Excel Viewer | Adobe® Reader Statistics of Income (SOI) Bulletin - Winter 2010PDF (entire publication in PDF) Individual Income Tax Returns, Preliminary Data, 2008PDFby Michael Parisi For Tax Year 2008, taxpayers filed 142.4 million U.S. individual income tax returns, a decrease of 0.5 percent from the 143.0 million returns filed for 2007. For the first time since Tax Year 2002, Adjusted Gross Income (AGI) and several other notable items showed a decline. Between 2007 and 2008, AGI decreased by 3.7 percent to $8.2 trillion. Key components that contributed to the decline in AGI were net capital gains, which decreased 40.4 percent from $749.1 billion in 2007 to $446.6 billion in 2008, and capital gain distributions (part of net capital gains), which decreased 74.6 percent to $22.0 billion. Over the same period, taxable income decreased 5.1 percent to $5.6 trillion; total income tax decreased by 6.2 percent to $1.0 trillion; and total tax liability fell by 6.0 percent to just under $1.1 trillion. However, despite the decreases in income and other taxes, the alternative minimum tax rose 6.3 percent to $22.2 billion for 2008. Excel Tables: 1XLS Related Link: Individual Income Tax Return (Form 1040) Statistics Individual Income Tax Rates and Shares, 2007PDFby Adrian Dungan and Kyle Mudry Taxpayers filed 143.0 million returns for Tax Year 2007, excluding returns filed by individuals only to receive a payment authorized under the Economic Stimulus Act of 2008 and who had no other reason to file. Of these 143.0 million returns, 96.3 million (or 67.3 percent) were classified as taxable returns. A taxable return is a return that has total income tax greater than $0. This represents an increase of 3.8 percent in the number of taxable returns filed in 2006. Adjusted gross income (AGI) on these taxable returns also rose, increasing 8.5 percent to $8,072 billion for 2007, while total income tax rose 9.0 percent to $1,116 billion. The average tax rate for taxable returns was unchanged in 2007, sustaining its 2006 level of 13.8 percent. Excel Tables: 1XLS, 2XLS, 3XLS, 4aXLS, 4bXLS, 5XLS, 6XLS, 7XLS, 8XLS Related Link: Individual Income Tax Return (Form 1040) Statistics Changing Times: An Analysis of the 2007 Revision of the Split-Interest Trust Information ReturnPDFby Lisa Schreiber Rosenmerkel In part due to the Pension Protection Act of 2006, major revisions were made to the Split-Interest Trust Information Return, Form 5227, for Tax Year 2007. These revisions increased the information reported for all types of split-interest trusts. Preparers of Forms 5227 for charitable lead trusts and pooled income funds are now required to report trust income on this return. All split-interest trust types must disclose the names of charities that receive distributions, as well as the amount and type of the distribution. Charitable remainder unitrusts must now disclose details regarding their distribution structure as determined at their creation. All initial and additional contributions to split-interest trusts must be reported. In addition to these structural changes, the Pension Protection Act of 2006 required that all reported information not pertaining to an individual be disclosed to the public. Details relating to noncharitable beneficiaries and donations to the trust throughout its lifetime remain private. In Filing Year 2008, 123,498 Forms 5227 were filed, primarily for Tax Year 2007. Charitable remainder trusts were the most common filers of Form 5227, filing 115,489 returns in 2008. Excel Tables: 1XLS, 2XLS, 3XLS, 4XLS, 5XLS, 6XLS, 7XLS, 8XLS, 9XLS, 10XLS, 11XLS Related Link: Split-Interest Trust Statistics Projections of Federal Tax Return Filings: Calendar Years 2009–2016PDFby Brett Collins A grand total of 238 million tax returns are projected to be filed with the IRS during Calendar Year (CY) 2010. This number represents a decrease of 1 percent from the estimated CY 2009 filings of 240.4 million returns. The primary cause of the decrease in total returns from 2009 to 2010 is the residual effect of the Economic Stimulus Act of 2008, which produced an estimated 14.4 million returns above baseline projections for Forms 1040, 1040A, and 1040EZ in CY 2010. The decrease in return counts for CY 2010 also reflects the expected recessionary period in the U.S. economy. After CY 2010, grand total return filings are projected to grow at a more common average annual rate of 1.1 percent and are expected to reach 253.6 million returns by CY 2016. Total electronically filed individual income tax returns are estimated to be 66 percent of all individual income tax returns filed in CY 2009 and are projected to constitute 79 percent of all returns in CY 2016. Excel Tables: 1XLS Related Link: Projections Statistics Unrelated Business Income Tax Returns, 2006PDFby Jael Jackson Gross unrelated business income reported by charitable and other types of tax-exempt organizations increased 4 percent between Tax Years 2005 and 2006. The $11.3 billion in gross unrelated business income reported for Tax Year 2006 were offset by $10.0 billion in deductions. The resulting net unrelated business taxable income, reported as unrelated business income (less deficit), totaled $1.3 billion for Tax Year 2006, which is 6 percent higher than reported in the previous tax year. Total tax reported on Form 990-T, which comprised the sum of the unrelated business income tax and certain additional taxes, less credits, was $556.2 million. Additional taxes included $6.5 million of alternative minimum tax, $5.5 million of proxy tax on certain nondeductible lobbying and political expenditures, and $0.21 million of other taxes. Total tax credits equaled $11.5 million for Tax Year 2006, exceeding the amount of additional taxes reported. Tax credits included the foreign tax credit ($6.8 million), general business credit ($4.0 million), credit for prior-year minimum tax ($0.2 million), and other credits ($0.5 million). Excel Tables: 1XLS, 2XLS, 3XLS, 4XLS, 5XLS, 6XLS, 7XLS Related Link:Exempt Organizations: Unrelated Business Income Statistics Sales of Capital Assets Reported on Individual Tax Returns, 2007PDFby Janette Wilson and Pearson Liddell For Tax Year 2007, taxpayers realized $914.0 billion in net capital gains less losses, reported on 283.1 million asset transactions with overall sales of $5.3 trillion. Passthrough income represented the largest share of net gains less losses, followed by corporate stock. Passthrough gains reflect gains from sales of capital assets by partnerships, S corporations, or fiduciaries that are reported and taxed on individual income tax returns. Passthrough income of $366.9 billion represented 40.1 percent of all net gains, while $227.9 billion from sales of corporate stock accounted for 24.9 percent of the total. This represents a major change, as, historically, gains on corporate stock have accounted for the largest share of total net capital gains less losses. A significant share of the passthrough gains, however, likely represent capital gains from the sale of stock and other securities by investment partnerships. Excel Tables: 1XLS, 2XLS, 3XLS, 4XLS Related Link: Sales of Capital Assets Reported on Individual Tax Return Statistics Foreign Recipients of U.S. Income, 2007PDFby Scott Luttrell U.S.-source income payments to foreign persons, as reported on Form 1042-S, rose to $646.5 billion in Tax Year 2007. This amount represents an increase of 70.9 percent from the amount paid to foreign recipients in 2005. Foreign corporations received $472.0 billion (73.0 percent) of the total income paid to foreign recipients, and were assessed U.S. tax at an average effective rate of 12.3 percent. Foreign governments and international organizations collected the next largest share, $41.9 billion (6.5 percent). Foreign partnerships and foreign trusts (3.0 percent) and foreign individuals (2.7 percent) received a combined $37.0 billion in gross income. Excel Tables: 1XLS, 2XLS Related Link:Foreign Recipients of U.S. Income Statistics Interest-Charge Domestic International Sales Corporations, Tax Years 2004, 2005, and 2006PDFby Daniel S. Holik There were 425 active IC-DISC returns filed for Tax Year 2004, 876 for Tax Year 2005, and 1,209 for Tax Year 2006. IC-DISC export gross receipts, one measure of overall IC-DISC export activities, increased by 266 percent from Tax Year 2004 ($5,272 million) to Tax Year 2006 ($19,286). Net income (less deficit) rose from $448 million for Tax Year 2004, to $1,114 million for Tax Year 2005, and to $1,731 million for Tax Year 2006. Between Tax Years 2004 and 2006, actual distributions to IC-DISC shareholders increased 317 percent, from $433 million for Tax Year 2004 to $1,805 million for Tax Year 2006. Excel Tables: 1XLS, 2XLS, 3XLS Related Link:Foreign Sales Corporation and Interest-Charge Domestic International Sales Corporation Statistics In the Next Issue The following articles are tentatively planned for inclusion in the spring 2010 issue of the Statistics of Income Bulletin, scheduled to be published in May 2010: ■ Gift Tax Returns, 2008; ■ Fiduciary Income Panel, Tax Years 2002-2008; ■ High-Income Returns for 2007; and ■ Individual Noncash Contributions, 2007. Link: Historical Tables and Appendix
