The just-released Winter 2005-2006 issue of the Statistics of Income Bulletin discloses that adjusted gross income rose in 2004 for the second year in a row, increasing by 8.9 percent to $6.8 trillion. The largest component of AGI, salaries and wages, increased 6.0 percent to $4,977.9 billion, while net capital gains rose 53.2 percent to $442.1 billion. Taxable income increased 10.6 percent to $4.6 trillion.
For 2004, taxpayers filed 132.4 million individual income tax returns, an increase of 1.4 percent from the 130.6 million returns filed for 2003. Total income tax revenue increased 10.5 percent to $870.3 billion.
The Bulletin shows that there were more than 7.3 million individuals in the United States with gross assets of $675,000 or more in 2001. These individuals represented about 3.5 percent of the total U.S. adult population. Top wealth holders had a combined net worth of more than $13.8 trillion, or 32.7 percent of total U.S. net worth. Almost 4.0 million, or 53.7 percent, of these wealthy individuals were male, and 3.4 million were female.
Taxpayers, including businesses are expected to file a total of 229.3 million tax returns with the Internal Revenue Service during calendar year 2006. That projected level reflects a modest increase of only 0.1 percent over the estimated calendar year 2005 filings of 229.0 million. After 2006, however, grand total return filings are projected to grow at a more typical average annual rate of 1.2 percent and to reach 246.8 million by 2012.
