What portion of the U.S. economy is consumed by federal, state and local taxes?
Correct Answer
In 2021, federal, state and local governments collected a combined total of $6.2 trillion in taxes, amounting to 27.0% of the U.S. economy. This figure has increased from 10% of the economy in 1930. Governments also spent another 10.9% more of the economy than they collected in revenues. This is an effective tax on tomorrow's workers and taxpayers because it must be paid back. These figures account for all types of explicit taxes, including hidden taxes. However, they don't include implicit hidden taxes that impose the costs of government social policies by shifting their costs to the private sector.
DocumentationTax CollectionsHidden TaxesImplicit Hidden Taxes