2018: Feds Collect Record Individual Taxes

From the OP' s article:

(CNSNews.com) - The federal government collected a record $1,665,484,000,000 in individual income taxes in calendar year 2018, according to the Monthly Treasury Statements for the year, which the Treasury finished publishing today with the belated release of the December statement.

Calendar year 2018 was the first full tax year after President Donald Trump signed the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act on Dec. 22, 2017.

The previous calendar-year record for federal individual income tax revenues was in 2017, when the Treasury collected $1,656,171,550,000 in individual income taxes (in constant December 2018 dollars).

The real federal individual income tax revenues collected in calendar 2018 were $9,312,450,000 more than the real individual income tax revenues collected in calendar year 2017.

At the same time the Treasury was collecting record individual income taxes, the federal debt was climbing from $20,492,746,546,193.75 at the close of 2017 to $21,974,095,705,790.55 at the close of 2018. That was a one-year increase of $1,481,349,159,596.80.

Even as inflation-adjusted individual income taxes increased from calendar year 2017 to calendar year 2018, total federal tax collections declined.

In calendar 2017, total federal tax collections in constant December 2018 dollars were $3,407,503,740,000. In calendar year 2018, they were $3,330,470,000,000—a decline of $77,033,740,000 from 2017.

Corporation income tax collections declined significantly from calendar year 2017 to calendar year 2018. In calendar 2017, the Treasury collected $290,978,980,000 in corporation income taxes (in constant December 2018 dollars). In calendar 2018, the Treasury collected $195,790,000,000 in corporation income taxes—a drop of $95,188,980,000.

That was a decline in corporation income tax revenue of 32.7 percent.

So the individuals are paying more while corporations are paying less. Yes, there is an increase of just over $9 billion in individual tax receipts. However, corporate tax receipts were over $95 billion less. That's $86 billion less in taxes collected.

As one example, Amazon posted an $11 billion profit, paid ZERO in taxes and actually claimed a $129 million refund. Meanwhile, the debt keeps climbing.

 

More jobs, more people working, increase in wages -- that's all good stuff.

People working, salt of the earth people working, is really, really good.

It is the only economic solution. Now, cut the budget across the board.

 

Yes, Yes, and YES!

 

Corporations making record profits, paying no taxes and actually getting a tax rebate is really, really bad.

While the wealth continues to accumulate at the top, the little guy is left to pay more to support the government.

If you think we are ever going to cut the budget, well, I just don't know what to say about that.

 

Cut the budget or the country dies.

 

Since we both know that's not gonna happen, the only alternative is more revenue.

So, great, Uncle Sam got $9 billion more from the little guy, but $95 billion less from the corps. That's a drop of $86 billion any way you slice it. Not exactly a winning formula while we're running annual deficits of a trillion $.

Face it. We're not gonna tax our way out of debt nor are we going to grow our way out of debt. The only way out is a balanced budget and let the existing debt shrivel due to inflation.

Yet people, in the face of $22 trillion in debt, cheer tax cuts and say nothing about increased spending.

 

Keynes was right. We're all dead in the long run.

 

Isn't this a no brainier. There are a lot more people employed shouldn't that increase individual tax collections?

 

Technically this can happen in an economy with zero growth for the middle class because of inflation, population growth, and wealth going to the richest. A good number of years are record tax years and that is nothing special.

 

What happened to corporate tax revenues?

How about total tax revenues?

What happens to both of those numbers after you adjust for inflation?

Oh...that's right.

A 42% increase to the federal budget deficit in the first three months of the fiscal year.

 

And it is a good thing!

 

Meanwhile in the real world, AUTO LOAN PAYMENT DELINQUENCIES AT AN ALL TIME RECORD HIGH AND STUDENT LOAN PAYMENT DELINQUENCIES AT AN ALL TIME RECORD HIGH?????Ain't things grand.Make America GRATE Again ...buy block cheese!!!

 

Wow, that rant sounds more like PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY AT AN ALL TIME LOW!!!

 

Well, the Fed doesn't have the 4th quarter up yet, but through the 3rd quarter it appears to me that Personal Income taxes have been trending down for several quarters, on a compared to a year ago basis.


The same for corporate taxes;



Now here we have quite a reversal under Trump:

Customs on Imports



And a big jump in excise taxes on imports:



I like it!

 

Of course.

 

corps havent paid taxes in decades, they do get bailouts, basicly paying them to not pay taxes... nothing new about that

 

and thats why ny told bezo to 'f*ck off ...

 

And what is the cause of that?

 

It's significant when it happens right after a major tax cut, which the left believes reduce revenues.

 

Problem is that increased revenue happens on a lot of years. After a tax increase, after a tax cut, after nothing special at all. Correlation doesn't mean causation. The real question is not whether revenue will increase after a tax cut, its whether revenue growth increased or decreased after a tax cut. Generally, inflation is about 2.5% and population growth is about .8%. That is a revenue growth of about 3-3.3% per year if zero real growth happens. Another way of looking at this that typical GDP growth is about 2% and inflation is about 2% in moderate growth years. That is about 4% with moderate Obama-era growth. Lets take a booming economy with 3% GDP growth and 2.5% inflation. That is 5.6% revenue growth.

So lets look at income tax collections. They rose from 1.481 trillion to 1.665 trillion. That is a 12.4% increase, which is excellent. Problem is that it is too excellent. 2018 was a good year so we would expect a 5.6% revenue growth from 3% GDP growth and 2.5% inflation. We also have to minus the revenue loss from lower tax rates, so income tax revenue growth should be between 0% and 5.6% if tax lowered and the economy boomed. The only reason for the 12.4% revenue increase can only because tax rates were increased somehow or loopholes eliminated. Trump's tax cuts removed a lot of tax deductions and state tax deductions especially for middle class workers and many income taxes have gone up for a lot of people.

However, that isn't the full story. Trump's tax cut lowered a lot of taxes, not just the income tax and lets see if overall revenue also jumped 12%. What really matters is total revenue not just revenue from one tax. Total revenue fell from 3.4 trillion in 2017 to 3.3 trillion in 2018. Instead of going up by a modest 3.3% like in most years, it fell by 2.3% in a booming year, mostly due to slashing corporate tax rates, which didn't benefit from lower tax rates. The CBO was predicting 3.53 trillion in revenue, a 3.8% increase, and we fell far below that even though they underestimated the economic growth to get their prediction. This is an absolute disaster for the supply side theory that slashing taxes will create a booming economy that will actually increase revenue. That didn't happen, in fact the reverse predicted by liberals happened.

For 2017 the revenue difference because of the tax cuts is 3.3% minus -2.3% which is 5.6%. That is about 190 billion dollars. As a result of the revenue loss from the tax cuts, the deficit has widened from 665 billion to 779 billion. So instead of the deficit falling from 665 billion to 589 billion, it rose to 779 billion.

 

Yeah, funny that!

No relief in sight for taxpayers denied deductions for state and local taxes.

Apparently they won't lobby their State and Local representatives for lower taxes?

~Grassley, chairman of the Senate Finance Committee

 

That dude couldn't get a job as a dog catcher in today's Democratic Party.

Sad...

 

I didn't call you a dem, but I did put a shoe out to see if you would step in it. As an employer, I can tell you that hiring an illegal is not worth the risk. Certainly the agriculture industry needs cheap labor, but the main incentive is to have an anchor baby and live off the tax payer.

 

This tax cut DID reduce revenues.

 

And just as when Trump did so, federal revenues increased after the JFK tax cut.