How much does the government collect per person?

• The government collected an average of $4,510 in payroll taxes per person, 72.7% of which went to fund Social Security, 23% to Medicare, and 4.3% to unemployment insurance and other social programs.

• The federal government also collected an average of $7,898 per person in individual income taxes. Roughly 40% to 50% of government revenue comes from income taxes.
   
• Federal funds from payroll and income taxes grew more in the last two years than at any time since at least 1980.
   
• Other governmental revenues include corporate income taxes ($1,275 per person on average in 2022) and sales and excise taxes ($263 per person) on services and goods.

See how federal revenue sources have changed from 1935 to 2021. 

One spot for all things US tax policy 

President Biden’s State of the Union address touched on several facets of tax policy in America. USAFacts has a collection of articles and metrics on the many different angles of this topic so that you can stay informed. Here’s a sample of the data available:

• The 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act reduced the average tax bill by around $900. On average, middle-class families with children saved twice as much as single, middle-class taxpayers.
   
• Last year’s Inflation Reduction Act allocated $80 billion for expanding the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), nearly six times the revenue service’s current annual operating budget. The IRS’s budget has remained the same since the 1990s, despite processing more yearly returns.
   
• Middle and upper-middle-class parents received the most money from the child tax credit in 2019. The American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 temporarily increased the refund and changed the credit to make it more accessible to lower-income families.

Get facts on how Americans file taxes, their deductions, corporate tax metrics, and other aspects of tax policy in the United States. And if you’re a fan of the weekly fact quiz, don’t miss this quiz all about tax data. 


Data behind the news

Biden’s speech also mentioned prescription provisions in the Inflation Reduction Act. Here’s a refresher on what’s included in Medicare Part D.

The US shot down a Chinese spy balloon that moved through the nation’s airspace earlier this month. Just over this weekend, the US shot down three other unidentified objects. Here’s an article from the USAFacts archives about unidentified aerial phenomena based on Defense Department data.

Did you miss the State of the Union address? USAFacts compiled a recap of the topics alongside context and metrics.

It’s time again for a weekly fact quiz!


One last fact