Record Federal Tax Collections in 1988

The Internal Revenue Service reported record federal tax collections of $935.1 billion for fiscal year 1988. Individual tax receipts totaled $473.7 billion, an increase of 1.8 percent over the prior year. Corporation tax receipts rose 6.6 percent to $109.7 billion.

These and other facts about IRS operations are contained in the annual report issued by the Commissioner of Internal Revenue and the Chief Counsel for the Internal Revenue Service.

IRS service centers processed 194 million federal tax returns and supplemental documents in 1988. About 583,000 of the returns were filed electronically. Over 88 million of all returns received were Forms 1040 and 1040A individual income tax returns. More than 18 million individual taxpayers, 17.1 percent of all individual filers, used the simplified Form 1040EZ, an increase of 9 percent over last year.

IRS issued 83 million refunds totaling $94.5 billion in fiscal year 1988. Individual refunds averaged $921.

The IRS examined 1,060,807 returns and recommended additional tax and penalties of over $20 billion. The IRS collected $23.3 billion in delinquent taxes in 1988 compared with $22.9 billion in 1987.

The report shows that during the 1988 tax season taxpayers wrote, telephoned or visited IRS offices over 59.8 million times to obtain tax information. About 5.9 million taxpayers used the toll-free telephone system to order forms and publications.

The report also gives information on tax guidance provided by the Chief Counsel for the IRS; expansion of international programs; several research projects, and many other narrative and statistical reports of IRS programs.

The annual report, IRS Publication 55, is available for $3.50 from the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, DC 20402, telephone (202) 783-3238. The stock number reference for the report is 048-02280-0.

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