$2,985,636,000,000: Federal Tax Collections Set Record Through April

CNS News – by Terence P. Jeffrey

The federal government collected a record $2,985,636,000,000 in total taxes in the first seven months of fiscal 2022 (October through April), according to the Monthly Treasury Statement. 

Before this year, the most taxes the federal government had ever collected in the first seven months of a fiscal year was fiscal 2021, when it collected $2,320,127,490,000 in constant April 2022 dollars.

In April alone, the Treasury collected $863,649,000,000 in taxes.

That was $388,192,260,000 more than the $475,456,740,000 (in constant April 2022 dollars) that the Treasury collected in taxes last April.

The record $2,985,636,000,000 in total taxes that the federal government collected in the first seven months of this fiscal year included $1,717,775,000,000 in individual income taxes; $847,876,000,000 in social insurance and retirement taxes; $215,790,000,000 in corporation income taxes; $57,722,000,000 in customs duties; $45,338,000,000 in excise taxes; $18,460,000,000 in estate and gift taxes; and $83,131,000,000 in “miscellaneous receipts.”

Despite the fact that it collected a record $2,985,636,000,000 in taxes in the first seven months of this fiscal year, the Treasury still ran a deficit of $360,003,000,000 during that period because the federal government spent $3,345,639,000,000.

That $3,345,639,000,000 in spending in the first seven months of this fiscal year was less than the record $4,411,506,670,000,000 (in constant April 2022 dollars) that the federal government spent in the first seven months of fiscal 2021. It was also less than the $3,751,229,560,000 (in constant April 2022 dollars) that the federal government spent in the first seven months of fiscal 2020.

The Department of Health and Human Services continued to lead federal departments and agencies in spending through the first seven months of the fiscal year. Through April it spent $964,153,000,000. The Social Security Administration was second in spending with $735,472,000,000 in outlays. The Department of Defense-Military Programs was third with $416,561,000,000 in outlays.

The next highest category of federal spending was the $350,340,000,000 in interest that the Treasury had to pay on the federal debt.

(The historical dollar numbers in this story were converted into April 2022 dollars using the Bureau of Labor Statistics inflation calculator.)

CNS News