Tax Policy Center

Fiscal Facts

E.g., 08/31/2024
E.g., 08/31/2024
Housing and Homeownership Top 5 Tax Expenditures
According to Treasury estimates, tax expenditures for housing favor homeowners over renters. The four largest expenditures benefit homeowners and constitute the vast majority of housing benefits provided through the Tax Code.

November 12, 2018

November 12, 2018
Estate Tax Collections by State
Estate taxes were nearly $20 billion or 0.6% of total federal tax collections in fiscal year 2016. Among the states, the estate tax share of revenues ranged from 1.4% in Hawaii to 0.1% in Delaware.

November 5, 2018

November 5, 2018
Income Taxes as Share of Federal Revenue
As a share of total federal revenues, individual income taxes have provided roughly 45% over the last 60 years. The share from corporate income taxes declined from 28% in the 1950s to 9% in the 1980s, remaining roughly constant since then.

October 29, 2018

October 29, 2018
Average EITC by State
The Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) supports low- and moderate-income working families. In 2016, the federal credit amount averaged $440 across all individual income tax returns, and ranged from $220 in New Hampshire to $880 in Mississippi.

October 22, 2018

October 22, 2018
Federal Payroll Tax Receipts
Federal payroll tax revenues (primarily for Social Security and Medicare) totaled about $1.2 trillion in 2017. As a share of GDP, they were under 2% in the 1940s and grew to 6% by the mid-1980s; remaining roughly constant since, with the exception of the Great Recession.

October 15, 2018

October 15, 2018
Ownership of Financial Assets by Education
Virtually all families hold some amount of financial assets, broadly defined. However, the median value of holdings for those with college degrees is 83 times greater than for those with no high school diploma, and 12 times greater than for those with a high school diploma.

October 8, 2018

October 8, 2018
Tax Returns of Active Corporations
In 2013, about 1.6 million returns were filed by active C-Corporations, or those that are subject to the corporate income tax. The manufacturing industry represented just over 5% of those returns, but paid over 30% of the total corporate income tax after credits.

October 1, 2018

October 1, 2018
Alternative Minimum Tax Returns
The individual Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT) raised about $31 billion from about 4.5 million taxpayers in 2015. Under the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, passed last year, the AMT was substantially modified, and will apply to only about 200,000 taxpayers in 2018.

September 24, 2018

September 24, 2018
Ownership of Financial Assets by Race
Virtually all families hold some amount of financial assets, broadly defined. However, the median value of holdings for non-Hispanic Whites is 17 times greater than for Hispanics or Latinos, and 13 times greater than for non-Hispanic Blacks or African Americans.

September 17, 2018

September 17, 2018
State Gasoline Tax Rates
State gasoline taxes ranged from 9 to 58 cents per gallon as of January 2018. Three states (California, Pennsylvania, Washington) had taxes exceeding 40 cents per gallon while Alaska had the lowest tax rate at 9 cents per gallon.

September 10, 2018

September 10, 2018
Capital Gains Income Distribution
Income from capital gains largely benefit high-income households. In 2015, for those with adjusted gross income (AGI) over $10 million, 47.3% of their AGI came from capital gains, compared to 0.9% for those with AGI under $100,000.

September 3, 2018

September 3, 2018
State Cigarette Tax Rates
Montana is currently voting on a state cigarette tax rate hike to fund Medicaid expansion. 2018 rates range from Missouri's 17 cents to New York's and Connecticut's $4.35 per pack. The rate is below $1 per pack in 14 states and above $2 per pack in 15 states.

August 27, 2018

August 27, 2018
Bottom 20%'s share of national income
According to the latest CBO estimates of after-tax household income, the share received by the bottom quintile of households was 6.9 percent in 2014, and has fluctuated between 6 and 7 percent for over 30 years.

August 20, 2018

August 20, 2018
State Receipts for Highways and Mass Transit
State motor-fuel tax receipts are used to maintain state-administered highways, mass transit, local roads and streets. From 2005 to 2015, aggregate receipts were nearly flat in inflation-adjusted terms, while the share for mass transit projects grew from 4.3% to 12.3%.

August 13, 2018

August 13, 2018
Nonresident Tax Returns
In 2015, about 872,500 returns (0.6% of all individual income tax returns) were filed by nonresident taxpayers with US-source income and self-employed residents of American territories who pay Social Security taxes. Twenty years earlier, there were 407,200 (0.35% of all returns).

August 6, 2018

August 6, 2018