The federal government collected a record amount of taxes in the first two months of fiscal year 2016, totaling $416 billion in revenue, according to the latest monthly Treasury Department statement. The federal government ran a deficit of $201 billion despite the record revenue.
Treasury receipts include tax revenue from individual income taxes, corporate income taxes, social insurance and retirement taxes, unemployment insurance taxes, excise taxes, estate and gift taxes, customs duties, and other miscellaneous items.
The amount of taxes collected by the federal government in the first two months of fiscal year 2016 outpaced all previous fiscal years, even after adjusting for inflation. The 2016 fiscal year begins on Oct. 1, 2015, and runs through Sept. 30, 2016.
The federal government collected $416,014,000,000 in October and November in fiscal year 2016. Most of the $416 billion came from individual income taxes, which comprised almost half of that total at $202 billion.
The Treasury Department has been tracking this data on its website since 1998. In that fiscal year, the federal government collected $318 billion in inflation-adjusted revenue. This means that since 1998, tax revenues have increased 30.8 percent.
Although the federal government brought in approximately $416 billion in revenue in fiscal 2016, according to the Treasury, it also spent approximately $617 billion, leaving a deficit of approximately $201 billion.