The U.S. federal government collected roughly $5.23 trillion in taxes during fiscal year 2025, up from $4.44 trillion in fiscal year 2023.1U.S. Treasury Fiscal Data. How Much Revenue Has the U.S. Government Collected This Year?2Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. Federal Receipts That total equals about 17% of the country’s entire economic output. The money comes overwhelmingly from three sources: individual income taxes, payroll taxes for Social Security and Medicare, and corporate income taxes. Smaller amounts come in through customs duties, excise taxes, estate and gift taxes, and miscellaneous fees.
Where the $5.23 Trillion Comes From
The rough composition of federal revenue in fiscal year 2025 looks like this:
- Individual income taxes: about half of the total
- Payroll taxes (Social Security and Medicare): about one-third
- Corporate income taxes: about 10%
- Customs duties, excise taxes, estate and gift taxes, and other receipts: the remainder
These shares shift year to year. When employment is high and wages are rising, more income flows through the tax system and revenue climbs. During recessions, taxable income shrinks and collections fall. Legislation matters too. The One, Big, Beautiful Bill signed in July 2025 extended the individual tax rate structure from the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, keeping the current bracket system in place rather than letting rates revert to higher pre-2018 levels.3Internal Revenue Service. IRS Releases Tax Inflation Adjustments for Tax Year 2026 The jump from $4.44 trillion in fiscal year 2023 to $5.23 trillion in fiscal year 2025 reflects both a growing economy and an unusual surge in tariff revenue during 2025.
Individual Income Taxes
Individual income taxes are the single largest source of federal revenue, consistently delivering about half of the government’s total intake. The tax applies to wages, salaries, investment gains, business income, and most other forms of personal earnings. Employers withhold income tax directly from paychecks throughout the year. Taxpayers who earn income without withholding, such as freelancers, landlords, and investors, generally make quarterly estimated payments to the IRS.
Seven brackets apply for the 2026 tax year, with rates from 10% on the first slice of taxable income up to 37% on income above $640,600 for single filers or $768,700 for married couples filing jointly.3Internal Revenue Service. IRS Releases Tax Inflation Adjustments for Tax Year 2026 The brackets are progressive: only the income falling within each range gets taxed at that range’s rate. Deductions and credits reduce the amount most people actually owe, so effective rates come in well below the marginal bracket.
Revenue from capital gains and other investment income shows up in the individual income tax totals rather than as a separate category. Long-term capital gains on assets held more than a year get preferential rates of 0%, 15%, or 20% depending on income. High-income taxpayers also face an additional 3.8% net investment income tax on the lesser of their net investment income or the amount by which modified adjusted gross income exceeds $200,000 for single filers or $250,000 for married couples filing jointly.4Internal Revenue Service. Net Investment Income Tax Short-term gains on assets held a year or less are taxed at ordinary income rates.
Payroll Taxes
Payroll taxes are the second-largest revenue source, accounting for about one-third of federal collections in fiscal year 2025. Unlike income taxes that flow into the general fund, payroll taxes are earmarked specifically for Social Security and Medicare. Workers see them on every paycheck as FICA (Federal Insurance Contributions Act) withholding.
The Social Security portion is 6.2% of wages for employees, matched by another 6.2% from the employer, for a combined 12.4%.5Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 USC Ch. 21 – Federal Insurance Contributions Act For 2026, this tax applies to the first $184,500 of earnings. Income above that ceiling is not subject to Social Security tax.6Social Security Administration. Contribution and Benefit Base The Medicare portion is 1.45% each for employee and employer (2.9% combined), with no income cap. Earners above $200,000 pay an additional 0.9% Medicare surtax on wages above that threshold.
Self-employed workers pay both sides of FICA, so they owe the full 15.3% on their net earnings, though they can deduct the employer-equivalent half when calculating income tax. Because the money is legally dedicated to Social Security and Medicare, it cannot be diverted to other spending, and the revenue stream stays relatively stable even when Congress adjusts income tax rates.
Corporate Income Taxes
Corporations pay a flat 21% federal tax rate on taxable profits.7Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 USC 11 – Tax Imposed That rate, set by the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, replaced the old graduated structure topping out at 35%. Corporate tax revenue was approximately $492 billion in fiscal year 2024, which works out to roughly 10% of total federal revenue.8Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. Federal Government Tax Receipts on Corporate Income
The gap between the 21% statutory rate and what corporations actually pay can be substantial. Businesses reduce taxable income through deductions for operating expenses, depreciation, research credits, and other provisions. Some profitable companies end up with an effective federal rate in the single digits. Multinationals also shift income toward lower-tax jurisdictions. As a result, corporate tax revenue swings more from year to year than individual or payroll collections.
Customs Duties and Tariffs
Customs duties are traditionally a minor federal revenue source, but 2025 was different. For calendar year 2025, the Department of Homeland Security collected $287 billion in customs duties, taxes, and fees, a 192% increase over the prior year.9Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond. How Much Revenue Has Been Raised by Tariffs So Far? The spike was driven largely by tariffs imposed under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) during 2025.
Those tariffs hit a legal wall in February 2026. The Supreme Court ruled that IEEPA does not give the president authority to impose tariffs, reasoning that the power to regulate imports is fundamentally different from the power to tax them, and that Congress had never granted tariff authority through IEEPA.10Congressional Research Service. Supreme Court Rules Against Tariffs Imposed Under the IEEPA The ruling means the government may have to refund billions of dollars in IEEPA tariffs already collected from importers. Tariffs imposed under other legal authorities, including Section 232 on steel and aluminum, remain in place and will continue generating revenue. The 2026 customs total will almost certainly look different from the inflated 2025 figure.
Excise, Estate, and Other Sources
Excise taxes apply to specific goods and activities rather than income. The biggest categories target motor fuels, airline tickets, tobacco, alcohol, and certain health-related products. Recent fiscal years have seen excise collections in the range of roughly $75 billion to $90 billion. The federal gasoline tax has been 18.4 cents per gallon since 1993, and revenue from it flows into the Highway Trust Fund for road and bridge maintenance.11U.S. Energy Information Administration. How Much Tax Do We Pay on a Gallon of Gasoline and on a Gallon of Diesel Fuel? Because the rate has never been indexed to inflation, Congress has periodically transferred general fund money to keep the trust fund solvent. Starting January 1, 2026, the One, Big, Beautiful Bill added a new excise tax on remittance transfers sent abroad.12Internal Revenue Service. One, Big, Beautiful Bill Provisions
Estate and gift taxes apply when large amounts of wealth are transferred at death or as lifetime gifts. For 2026, the basic exclusion amount was increased to $15 million per person under the One, Big, Beautiful Bill, meaning a married couple can effectively shelter $30 million from estate tax.13Internal Revenue Service. What’s New — Estate and Gift Tax Above those thresholds, the top rate is 40%. Because the exemption is so high, fewer than 1% of estates owe federal estate tax, and total annual collections stay a tiny fraction of overall revenue.
Another source that has largely dried up is Federal Reserve remittances. The Fed has historically sent its operating profits to the Treasury, sometimes adding tens of billions in annual receipts. As of September 2025, the Federal Reserve System carried a $242 billion deferred asset representing accumulated operating losses.14Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System. November 2025 Federal Reserve Balance Sheet Developments Until the Fed works through that loss, meaningful remittances to the Treasury are unlikely.
Federal Revenue as a Share of the Economy
Economists gauge the government’s tax footprint by comparing federal receipts to gross domestic product. Over the past several decades, that ratio has moved between roughly 15% and 20%, regardless of which party controls Congress or the White House.15Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. Federal Receipts as Percent of Gross Domestic Product Fiscal year 2025 came in at about 17%, right in the middle of the historical range.1U.S. Treasury Fiscal Data. How Much Revenue Has the U.S. Government Collected This Year?
The stability of this ratio is one of the more surprising facts about federal taxation. Major tax cuts like the 2017 TCJA and major tax increases both tend to produce smaller changes in the ratio than you might expect, because the economy adjusts and offsetting factors kick in. Fiscal year 2022 hit 18.8%, the highest in years, largely because capital gains realizations and corporate profits surged coming out of the pandemic. By fiscal year 2023, the ratio had dropped to about 16% as those one-time windfalls faded. The rebound to 17% in fiscal year 2025 reflects both economic growth and the tariff revenue spike. Whether that level holds in 2026 depends heavily on how customs revenue settles after the Supreme Court’s IEEPA ruling.