Every year about this time, the IRS’s Statistics of Income Division publishes one of its most popular studies, a sorting of tax returns by adjusted gross income. We’ve kept a running tally for many years, and 2008’s data is now posted. Since the economy was in recession throughout 2008, the data show income falling sharply for all income groups between 2007 and 2008, especially for the top-earning one percent of taxpayers, as business income dried up. It’s little consolation that this depressed income at the top end of the spectrum reduced income inequality, but it did do that.
