What is Federal Receipts?
Receipts are the revenues the federal government collects during a fiscal year — primarily from individual income taxes, payroll taxes, corporate income taxes, excise taxes, and customs duties. Individual income and payroll taxes together account for the overwhelming majority of federal receipts.
Live data: Federal Government Current Receipts
Federal Reserve Economic Data (FRED) — · Quarterly · 48 observations
Most recent observation: 5,919.48 Billions of Dollars as of October 1, 2025.
Understanding Federal Receipts
Federal receipts are the total revenue the U.S. government collects in a fiscal year. Individual income taxes and payroll taxes (Social Security and Medicare) together provide roughly 85% of total receipts. Corporate income taxes contribute 7–10%. Excise taxes, customs duties, and miscellaneous collections make up the rest.
Receipts move with the economy. Income tax revenue rises in expansions as wages and employment grow; it falls sharply in recessions, especially when capital-gains realizations collapse. Corporate receipts are even more cyclical — highly sensitive to profits and to tax-law changes.
As a share of GDP, federal receipts have hovered around 17% across most of the post-WWII period, with a peak of 20% in 2000 (dot-com boom, pre-Bush tax cuts) and a low of 14.5% in 2009 (recession). Tax law changes — the 2017 TCJA, the 2001 and 2003 Bush cuts, the 1993 Clinton increases — shift the level by 1–2 percentage points of GDP.
How Federal Receipts is calculated
Treasury publishes monthly receipts by source category in the Monthly Treasury Statement. Annual fiscal-year totals appear in the Financial Report. Individual income tax and payroll tax are the two largest categories; corporate, excise, customs duties, and 'other' round out the total.
Historical context
Federal receipts as a share of GDP averaged roughly 17% across the 1950–2019 period. The 2018 TCJA implementation dropped the share to about 16%; the 2021 post-COVID surge in capital gains and corporate profits briefly pushed it back above 19% before settling in the 17% range.
Frequently asked questions
What's the difference between receipts and revenue?
In federal budget terminology they are largely interchangeable, though 'revenue' is sometimes used more broadly and 'receipts' is the technical Treasury term. The Monthly Treasury Statement reports 'receipts.'
Why don't corporate taxes make up more of federal receipts?
The corporate tax rate was cut from 35% to 21% in the 2017 TCJA, and corporate tax bases have been narrowed by various deductions and credits over time. Payroll taxes on individuals have also grown as a share, both from rate increases and from the cap rising with wages.