This page contains CBO's estimates of average federal tax rates (tax rates as a percentage of income) paid by households in various income categories for the four largest sources of federal revenues--individual income taxes, social insurance (payroll) taxes, corporate income taxes, and excise taxes--as well as the average rate for the four taxes combined. The page also contains estimates of average before- and after-tax household income; the number of households in each income category; shares of taxes, income, and households for each income group; information relating to the methodology used to construct the estimates; supplementary estimates for different types of households; and estimates of the number of households that pay more in payroll taxes than they do in income taxes.
Average Federal Tax Rates in 2007 data
Average Before-Tax Household Incomepdfdata
Average After-Tax Household Incomepdfdata
Shares of Before-Tax Incomepdfdata
Shares of After-Tax Incomepdfdata
Additional Data on Sources of Income and High-Income Households, 1979-2005pdfdata
Distribution of Income and Taxes by Type of Household (1979-2007)
Households Paying More in Payroll Taxes Than Income Taxes (2007)pdfdata
Median Before-Tax and After-Tax Household Income, 1979-2007pdfdata
Sources of Income by Income Category, 1979-2007pdfdata
Issues to Consider for Distributional Analysis (CBO Director’s Blog, December 2007)
Effective Tax Rates: Comparing Annual and Multiyear Measures (January 2005)