Uncle Sam the CEO: Visualization of IRS Revenues Collected 1960-2010

Posted By PK Last updated January 4th, 2012 25 Comments

“If you drive a car, i’ll tax the street.
If you try to sit, i’ll tax your seat.
If you get too cold, i’ll tax the heat.
If you try to walk, i’ll tax your feet.” – Stevie Ray Vaughan in Taxman

(Ed note: I may like the SRV version better, but, as Jeff points out, George Harrison wrote this song. Go find the Beatles’ version if you’re interested.)
Our tax visualization last time was interesting, but this one might convey more data. Once again, our source for tax data is the IRS’s publication 2010 Data Book. Just like last time, note these are tax collections, and the IRS annual year ends in September. True revenue is after all refunds and credits are finalized, but this data is useful to see the amount of tax collected – and how it makes it’s way to Uncle Sam.

Check it out – up and to the right! As I pointed out last time, the biggest growth has been in ‘Employment Taxes’, better known as Payroll Taxes.

What do you think about this data?

If you enjoyed this post, let others know!

http://money.ramblingfever.com/ Matthew Allen

The biggest thing that stands out to me is the almost vertical line for Business and Individual income taxes from 1995 to 2000. Thank you Bill Clinton. Wonder if this is a result of companies and people actually making more money, thus having to pay more? Or higher tax rates? We know about the Bush tax cuts in 2000, which explains why those two lines seemed to level off a bit.

Also, the smaller tax categories actually take a dip during the Reagan and W. Bush years.
- http://www.dqydj.net PKamp3
  
  Haha! There’s a similar angle for Reagan as well – this is completely a Laffer Curve type effect with the Clinton Capital Gain tax cut (and a well-timed tech bubble). You’ll note that overall revenues increased, but not as quickly as spending. I don’t have a graph of GDP on this site, but it raised rather nicely through the Clinton years… and, to the chagrin of many, through the Bush years. Here’s a good one at Google.
- Anonymous
  
  I am not sure if you are reading the graph correctly. The only segment of the graph that is business income taxes is the yellow segment, so the fact that it was nearly vertical does not mean that it increased. The increase was almost entirely in the individual income sections.
  
  There does seem, however, to be a sizable relative increase in business income taxes that year, but it’s not a significant portion of total revenues collected.
  - http://www.dqydj.net/ PK
    
    You can actually turn off segments using the legend (click the text and it will turn off). Then just hover over the points and it will say their amounts… Business tax, roughly:
    2000: $236B
    2005: $307B
    2010: $278B
http://www.moneycrush.com/ Jackie

What I find interesting is how little tax is collected from business. I’d like to know how they pay so little tax; I must be doing it wrong in my business
- http://www.dqydj.net PKamp3
  
  How are you filed? DQYDJ is rolled into a Sole Proprietorship… so yes, every dollar I make with this site gets taxed rather heavily. Blame that on me being in a high-income high-tax area, haha. (But I’m complaining about the state, mainly)…
  - http://www.moneycrush.com/ Jackie
    
    Yeah I’m filing on schedule C (LLC but disregarded entity) so that’s probably why…
http://everythingfinanceblog.com Tushar Mathur

I guess businesses have a lot of loopholes to take advantage of to minimize their tax bill. Got to get me a good “find me loopholes” tax consultant
- http://www.dqydj.net PKamp3
  
  It’s true, but it’s also true that the base business rate is pretty huge compared to the world. I could write an entire series of articles on why a smaller, flatter rate would be way more efficient than a loophole ridden high rate (which, by the way, punishes new companies at the expense of larger, established ones). You know, maybe I will…
http://www.moneyspruce.com/ Jeffrey Trull

Wait, why are the “Taxman” lyrics Stevie Ray Vaughan and not The Beatles?!? I have so many questions about why certain increases happened and when that I don’t know where to start and what to attribute things to. As Matthew pointed out, it’s interesting to see the spike in individual income taxes from 1995 to 2000. Were high income earners paying a larger portion of the taxes at that point?
- http://www.dqydj.net PKamp3
  
  No, you’re right. Gym Class Heroes moment… let me add a note, haha.
  
  Here’s a brief history, FWIW: Clinton raised the individual tax rates but lowered the capital gain rate to 20%. Bush cut dividends and capital gains further to 15% (5% in some cases), and Obama lowered them even further (to 0% for some). So yes, a lot of the ’95 – ’00 spike was investment gains, but even post Tech bubble this country has earned a bunch.
  - http://www.moneyspruce.com/ Jeffrey Trull
    
    That makes sense. Thanks for the explanation, PKamp!
http://www.backbone.com Paul Kamp

What jumps out at me is the massive increase in the amount of taxes collected. I can not tell for certain but I suspect that even if the chart was standardized in 1960 dollars the increase would be significant.
- http://www.dqydj.net PKamp3
  
  I can tell you you’re correct, and if you demand an article I’ll run the numbers… but hopefully, for now, you’ll accept my hand-waving (haha). Taxes do tend to stick to around 18% of GDP (Hauser’s “Law”), and GDP has been increasing faster than inflation, so there’s a hand-wavey proof!
http://www.101centavos.com/ 101 Centavos

Awesome interactive graph. I LIKE IT!
I wonder how the tax picture looks once ALL taxes are folded into the batter, including local and state income taxes, excise taxes, fees, fees and more fees. I read somewhere that in some US locations it’s well over 50% of income.
- http://www.dqydj.net PKamp3
  
  Seriously, if you want to make these things let me know – they aren’t that bad if you have a small amount of JavaScript knowledge, I promise!
  
  I’ll see if I can find something on local and state taxes – but I’m biased towards the Bay Area. I can reach 50% if you include sales tax or payroll taxes, but you probably mean New York City, where the in-city tax is over 12% (!).
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http://novelinvestor.com JP @ Novel Investor

It was off of one of the best albums the Beatles wrote.

Good to see there’s no significant drop off from 2005 to 2010. At least collectively it shows income was rising for businesses and individuals during that time even with the economic downturn. The effects of the increased unemployment during that period is pretty obvious too. Though breaking down the same info from just ’05 to ’10 year over year might tell a different story.
- http://www.dqydj.net PKamp3
  
  Yeah, taxes collected tracks GDP pretty closely – right around 18% (Hauser’s Law). GDP has increased, but there was a bit of a dip in the 2005 – 2010 range. That link should show it, along with the jump in spending that the dip coincided with (Stimulus and other programs).
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http://moneymamba.com/ JT

Cool. You could reduce our military expenditures to the next closest country and cut Federal Income Taxes revenues in half while remaining deficit neutral. Sign me up!
- http://www.dqydj.net/ PK
  
  With revenue like that who needs frugality!?
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