Your Guide to America’s Finances (2024)

FAQs

What is the main source of income for the US government? ›

Federal Budget. What are the sources of revenue for the federal government? Over half of federal revenue comes from individual income taxes, 9 percent from corporate income taxes, and another 30 percent from payroll taxes that fund social insurance programs (figure 1). The rest comes from a mix of sources.

The majority of this revenue is used to pay for government activities (employee salaries, infrastructure maintenance), as well as to pay for goods and services provided to United States citizens and businesses.

Nearly half of mandatory spending in 2022 was for Social Security and other income support programs such as the Child Tax Credit, food and nutrition assistance, and federal employee benefits (figure 3). Most of the remainder paid for the two major government health programs, Medicare and Medicaid.

Combining direct and indirect taxes, as well as taxes from state and local government, the average American family paid $17,902 in taxes in 2021.

The top 10%, with incomes of at least $169,800, pay about three-quarters of the nation's tax bill, the analysis found. Although most Americans believe the middle class bears the heaviest tax burden, it's actually the top 1% who pay the highest federal tax rate, at 25.9%, the Tax Foundation analysis found.

The fact is that Congress, despite borrowing $2.9 trillion from Social Security, hasn't pilfered or misappropriated a red cent from the program. Regardless of whether Social Security was presented as a unified budget under Lyndon B.

Who Does Not Have to Pay Taxes? Generally, you don't have to pay taxes if your income is less than the standard deduction, you have a certain number of dependents, working abroad and are below the required thresholds, or are a qualifying non-profit organization.

Residents in Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Jersey and New York have some of the highest tax bills in the nation. They also pay thousands more in federal taxes than their state receives back in federal funding.

Total net worth (property minus debt) is about $130 Trillion.

What age group spends the most money in the US? ›

Overall in 2021, Gen X (anyone born from 1965 to 1980) spent the most money of any U.S. generation, with an average annual expenditure of $83,357. The second biggest spenders are Millennials with an average annual expenditure of $69,061. Image: Visual Capitalist.

As the chart below shows, three major areas of spending make up the majority of the budget: Social Security: In 2023, 21 percent of the budget, or $1.4 trillion, will be paid for Social Security, which will provide monthly retirement benefits averaging $1,836 to 48.6 million retired workers.

For a single male earning an average wage every year and who retired in 2020 at age 65, lifetime Social Security and Medicare benefits would equal about $640,000, while total taxes paid would be just shy of $470,000.

The lowest tax bracket is 10%. The highest tax bracket is 37%. If you're in the middle class, you're probably in the 22%, 24% or possibly 32% tax brackets.

The primary source of government revenue comes from taxes.

Taxes: payments by individuals and businesses to support the activities of government The individual income tax is the federal governments biggest single source of income.

Personal income taxes and Social Security taxes are the largest sources of federal government revenues.