Methods and limitations
Tax Dollars Methodology
How Paper Trail keeps revenue, income-tax returns, households, obligations, outlays, and indirect support from being conflated.
Federal Receipts
Revenue composition uses net receipts from the U.S. Treasury Bureau of the Fiscal Service Monthly Treasury Statement. Completed fiscal years end September 30. Displayed shares are calculated from the shown receipt categories; refunds, classification changes, and rounding can affect reconciliation to the published total.
Fiscal Year vs. Tax Year
A federal fiscal year runs from October 1 through September 30. An IRS tax year labels the year represented on income-tax returns. CBO household estimates use their separately labeled data year. These periods are not interchangeable.
IRS Statistics of Income
IRS percentile tables describe individual income-tax returns excluding dependent returns and rank them by adjusted gross income. A return is not necessarily a household. Share of individual income tax is not share of all federal taxes.
AGI and Percentiles
Adjusted gross income is a tax-return measure defined in federal law. Cumulative groups such as the top 1 percent overlap broader groups such as the top 10 percent and must not be added together.
CBO Household Distribution
CBO combines administrative tax and household survey data. Average federal tax rates divide estimated federal taxes by CBO’s defined household income before transfers and taxes.
Effective vs. Marginal Rates
A marginal bracket applies to a portion of taxable income. An average rate divides taxes by a stated income measure. Share paid measures a group’s contribution to a specified tax total.
Tax Incidence
The entity legally remitting a tax may not bear its full economic burden. CBO allocates corporate income taxes using economic assumptions; Paper Trail does not treat remittance as proof of ultimate incidence.
Obligations vs. Outlays
USAspending obligations are legal commitments. Outlays are cash disbursements. Paper Trail labels the measure and does not combine unlike measures.
Direct and Indirect Public Support
Contracts, grants, loans, and assistance are kept separate from workforce benefit estimates, tax expenditures, incentives, and financing. They are not automatically additive.
Employer Benefit Studies
Employer-linked estimates require a source, study year, geography, population definition, household-member treatment, and limitations before publication.
Coverage Limitations
Initial coverage is federal. State and local taxes, incentives, procurement, property taxes, and sales taxes are excluded. Linked profiles and awards are a curated subset, not the full federal ledger.