The percentage of nonpayers (taxA tax is a mandatory payment or charge collected by local, state, and national governments from individuals or businesses to cover the costs of general government services, goods, and activities. payers who owe zero income taxes after taking their credits and deductions) began to climb significantly after the Tax Reform Act of 1986, which increased the value of the standard deductionThe standard deduction reduces a taxpayer’s taxable income by a set amount determined by the government. It was nearly doubled for all classes of filers by the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) as an incentive for taxpayers not to itemize deductions when filing their federal income taxes. and nearly doubled the size of the personal exemption. But the number of nonpayers has soared in recent years because of the expansion and creation of credits such as the Earned Income Tax CreditA tax credit is a provision that reduces a taxpayer’s final tax bill, dollar-for-dollar. A tax credit differs from deductions and exemptions, which reduce taxable income, rather than the taxpayer’s tax bill directly. , the Child Credit, and various energy and education credits.
In 2011, roughly 54 million federal income tax filers had no income tax liability after deductions and credits. This amounts to 37 percent of the roughly 145 million tax returns filed that year. While high, this is not as high as 2009 when 58 million income tax filers, nearly 42 percent, were nonpayers. By contrast, the low point for nonpayers was 1969, when only 16 percent of filers had no income tax liability.
For more charts like the one below, see the second edition of our chart book, Putting a Face on America's Tax Returns.
