A flood of tax payments pushed government receipts to an all-time high in April and left the country with the largest monthly budget surplus in seven years.
In its monthly budget report, the Treasury Department says that the April surplus totaled $156.7 billion, up from a surplus of $106.9 billion a year earlier. It was the largest surplus since April 2008. Government receipts totaled $471.8 billion, the largest monthly total on record.
Receipts for the first seven months of the budget year came to $1.89 trillion, the biggest seven-month total ever. Tax receipts have climbed thanks to an improving economy, which has boosted individual and corporate tax payments.
Through the first seven months of the budget year that began in October, the deficit totaled $282.8 billion, 7.7% below last year. The Congressional Budget Office is forecasting a full-year deficit of $486 billion, roughly on par with the previous year.
From October through April, revenues totaled $1.89 trillion, up 8.9% from the same period last year. Individual payroll taxes and Social Security taxes are running 6% higher than a year ago, while individual taxes on stock dividends, capital gains and payments by the self-employed are running 17% above last year.
Government outlays over the past seven months totaled $2.17 trillion, up 6.4% from the same period a year ago. The 2014 deficit was down from $680.2 billion in 2013.
Before 2013, the U.S. had recorded four straight years of annual deficits above $1 trillion, reflecting the impact of a severe financial crisis and the worst recession since the Great Depression of the 1930s.
The Associated Press has the full story.
