{"id":4761,"date":"2020-02-05T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2020-02-05T04:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.whitcomb.com\/finding-the-balance-of-income-vs-spending\/"},"modified":"2022-02-07T13:47:03","modified_gmt":"2022-02-07T17:47:03","slug":"finding-the-balance-of-income-vs-spending","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.whitcomb.com\/blog\/2020\/02\/05\/finding-the-balance-of-income-vs-spending\/","title":{"rendered":"Finding the Balance of Income vs. Spending"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

THE IRS PRIMER EVERY VOTER SHOULD KNOW<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Every year the IRS publishes instructions to prepare your Form 1040, individual tax return. The publication for 2019 is a whopping 108 pages! On page 103 of the IRS booklet is a summary of collections (income) and spending (outlays) by the federal government. Given the election year, here is a summary of this recap and some general observations.*<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2018 Federal Income and Outlays<\/strong>
41% Personal income taxes
28% Social Security, Medicare, unemployment and other retirement taxes
19% Borrowing to cover deficit
7% Excise, customs, estate, gift and misc. taxes
5% Corporate income taxes
41% Social Security, Medicare, other retirement
22% Social programs
20% National defense, veterans and foreign affairs
8% Net interest on the debt
7% Physical, human and community development
2% Law enforcement and general government<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Income
$3.330 trillion<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Outlays
$4.206 trillion<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Deficit
($779 billion)<\/p>\n\n\n\n


Observations<\/strong>
23%: The amount of annual spending with no income to cover it.
63%: The amount of spending for social programs, Social Security and Medicare.
20%: National defense (15%), veterans benefits (4%), foreign aid (1%)
8%: Amount of annual budget required to pay interest on prior year deficits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why care?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n