Washington (April 24, 2003) -- Of the 130.5 million individual income tax returns filed for Tax Year 2001, the number of returns filed increased by 0.9 percent while total income tax decreased by 8.6 percent, according to the just-released Winter 2003 edition of the Statistics of Income Bulletin.
The quarterly bulletin, prepared by the Internal Revenue Service, estimates that the total number of tax returns to be filed in 2003 will reach 230.6 million. At an estimated annual growth rate of 1.7 percent, the total number will reach 253.6 million by 2009, according to the bulletin. These totals are comprised mainly of "primary" returns — individual, corporation, partnership, and employment tax returns — and "supplemental" returns — mostly amended returns and documents filed by individuals and corporations requesting extensions of time to file.
Return data shows that for 1998, the 7,500 largest foreign corporations controlled by large U.S. multinational corporations with more than $500 million in total assets held $3.2 trillion in end-of-year assets and reported receipts of $1.7 trillion. More than half of all controlled foreign corporations were incorporated in Europe.
Wealth estimates derived from 1998 Federal estate tax return data indicate that more than 6.5 million individuals — about 3.4 percent of the adult population — had gross assets of $625,000 or more. Top wealth holders owned more than $11.1 trillion in total assets, comprising 32.6 percent of the total U.S. personal asset holdings. California remains the state with the largest number of millionaires, while Connecticut was the state with the greatest per capita concentration of millionaires.
-- WebCPA staff
