The IRS collected about $5.1 trillion in gross tax revenue during Fiscal Year 2024, the highest annual total on record. After sending roughly $553 billion back to taxpayers as refunds, the federal government kept approximately $4.55 trillion in net revenue.1Internal Revenue Service. IRS Data Book, 2024 Those numbers come from the IRS Data Book, which tracks collections on a federal fiscal year running October 1 through September 30. So the short answer to how much the IRS collects in taxes each year depends on which figure you want: the gross dollars flowing in, or the net dollars the Treasury keeps after refunds.
The gap between the two matters. Gross collections count every dollar received, including penalties and interest. Net collections subtract refunds, which include overpayments and refundable credits like the Earned Income Tax Credit and the Child Tax Credit. Headlines usually cite gross; budget analysts usually care about net.
Where the Money Comes From
Individual income taxes do most of the work. In FY 2024, withholding from paychecks plus estimated payments and amounts owed at filing added up to roughly $2.70 trillion, about 53% of gross collections.1Internal Revenue Service. IRS Data Book, 2024 That category covers wages, salaries, investment gains, retirement distributions, and business income reported on individual returns.
Employment taxes came in second at about $1.66 trillion, or 32.6% of the total. These fund Social Security and Medicare, split between employees and employers. Employment tax revenue is the steadiest slice of the pie because it tracks total wages rather than profits or investment markets.
Corporate income taxes brought in roughly $563 billion, about 11.0%. Corporate receipts swing harder from year to year than individual or payroll taxes because business profits move with the economic cycle. Excise taxes on products like gasoline and tobacco added roughly $78 billion, and estate and gift taxes another $33 billion. Together those last two categories make up just over 2% of collections.1Internal Revenue Service. IRS Data Book, 2024
How Recent Years Compare
Annual collections have moved sharply over the past several years. FY 2020 was the low point in this stretch, held down by the pandemic recession, deferred filing deadlines, and expanded refundable credits. Gross collections rebounded to roughly $4.0 trillion in FY 2021 and then jumped to a then-record $4.9 trillion in FY 2022 as strong wages, high employment, and a hot stock market pushed up both individual income and capital gains tax payments.2Internal Revenue Service. IRS Publishes Its Fiscal Year 2023 Financial Report
FY 2023 slipped back to $4.7 trillion gross and about $4.0 trillion net as capital gains realizations dropped and the post-pandemic income surge cooled. FY 2024 then broke the record at $5.1 trillion, helped by a rebound in corporate receipts and continued payroll growth.1Internal Revenue Service. IRS Data Book, 2024 The Congressional Budget Office projected roughly $5.2 trillion for FY 2025, and through late April 2025 actual receipts were tracking close to that estimate.
The pattern is worth noting if you’re comparing year to year. Individual income taxes and corporate taxes are the volatile pieces. Employment taxes barely move by comparison, because total national wages change much more gradually than investment income or corporate profits.
What Doesn’t Get Collected
Not every dollar owed gets paid. The IRS estimates an annual “tax gap” representing the difference between what taxpayers legally owe and what they voluntarily pay on time. For Tax Year 2022, the projected gross tax gap was $696 billion. After late payments and enforcement recoveries, the net tax gap still stood at roughly $606 billion — money the government will likely never collect.3Internal Revenue Service. Tax Gap Projections for Tax Year 2022
That figure comes from three sources: underreporting of income on filed returns (the biggest piece by far), non-filing of required returns, and underpayment of reported tax. Underreporting among pass-through businesses and self-employed individuals accounts for a disproportionate share, because those earnings lack the automatic withholding that makes wage income harder to hide.
Enforcement recovers only a fraction of that gap. In FY 2024, IRS enforcement actions brought in $120.2 billion in unpaid assessments, netting $77.6 billion after credit transfers, plus $17.8 billion in additional taxes assessed on late-filed returns and about $3.2 billion collected from delinquent filers.4Internal Revenue Service. Collections, Activities, Penalties and Appeals Large numbers on their own, but small next to a $606 billion net gap.
Where the Figures Come From and When They Update
The IRS publishes its collection totals in the annual IRS Data Book, which covers each fiscal year from October 1 through September 30.5Internal Revenue Service. SOI Tax Stats – IRS Data Book The Data Book breaks down gross collections, refunds, and net collections by tax type and also reports returns filed, enforcement activity, and taxpayer services. When you see a headline citing an annual tax collection total, it almost always traces back to this publication.
Tax gap estimates are released separately and lag real-time collections by several years, because they depend on detailed audit and compliance analysis. The most recent projection covers Tax Year 2022.6Internal Revenue Service. IRS – The Tax Gap So a current-year answer to “how much does the IRS collect” is available within months of a fiscal year’s close; a current-year answer to “how much doesn’t get collected” is not.