The IRS’s Statistics of Income Division yesterday released Individual Income Tax Returns 2009 (Publication 1304):
[This] Publication contains complete individual income tax data. The statistics are based on a sample of individual income tax returns, selected before audit, which represents a population of Forms 1040, 1040A, and 1040EZ, including electronic returns.
The report contains data on sources of income, adjusted gross income, exemptions, deductions, taxable income, income tax, modified taxable income, tax credits, self-employment tax, and tax payments.
Section 1 – Introduction and Changes in Law – In this section you will find information on filing requirements, changes in law, the 1979 income concept, and a comparison of adjusted gross income with the 1979 income concept
Section 2 – Description of the Sample – In this section you will find the following information concerning the sample: domain of study, sample design and selection, data capture and cleaning, method of estimation, sampling variability and confidence intervals, and table presentation. Section 3: Basic Tables – The statistical tables found in this section are broken into the following groupings:
Section 4 – Explanation of Terms – This section is designed to clarify the statistical content of this report. The definitions and explanation provide background or limitations to the titles used in the tables
Table A – Selected Income and Tax Items for Selected Years, in Current and Constant 1990 Dollars
Reuters, U.S. Incomes Fell Sharply in 2009, by David Cay Johnston:
U.S. incomes plummeted again in 2009, with total income down 15.2% in real terms since 2007, new tax data showed on Wednesday. The data showed an alarming drop in the number of taxpayers reporting any earnings from a job — down by nearly 4.2 million from 2007 — meaning every 33rd household that had work in 2007 had no work in 2009.
Average income in 2009 fell to $54,283, down $3,516, or 6.1% in real terms compared with 2008. … Compared with 2007, average income was down $8,588 or 13.7%. Average income in 2009 was at its lowest level since 1997 when it was $54,265 in 2009 dollars, just $18 less than in 2009. The data come from annual Statistics of Income tables that were updated Wednesday.
