2007 Set High-Water Mark for Income

Taxpayers filed over 4.5 million returns with adjusted gross income of $200,000 or more for 2007, up from over 4 million returns in the prior year, according to newly released IRS statistics.

These high-income returns represent over 3 percent of all returns filed for 2007. Of the 4,535,623 income tax returns with AGI of $200,000 or more in 2007, 10,465 (0.231 percent) showed no U.S. income tax liability, and 4,841 (0.107 percent) showed no worldwide income tax liability. For 2006, of the 4,064,883 returns with AGI of $200,000 and over, 8,252 returns (0.203 percent) had no U.S. income tax liability, and 4,123 returns (0.101 percent) had no worldwide income tax liability, according to an article by Justin Bryan in the IRS’s Spring 2010 issue of the Statistics of Income Bulletin.

For 2007, of the 4,576,315 tax returns with expanded income of $200,000 or more, 13,142 (0.287 percent) had no U.S. income tax liability, and 4,354 (0.095 percent) had no worldwide income tax liability. For 2006, of the 4,094,953 returns with expanded income of $200,000 or more, there were 11,014 (0.269 percent) with no U.S. income tax liability and 4,322 (0.106 percent) with no worldwide income tax liability.

Also in the bulletin, the IRS reported that individual taxpayers who itemized reported $59 billion in deductions for non-cash charitable contributions in 2007. Of these nearly 24 million taxpayers, almost 7 million reported close to $53 billion in deductions on Form 8283, Non-cash Charitable Contributions. The number of Form 8283 filers increased 12 percent from 6 million in 2006, and the amount claimed in donations increased to nearly 13 percent from $47 billion.

About 257,000 gift tax returns were filed in 2008, and 96 percent were nontaxable. The reported total amount of gifts was $45 billion. Cash was the predominant type of asset gifted, representing 46 percent of the total, while corporate stock accounted for 24 percent and real estate 17 percent. The majority of gift tax returns, almost 52 percent, were filed by female donors.

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