If you felt like your tax bill was a little bit higher this year, it wasn’t your imagination. Changes to the Tax Code, including the Net Income Investment Tax and the Medicare tax surcharge, help push taxes payable for many Americans upwards. Those higher tax bills helped grow revenues through fiscal year 2015 to date to record levels.
According to the latest Monthly Treasury Statement, federal tax revenues for the fiscal year to date reached $2,103,987,000,000 – on track for a record. That dwarfs collections from the same time period last fiscal year which hit just $1,936,739,000,000. Adjusted for inflation, that reflects about $1,935,618,200,000 in today’s dollars.
Of those dollars collected, most were personal income taxes totaling $1.015 trillion. Next were Social Security and other payroll taxes of $720 billion. Collections for corporate income taxes totaled $183 billion. Other taxes and duties made up the remaining $187 billion.
Not surprisingly, the Treasury took in the most dollars during the month of April when personal income taxes were due, collecting more than $414 billion, or about a fifth of all dollars collected for the entire eight month period.
Receipts, however, still lagged behind outlays for the fiscal year to date with those hitting $2.469 trillion. That means there’s a deficit for the year to date of $365 billion – still last than the same time last year. By comparison, the deficit for same eight month period in the prior fiscal year was $436 billion.
Outlays for all of the prior fiscal year totaled $3.5 trillion, result in a total fiscal year deficit of $483 billion.
If you’re confused about the small gap from the eight month period to the final fiscal year (small being relative since it’s still about $50 billion), the difference is largely attributable to a surplus earned in September. Why September? Estimated payments and last minute payers. Corporate income taxes on extension are due in September, with personal income taxes on extension due the following month.
The fiscal year for the federal government runs from October to September. Collections and outlays are published each month as part of the Treasury’s Monthly statement (downloads as a pdf).
