Americans spent far more in taxes than they did on food and clothing combined in 2017, and it wasn’t even close.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistic’s (BLS) new data on consumer expenditures, “consumer units” (including families, financially independent individuals/children, and others who live in a single family household) spent an average of $9,562 on food and clothing in 2017, according to BLS. The amount they spent on taxes though, federal and state, was estimated to be $16,749.
The average family in 2017 spent $7,819 in federal taxes and $2,098 on state taxes — with an additional $51 on various other taxes. Furthermore, they spent $4,717 in Social Security taxes, and $2,065 in property taxes; bringing the total to $16,749 in 2017.
Conversely, according to the BLS data, the average consumer unit spent $7,729 dollars on food in 2017, and $1,833 on clothing/apparel for the entire year — totaling $9,562 for the entire year. Additionally, the greatest expense a household faces each year is housing itself — coming in at $19,884. If you combined the total figure that the average family spends on taxes and just housing expenses, the number comes out to be over $36,000, or nearly half of consumer units’ total income brought in for that year.
According to the BLS, there were 130,001,000 consumer units. The average before-tax income of those consumer units was $73,573.
Even though the amount of money each consumer unit spending on taxes is relatively high (compared to other expenditures), the figure itself is actually down from 2016 when it was $17,153.
Whether you owe money to the IRS or you have a State tax debt, our staff of Enrolled Agents and Tax Professionals can help. We have experience negotiating with the IRS in all 50 States.
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