistance to taxation without representation, so I think it’s the moment,” Freeman asserts. Washington, D.C. is a federal district rather than a territory such as Guam, Puerto Rico, or the U.S. Virgin Islands, so residents remain subject to federal income tax rules.
Be that as it may, taxing D.C. residents without representation would likely strike a chord with the Founders, who gathered in New York in October 1765 and declared that liberty requires that taxes be levied only with the people’s consent, either personally or through their representatives. Taxation, in this view, can be viewed as a form of theft. Compounding the issue, D.C. residents have few avenues to contest their tax burden.
The United States is the only democracy that withholds voting representation from those living in its capital. Worse, local officials—such as the city’s mayor and the D.C. Council—must seek congressional approval for the district’s budget and laws, with little more than a symbolic representative serving in the federal legislature.
A Reason magazine analysis of the Internal Revenue Service’s most recent adjusted gross income data indicates that D.C. filers pay more federal income tax per return than residents of any other state—approximately $26,900, compared with a national average of about $14,300.
While this is partly due to a concentration of high earners in the district, data show that even when those with incomes exceeding $1 million are excluded, D.C. residents still pay more per return than filers in any state—roughly $16,500 versus $8,900 nationwide.
“We lack a system where public policy is shaped by public input because of the status quo,” Freeman notes. Yet challenging that status quo has proved difficult, as Congress resists moves to grant D.C. statehood. In 2021, the House of Representatives approved a party-line measure sponsored by Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D–D.C.) to designate D.C. as the 51st state. It subsequently stalled in the Senate, which at the time was only narrowly controlled by Democrats.
Democrats were once opposed to D.C. attaining statehood, but they have since shown greater openness to the idea, unlike Republican lawmakers at the federal level who have been hesitant to back statehood for D.C., arguing it would bolster Democratic political power. There is some truth to that claim: the District’s Council has no elected Republicans. The city has not had a Republican mayor since its local government was established, and it has voted for a Democrat in every presidential election since 1964.
Even though national Republicans do not back statehood for D.C., the District’s local GOP supports ending taxation without representation. Denise Rosado, the Republican candidate for D.C.’s delegate seat, regards statehood as unlikely and undesirable. That stance has not stopped her from advocating for an end to federal income taxes in the district, arguing that achieving this could be done quickly.
That expectation seems improbable given Congress’s pace. Still, there is no compelling reason to condition the removal of the federal income tax for district residents on achieving statehood.
