CNSNews.com | by Terence P. Jeffrey
(CNSNews.com) – The federal government collected a record $4,896,119,000,000 in total taxes in fiscal 2022 (October 2021 through September 2022), according to the Monthly Treasury Statement released today.
That was up $518,302,170,000—or 11.8 percent–from the previous record of $4,377,816,830,000 (in constant September 2022 dollars) that the federal government collected in fiscal 2021.
Fiscal 2015—when the federal government collected $4,052,366,920,000 in total taxes (in constant September 2022 dollars)—ranks as the third highest year for total federal tax collections.
The record $4,896,119,000,000 in total taxes that the federal government collected in fiscal 2022 included $2,632,145,000,000 in individual income taxes; $1,483,526,000,000 in social insurance and retirement taxes; $99,908,000,000 in customs duties; $87,726,000,000 in excise taxes; $32,550,000,000 in estate and gift taxes; and $135,397,000,000 in what the Treasury calls “miscellaneous receipts.”
While collecting a record $4,896,119,000,000 in total taxes, the federal government was also spending a total of $6,271,508,000,000—resulting in a fiscal 2022 deficit of $1,375,389,000,000.
That was the fourth straight year that the federal government has run an annual deficit of more than a trillion dollars. In fact, when adjusted into constant September 2022 dollars, the federal deficit has exceeded a trillion dollars in eight of the last fourteen years.
Federal spending hit a record high of $7,471,371,670,000 (in constant September 2022 dollars) in fiscal 2020. In fiscal 2021, it dropped slightly to $7,377,360,790,000 (in constant September 2022 dollars). Then in fiscal 2022, it dropped to $6,271,508,000,000.
Despite that decline, the last three fiscal years have seen the highest spending in the nation’s history and the only years when spending (in constant September 2022 dollars) has exceeded $6 trillion.
The Department of Health and Human Services led all federal departments in spending in fiscal 2022 with outlays of $1,642,895,000,000. It was followed by the Social Security Administration, which spent $1,282,056,000,000; and the Department of Defense and Military Programs, which spent $726,571,000,000.
The gross interest on Treasury securities in fiscal 2022 hit $717,611,000,000 almost exceeding spending on Defense and Military Program, according to the Treasury statement.
(Historical dollar amounts in this story were adjusted into constant September 2022 dollars using the Bureau of Labor Statistics inflation calculator.)
(Screen Capture of Table 3 from the Monthly Treasury Statement for September 2022.)
Source: $4,896,119,000,000: Federal Tax Collections Set Record in Fiscal 2022 | CNSNews
