The bar for being among the top 1% of earners in Kansas and Missouri is high — and keeps getting higher.

That’s according to data from the Internal Revenue Service, which shows the cutoff for each adjusted gross income by percentile in each state. The data is based on the 2020 tax year and percentiles are based on total tax filers, so they don’t distinguish by marital or household status.

The cutoff for the top 1% of earners in Kansas in 2020 was $477,303. That ranked 28th among the states. By comparison, it’s easier to be among the richest Missourians. The cutoff for the state was $430,609 — ranking 39th among the states.

Remaining among the top 1% of earners has been a bigger climb in Kansas. The cutoff in 2015 was $420,097 — a difference of more than $57,000, or 13.6%. The cutoff for the top 1% in Missouri during that same five-year period increased by roughly $45,500, or 11.8%.

Nationally, the cutoff to be in the top 1% of earners in 2020 was $561,351, up 16.5% from 2015’s cutoff of $482,050.

Keep reading in the Kansas City Business Journal.