IRS Issues Spring 2010 Statistics of Income Bulletin

The IRS issued a new press release yesterday, announcing their Spring 2010 statistics of income bulletin. The bulletin includes high-income taxpayer statistics, such gift tax returns and trust income for various tax years.

For example, taxpayers filed over 4.5 million returns with adjusted gross income of $200,000 or more for 2007, up from over 4 million returns in the prior year. These high-income returns represent over 3 percent of all returns filed for 2007.

This issue of the quarterly Bulletin also contains articles about the following:

• Individual taxpayers who itemized reported $59 billion in deductions for noncash charitable contributions in 2007. Of these nearly 24 million taxpayers, almost 7 million reported close to $53 billion in deductions on Form 8283, Noncash Charitable Contributions. The number of Form 8283 filers increased 12 percent from 6 million in 2006, and the amount claimed in donations increased to nearly 13 percent from $47 billion.
• About 257,000 gift tax returns were filed in 2008, 96 percent were nontaxable. The reported total amount of gifts was $45 billion. Cash was the predominant type of asset gifted, representing 46 percent of the total, while corporate stock accounted for 24 percent and real estate 17 percent. The majority of gift tax returns, almost 52 percent, were filed by female donors.
• Of the more than 400,000 simple trusts analyzed in a panel study, total income was $15 billion in 2002 and reached $26 billion in 2006. Total deductions grew from $12 billion to $15 billion over the same period for simple trusts. For the more than 700,000 complex trusts analyzed in the panel study, reported total income increased from $28 billion in tax year 2002 to $60 billion in tax year 2006. Total deductions increased from $15 billion in 2002 to $20 billion in tax year 2006 for complex trusts.

Two Out of Three Individuals Now Using IRS e-File

From the IRS Newsroom:

Individuals e-filed a record 95 million federal income tax returns during 2009, up almost 6 percent from last year’s total of nearly 90 million. About two out of three taxpayers e-filed this year; out of the 141 million returns filed so far this year, over 67 percent were e-filed, compared to 59 percent last year.

Each year, more taxpayers chose to e-file their tax returns. While the total number of tax returns has increased 10 percent during the past decade, the number filed electronically has increased by 168 percent. Taxpayers who e-file from a home computer continue to be an increasingly significant segment of those who e-file.

Home Computer e-Filers

This year, for the first time, more than a third of e-filers are those doing it themselves from a home computer More than 32 million returns were e-filed from home computers, up almost 20 percent from last year’s record of 27 million. People filing from their home computers account for about 34 percent of all e-filed returns from individuals.

Direct Deposit Refunds

Almost 73 million refunds were electronically deposited into taxpayer’s accounts, saving the government mailing costs and saving taxpayers a trip to the bank. More importantly, these taxpayers received their refunds a week sooner than those receiving a paper check.

These direct deposit refunds accounted for 66 percent of all refunds, up from 62 percent of refunds last year. Overall, the IRS issued 110 million refunds, averaging $2,753 per refund; direct deposit refunds averaged $2,997 per refund.

Free File

More than 3 million taxpayers filed their tax returns for free through the IRS free file program. This year for the first time, taxpayers could also file directly to the IRS by completing a Form 1040 on IRS.gov; 273,000 taxpayers used this new way to file.

In Debt, Do They Part? Recession Delays Divorces

Yesterday I came across this interesting article from Philly.com discussing how more unhappy couples these days are deciding to stay together for financial reasons. According to the author, the recession has made it difficult for many couples that would like to file for divorce, but simply cannot afford to do so.

Breaking up is hard to do, but during a recession, it's even tougher.

Couples who want to split up often are handicapped: by the high cost of attorneys' fees, because they can't sell their homes or can't afford to set up two households.

So some of them are stuck living together - miserably.

"Some are agreeing to be roommates and stay at separate ends of the house," said attorney J.J. Dahl, who handles about 65 divorce cases each year. "And we have some who have gotten divorced and they're staying in the house together until the market improves and they can sell it."

This is new territory for Dahl, who says that none of her clients was doing this two or three years ago. But today, she finds that 25 percent of her clients are living together to make ends meet until they sell the house - and another quarter have given up and are losing their homes to foreclosure because they couldn't stand living together anymore.

Nationwide, the divorce rate appears to be the lowest since 1970, according to preliminary numbers from the National Center for Health Statistics.

"There is a lot of fear, so people are staying put," said Gary Nickelson, president of the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers. "People look at their assets and their liquidity, and they realize they don't have any."