Where the Federal Government's Money Comes From, 1940–2025

About this chart

The picture is the federal government's receipts, stacked: time runs left to right, the height at any fiscal year is the total, and the total is cut into bands, one for each source, so the thickness of a band is that source's amount and the top edge is the whole. The bands keep one order from bottom to top, so a band can be followed as it widens or thins. The value scale grows as the picture is drawn: the early fiscal years are drawn at a readable height, and the picture zooms out as the total climbs, with the gridlines redrawn at round numbers as it goes. Each band is labelled at the leading edge with its current amount and share; on a phone held upright a table below the picture gives them. The animation draws the fiscal years in over forty-one seconds, holds on the latest for three seconds, and loops. The scrubber pauses on any fiscal year, and the speed can be changed in the controls.

Method

Each fiscal year's federal receipts are cut into six sources and stacked, in nominal dollars: individual income taxes; payroll taxes (what the budget calls social insurance and retirement receipts, on- and off-budget together); corporation income taxes; excise taxes; customs duties and fees; and estate and gift taxes together with miscellaneous receipts, most of which are the Federal Reserve's deposits of its earnings. The figures are the Office of Management and Budget's Historical Tables 2.1 (receipts by source) and 2.5 (the composition of "other receipts"), in millions of dollars as published; the total drawn is the sum of the six sources, which differs from the table's own total by one or two million dollars in thirty of the eighty-six years because the components are rounded. The series begins in fiscal 1940, the first year the tables split customs from the rest, and ends at the latest complete fiscal year; the three-month transition quarter of 1976, when the fiscal year moved to an October start, is not a fiscal year and is left out. The value scale grows as the years are drawn, so the early years are drawn at a readable height and the picture zooms out as the total climbs.

Data sources

• OMB Historical Tables — Table 2.1, Receipts by Source: 1934–2031
• OMB Historical Tables — Table 2.5, Composition of "Other Receipts": 1940–2031

Updated FY2025

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