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Data on the Distribution of Federal Taxes and Household Income
December 2007

This page contains CBO's most recent estimates of federal effective tax rates (taxes as a percentage of income) across household income groups for the four largest sources of federal revenues--individual income taxes, social insurance (payroll) taxes, corporate income taxes, and excise taxes--as well as the total effective rate for the four taxes combined. The page also contains estimates of average before- and after-tax household income, counts of households, and shares of taxes, income, and households for each income group; information relating to the methodology used to construct the estimates; supplementary estimates for different household types; and a comparison of income and payroll taxes.

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Current Estimates (for 2005) Go to Documents

Historical Effective Federal Tax Rates and Income, by Income Category (1979-2005)

Effective Tax Rates  pdf  data

Share of Taxes Paid  pdf  data

Average Before-Tax Household Income  pdf  data

Average After-Tax Household Income  pdf  data

Shares of Before-Tax Income  pdf  data

Shares of After-Tax Income  pdf  data

Median Before-Tax and After-Tax Household Income  pdf  data

Income Ranges for Each Income Class  pdf  data

All of the Above Information  pdf  data

Methodology

Data Sources and Assumptions

Issues to Consider for Distributional Analysis (CBO Director’s Blog, December 2007)

Effective Tax Rates: Comparing Annual and Multiyear Measures (January 2005)

Supplementary Information

Distribution of Income and Taxes by Type of Household (1979-2005)

Households Paying More in Payroll Taxes Than Income Taxes (2005)  pdf  data