In the government’s fiscal year ending September 30, 2012, more than 146 million individual income tax returns were filed. More than $1.3 trillion in taxes were paid, which accounted for more than 54% of all the federal revenue collected. Tax refunds to individuals totaled more than $322 billion.
Source: 2012 Data Book
Tax Refunds Abound
About 110.9 million refunds were issued to individuals for the 2010 tax year (the most recent year for statistics). The average refund was $2,953. The total amount of refunds was $327.4 billion.
Source: Office of the National Taxpayer Advocate
The IRS recently announced that its coast-to-coast effort against 389 identity theft suspects led to 734 enforcement actions in January 2013, includingindictments, information, complaints, and arrests. In the government’s 2012 fiscal year, there were 2,400 enforcement actions against identity thieves.
Source: IR-2013-17
On 2010 returns, more than 1 million returns (1,005,000) showed deductions for contributions to health savings accounts (up from 947,000 in the previous year). These deductions amounted to $2.9 billion on 2010 returns.
Source: Statistics of Income Bulletin, Fall 2012
New data on returns filed during the government’s 2010 fiscal year reveal some interesting facts:
Source: Statistics of Income Bulletin, Fall 2012
Source: IRS (www.irs.gov/pub/irs-soi/11esgiftsnap.pdf)
According to the latest statistics, almost 23 million individual income tax returns reported sole proprietorship activity on Schedule C (This is in addition to farm activity of sole proprietors reported on Schedule F. Profits reported on these Schedule Cs were $267.7 billion.
The government reports that the fair market value of IRAs fell from $4.7 trillion in 2007 to $3.7 trillion in 2008. This is a 22.5% decrease. What’s more, withdrawals in 2008 were $227.5 billion, up from $167.1 billion in 2007.
Source: Statistics of Income Bulletin, Spring 2012
The Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration estimates that the IRS could issue $21 billion in fraudulent tax refunds over the next 5 years due to identity theft.
On 2010 returns filed in 2011, millions of taxpayers claimed various tax breaks:
Source: Statistics of Income Bulletin, Winter 2012
For 2009, 21.9 million individual taxpayers who itemized deductions reported $31.8 billion in deductions for noncash charitable contributions. Corporate stock donations accounted for the largest percentage of total noncash donations, followed by clothing donations.
Source: Statistics of Income Bulletin, Spring 2012
More than 12 million taxpayers claimed an education credit on a 2010 return, up from 10 million in 2009.
Source: Statistics of Income Bulletin, Winter 2012
A recent survey shows that many taxpayers fail to take the job-related expenses to which they are entitled. For example, 38% failed to claim moving expenses when they relocated for a job. Half did not know they could deduct travel costs to see clients. And only 23% claimed education expenses to which they were entitled.
The number of taxpayers who itemized their deductions on their 2010 returns was 33.1%. On 2009 returns, the percentage of itemizers was 33%.
Source: Winter 2012 Statistics of Income Bulletin
In the government’s fiscal year ending September 30, 2011, the IRS processed more than 144.7 million individual returns during the 2011 filing season and issued almost 110 million refunds totaling $345 billion. The IRS collected $2.415 trillion in taxes, representing 92 percent of federal government receipts.
Source: IRS Fact Sheet 2012-10
In the government’s 2009 fiscal year ending September 30, 2009, federal revenues were $2.105 trillion. Of this amount, 26% came from personal income taxes and 25% from Social Security, Medicare, and unemployment taxes. Only 4% came from corporate income taxes and 5% from excise, gift, estate, and other miscellaneous taxes. The greatest share—40%—came from borrowing.
Source: Instructions to 2011 Form 1040
Nearly 100,000 refund checks could not be delivered in 2011 because of incorrect addresses. The average amount of each check is $1,547. If you have not yet received an expected refund check, contact the IRS or go to “Where’s My Refund?” (www.irs.gov).
Source: IR-2011-113, Nov. 30, 2011
The Tax Reform Act of 1976 requires the IRS to publish annual data on individual income tax returns reporting income of $200,000 or more. According to the most recent data, there were 4.4 million high-income returns in 2008.
Source: Spring Statistics of Income Bulletin (www.irs.gov/pub/irs-soi/11inhincomesprbul.pdf)
For the fifth straight year, there has been in increase in the number of returns reporting alternative minimum tax (AMT) liability
During 2008, 57.8% of all individual 2007 income tax returns were e-filed. While there was a 19% increase in returns filed, there was a 30% increase in those that were e-filed. While the total number of returns filed during the past decade has increased by 23%, the number that has been e-filed as increased by 206%!
Source: IRS.
The 2012 fiscal year budget for the federal government would increase the amount of money going to the Treasury Department, including the IRS, by 4 percent, compared with 2010 allocations. The total funding for the Treasury Department would be $14 billion, of which over $13.28 billion would go to the IRS. The reasons for the increase are costs associated with implementation of new health care legislation (including new information reporting requirements) and other new laws, as well as investments in IRS tax compliance activities to increase tax collections.
Source: The 2010 FY Budget Submitted by the President (www.whitehouse.gov/omb/budget/Overview)
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