Individual Income Tax Rates
& Tax Shares Released

WASHINGTON - For 1990, the top five percent of individual income tax returns accounted for 43.64 percent of the tax, based on adjusted gross income.

Average tax per individual tax return was $4,976, with an average tax rate of 13.55 percent, based on adjusted gross income. These figures demonstrate the continued steady decline in tax rate percentages from 1988 and 1989, the first two years of the two-bracket tax structure introduced by the Tax Reform Act of 1986.

1991 corporation income tax returns show that profits dropped for the third consecutive year, seven percent less than in 1990. As a result, total income tax after credits dropped from $96.4 billion to $92.6 billion, the first decline in tax since 1985.

U.S. income paid to foreigners, mostly corporations, was more than $70 billion in 1991, 27 percent more than in 1989, the last year for which statistics are complete. However, the $2 billion in U.S. tax withheld on this income was six percent less than in 1989, mainly because of a decrease in dividends subject to high withholding rates and an increase in income exempt from withholding.

These and other statistics are reported in the Internal Revenue Service's Summer 1994 Statistics of Income Bulletin, available now from the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office, P.O. Box 37194, Pittsburgh, PA 25250-7954. Annual subscriptions are $25 for four issues; single issues cost $13.

For other statistical information, write the Director, Statistics of Income CP:S, Internal Revenue Service, P.O. Box 2608, Washington, DC 20013-2608, dial the Statistics of Income electronic bulletin board (202) 874-9574, or call the statistical information services desk (202) 874-0410 (NOT a toll-free call).

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