US Income Inequality - IRS 2023 Tax Data - Publication 1304

In April this year the IRS released the tax data for 2023, a year late. It should have been released in the Spring of 2025.

You can make your own guess about why it was late.

2023 IRS Tax Data

Individuala and families filed 160,602,107 returns in 2023.

The total US adjusyed gross income (AGI) in 2023 was $15.286 trillion.

Over 2 million filers had no income (AGI).

Total income tax collected in 2023 was $2.109 trillion.

2023 IRS Tax Data

Range of Earnings	Number of filers	% of Fiers	Amount of AGI	% of AGI	Avg. Annual Income (AGI)	Taxable Income	Amountof tax	% tax of Taxable	% tax of AGI
			(in trillions)			(in trillions)	(in billions)	Income
No AGI income	2.180,146	1.4%	-$0.144	0%		$0.0	$0.0	0%	0%
$1 to $50,000	77.373,223	48.1%	$1.867	12.10%	$24,137	$0.594	$59.4	10.01%	3.18%
$0 to $50,000	79,553,369	49.5%	$1.723	11.16%	$21,863	$0.595	$59.5	10,03%	3.45%
$50,000 to $100,000	39,911,352	24.8%	$2.852	18.5%	$71,462	$1.880	$211.0	11.22%	7.40%
$100,000 to $200,000	27,602,745	17.2%	$3.818	24.8%	$138,330	$3.024	$409.5	13,54%	10.72%
$200,000 tp $500,000	10,966,828	6.8%	$3.153	20.4%	$287,872	$2.756	$507.6	18.42%	16.10%
$500,000 to $1,000,000	1,779,729	1.1%	$1.194	7.8%	$671,417	$1.091	$267.5	24.52%	22.28%
$1,000,000 to $1,500,000	368,931	0.2%	$0.443	2.9%	$1,202,551	$0.405	$112.5	27.77%	25.35%
$1,500,000 to $2,000,000	147,290	0.1%	$0.252	1.7%	$1,717,044	$0.230	$66.8	29.10%	26.45%
$2,000,000 to $5,000,000	203,229	0.1%	$0.602	3.9%	$2,965,389	$0.544	$162.8	29.90%	27.02%
5,000,000 to $10,000,000	49,252	0.00031%	$0.336	2.2%	$6,827,469	$0.302	$90.5	22.91%	26.89%
$10,000,000 or more	30,392	0.00019%	$0.907	5.9%	$29,882,856	$0.799	$220.8	27.64%	24.32%
$500,000 or more	2,578,814	1.5%	$3,738	24.23%	$1,449,653	$3.371	$920.9	27.32%	24.63%
$1 or more Totals	158,421,962		$15.430		$97,399	$11.625	$2,108.6	18.14%	13.79%
Grand Totals	160,602,107		$15.286		$95,179	$11.625	$2,108.6	18.14%	13.79%

Runaway Capitalism

Capitalism is driven by greed. It has no moral core. A democratic society needs to protect itself from the inequalities and the damage documented in the chart above.

The botton 49.5% of filers earned only 11.16% of the total of the US adjusted gross income in 2023.
That translates into an annual earnings of $21,663 per filer.

The top 1.5% of the filers earned 24.93% of the total of the US adjusted gross income in 2023.
That translates into an annual earnings of $1,449,653 per filer.

This disparaty is politically and economically dangerous. Just ask the French peasants and nobility of 1789.

The US government can not directly balance the incomes of its populace but it can construct a tax structure that does restore some balance to this inequality.

Congressional Budget Office - FY-2023 Deficit

Along with this income inequality, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) published data that showed that the federal budget had a $1.7 trillion deficit in FY-2023. The details are as follows:

Expenses = $6.1 trillion

1. Social Security = $1.3 trillion
2. Medicare = $839 billion
3. Medicaid = $616 billion
4. Other = $520 billion
5. Non-Defence = $917 billion
6. Defense = $1.253 trillion
7. Interest = $659 billion

Revenue = $4.4 trillion

1. Income Tax = $2.2 trillion
2. Payroll Taxes (FICA) = $1.6 trillion
3. Corporate Taxed = $420 billion
4. Custom Duties = $0
5. Other = $229 billion

First Cut to Close the Deficit

1. Increase corportate tax to $1.0 trillion (21% to 45%)
2. Increase payroll taxes to $1.9 trillion (collect Social Security tax on all income above the cap like what is done for the Medicare tax)
3. Increase income taxes to $3.0 trillion. (raise the marginal tax rates on income over $500,000 to produce an added $1.1 trillion) The AGI for filers above $500k was $3,738 trillion. These filers paid $921 billion in income taxes, They need to pay $2.0 trillion. That still leaves them with $1.738 trillion ($1.738/2,576,814 = $674,476 avg annual earnings).

Of course, we all know it is unacceptable to increase taxes on the very rich. This is the fundamental political problem in the United States. Everything flows from this obstacle.

FY-2013 Investment Returns: NYCERS Fails to Match the S&P 500 Index, Again.

The Comptroller has just released the NYC FY-2013 CAFR (Comprehensive Annual Financial Report) : the city's annual financial statement. Pension investment expenses have increased significantly from FY-2012, $472.5M up from $370.3M. This is a reversal from the previous two years.

Specifically, NYCERS expenses jumped from $129.5M to $183.3M (see original expense history).

As of June 30, 2013, the NYCERS closing balance increased from $42.7B to $47.2B but given the 17.9% increase in the S&P 500 index that number should have been $48.6B (Bond Core = -.95% with a 70/30 allocation). With a waste of $150M in investment expenses NYCERS is short $1.55B for FY-2103 that a prudent investment policy would have provided. For the record NYCERS missed the Index/Core threshold by $2.6B in FY-2012.

The truly scary thought is that if NYCERS had followed a simple prudent investment strategy over the last last 14 years, the June 30, 2013 closing balance would be $58B. In this year's CAFR the actuary estimated the NYCERS current pension liability at $65.3B. A sane investment policy can go a long way in solving pension problems.