WASHINGTON — Residents of Washington, D.C., send the most tax dollars per person to the U.S. government. The District of Columbia also gets back the most.

Last year, D.C. residents paid $37,000 per person in federal income, payroll and estate taxes. The next closest was Delaware, at $16,000 per person.

“It's where the money is,” said Roberton Williams, a fellow at the Tax Policy Center. “The reason the District pays so much in taxes is that there are a lot of high-income people there.”

The District is not a state and does not have a vote in Congress. It is, however, a city with a relatively high cost of living.

West Virginia, Mississippi and New Mexico have low median household incomes, which helps explain why they their residents pay far less in federal taxes. West Virginia paid $3,600 per person last year, while Mississippi paid $3,900 per person and New Mexico residents paid a little more than $4,000.

The Associated Press calculated each state's per-capita tax bill using data from the IRS and population estimates from the Census Bureau.

The deadline to file federal tax returns is Tuesday. It was pushed back because the usual April 15 deadline was a Saturday and because Monday is a holiday in the District of Columbia.

For every dollar the District sends to the federal government, it gets back almost $4, according to a 2015 study by the New York state comptroller.

For years, the late Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan, D-N.Y., would document that New York paid more to the federal government than it got back. In 2015, the state's comptroller took up the cause.

Washington's rate of return is higher than for any state — most of it comes from wages for federal employees. The closest state is Mississippi, which gets back $2.57 in federal spending for every dollar it sends to Washington. New Mexico, West Virginia and Alabama also receive more because they have a lot of residents who get federal benefits, including Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, disability benefits and food stamps.

Topping the list of those that get less back than paid in are New Jersey, Wyoming and Connecticut. New Jersey gets back 77 cents for every dollar it pays, while Wyoming gets 81 cents and Connecticut gets 83 cents.

New York gets 91 cents for every dollar it sends to Washington, according to the comptroller's report.

All these states have incomes above the national average.

U.S. residents paid an average of $8,943 per person in federal income, payroll and estate taxes in 2016. A look at how the District of Columbia, the top states and Pennsylvania rank in per capita federal taxes:1. District of Columbia: $36,5692. Delaware: $16,3223. Minnesota: $14,6244. Massachusetts: $14,5165. Connecticut: $13,7736. New Jersey: $12,8527. New York: $11,7588. Illinois: $10,8149. Ohio: $10,73510. Maryland: $10,45511. Rhode Island: $10,31612. Washington: $9,66913. Nebraska: $9,56614. California: $9,30515. Pennsylvania: $9,179Sources: IRS, Census Bureau