Inflation-adjusted federal tax revenues hit a record $1.079 trillion for the first four months of fiscal year 2016, but the federal government still ran a $160 billion deficit during that time, according to the latest monthly Treasury Department statement.
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.
In the first four months of fiscal 2016, which included the months of October, November, December, and January, the amount of taxes collected by the federal government outpaced the first quarter of 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 $1,079,224,000,000 in the first four months of fiscal year 2016. Most of the $1.079 trillion came from individual income taxes, which comprised almost half of that total, totaling $532 billion.
The Treasury Department has been tracking these data on its website since 1998. In that fiscal year, the federal government collected $798 billion in inflation-adjusted revenue in the first four months of that year. This means that since 1998, tax revenues have increased 35 percent.
Although the federal government brought in a record of approximately $1.079 trillion in revenue in the first four months of fiscal 2016, according to the Treasury, it also spent approximately $1.239 trillion, leaving a deficit of approximately $160 billion.