page_title: Income inequality in the United States
section_title: Tax expenditures
hierarchical_section_title: Income inequality in the United States / Policy responses / Taxes / Tax expenditures
caption_attribution_description: English: Charts describing amount and distribution of top 10 tax expenditures (i.e., exemptions, deductions, and preferential rates)
context_page_description: Income inequality in the United States is the extent to which income is distributed in an uneven manner among the American population. It has fluctuated considerably since measurements began around 1915, moving in an arc between peaks in the 1920s and 2000s, with a 30-year period of relatively lower inequality between 1950–1980.
  The U.S. has the highest level of income inequality among its industrialized peers. When measured for all households, U.S. income inequality is comparable to other developed countries before taxes and transfers, but is among the highest after taxes and transfers, meaning the U.S. shifts relatively less income from higher income households to lower income households. In 2016, average market income was $15,600 for the lowest quintile and $280,300 for the highest quintile. The degree of inequality accelerated within the top quintile, with the top 1% at $1.8 million, approximately 30 times the $59,300 income of the middle quintile.
context_section_description: Tax expenditures (i.e., exclusions, deductions, preferential tax rates, and tax credits) affect the after-tax income distribution. The benefits from tax expenditures, such as income exclusions for employer-based healthcare insurance premiums and deductions for mortgage interest, are distributed unevenly across the income spectrum.
  As of 2019, the US Treasury listed 165 federal income tax expenditures. The largest as employer health insurance deductions, followed by net imputed rental income, capital gains (except agriculture, timber, iron ore, and coal) and defined contribution employer pension plans.
  Understanding how each tax expenditure is distributed across the income spectrum can inform policy choices.
  A 2019 study by the economists Saez and Zucman found the effective total tax rate (including state and local taxes, and government fees) for the bottom 50% of U.S. households was 24.2% in 2018, whereas for the wealthiest 400 households it was 23%.
caption: CBO charts describing amount and distribution of top 10 tax expenditures (i.e., exemptions, deductions, and preferential rates)
exif: {}