What are the sources of revenue for the federal government? Q.What are the sources of revenue for the federal government? A.Over half of federal revenue comes from individual income taxes, 9 percent from corporate income taxes, and another 30 percent from payroll taxes that fund social insurance programs (figure 1). The rest comes from a mix of sources. Read more about What are the sources of revenue for the federal government?
What is mandatory and discretionary spending? Q.What is mandatory and discretionary spending? A.Lawmakers can control all spending except the interest due on government debts. However, discretionary spending often gets more scrutiny than mandatory spending or tax breaks that function much like spending programs. One reason for this imbalance is that discretionary spending must be re-approved each year. In contrast, most mandatory spending and tax expenditures continue from year-to-year without new approval. Read more about What is mandatory and discretionary spending?
What are the largest tax expenditures? Q.What are the largest tax expenditures? A.Tax expenditures make up a substantial part of the federal budget. Some of them are larger than the entire budgets of the programs or departments that spend money for the same or related purposes. For example, the value of the tax breaks for homeownership, although reduced by the 2017 tax act, still exceeds total spending by the US Department of Housing and Urban Development. Read more about What are the largest tax expenditures?