Take a wild guess what is happening to tax receipts since TARP and Unicorn One descended upon us.

March is supposed to be a big month for tax receipts from regular corporations whose years end in December. In March 2008 (go to Table 3 on Page 2 at the link), $32.6 billion poured in. This year? I’m not kidding: $3.4 billion. For the fiscal year thus far, corporate income tax collections are down almost 57%.

Through March 31 of last year, according to Treasury’s Daily Statement, “Individual Income and Employment Taxes Not Withheld,” which are largely payments made by the self-employed, partners, and those in S corporations whose income flows through to individual tax returns, are down about 13%, or almost $15 billion, from a year ago. These not-withheld taxes are what drove last April’s all-time collections record, which is definitely not going to repeat itself.

It’s clear that quite a few ordinarily industrious people “went Galt” months before the Tea Party movement even came into existence. As a result, fiscal 2009’s deficit could come in closer to $2 trillion than to the Obama administration’s estimate of $1.75 trillion, or even the Congressional Budget Office’s $1.85 trillion.

***Note:

Ummm...., I accidentally linked to a story intended for The Hostages, Part Deux. The link is fixed.

I think.

Posted by: eddiebear at 12:39 AM | Comments (8) | Add Comment
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