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Government Collects $1.47 Trillion in First Half of Fiscal 2017

Despite high tax collection, government still ran deficit of $526 billion

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April 12, 2017

The federal government collected $1,473,137,000,000 in taxes in the first half of fiscal year 2017, but still ran a $526,855,000,000 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 half of fiscal 2017, which included the months of October, November, December, January, February, and March, the government collected a slightly lower amount of taxes than in the same period seen last year. The 2017 fiscal year begins on Oct. 1, 2016, and runs through Sept. 30, 2017.

In the first half of 2016, after adjusting for inflation, the government collected $1,498,336,020,000 in taxes, which is roughly $25 billion more than the government collected this year.

Most of the $1.47 trillion from this year came from individual income taxes, which comprised almost half of that total, totaling $695 billion.

The Treasury Department has been tracking these data on its website since 1998. In that fiscal year, the federal government collected $1.14 trillion in inflation-adjusted revenue in the first half of that fiscal year. This means that since 1998, tax revenues have increased 28.9 percent.

Although the federal government brought approximately $1.47 trillion in revenue in the first half of fiscal 2016, according to the Treasury, it also spent approximately $1.99 trillion, leaving a deficit of approximately $526 billion.

Published under: Taxes