Paying and Non-Paying at Tax Time

May 28, 2008

William Ahern

One of the inquiring public’s most frequently asked tax questions is how many people in the entire country file a tax return. A common related question is how many people aren’t obliged to pay any income tax when they file a tax return. We take our answers straight from the IRS, and here they are for 2005.

		Four Types of Tax Returns
		Single People		Couples
	All	Individual	Head of		Joint	Filing
	Returns	Returns	Household		Return	Separately
Total Returns	134,372,678	59,347,974	19,985,059		52,505,729	2,462,804
Paying Returns	90,593,079	41,900,154	6,572,893		40,081,458	2,004,781
Non-paying Returns	43,779,599	17,447,820	13,412,166		12,424,271	458,023

Fraction of Returns Non-paying	32.58%	29.40%	67.11%		23.66%	18.60%

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