IRS Data Book

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Data Book is published annually by the IRS and contains statistical tables and organizational information on a fiscal year basis. The report provides data on collecting the revenue, issuing refunds, enforcing the law, assisting the taxpayer, and the budget and workforce.

With a new online format, this year’s publication makes navigating data on taxpayer assistance, enforcement, and IRS operations easier, with graphic depictions of key areas and quick links to the underlying data. You can view selected summary graphs, key statistics, and descriptions of the tables and the IRS functions they cover.

Finding an organization’s Form 990 or 990-PF

According to IRS disclosure regulations, exempt organizations must make its three most recently filed annual 990 or 990-PF returns and all related supporting documents available for public inspection. This public disclosure rule also applies to Form 1023, which is filed to obtain exempt status.

Please note that there can be a 12-18 month lag period between the end of an organization's fiscal year and the point when its IRS return is available to the public.

See more from Grantspace

Statistics of Income Tax Stats

This document contains the federal tax forms, schedules, and information documents that the Statistics of Income (SOI) Division of the IRS has selected for its Tax Year programs. It is organized in 3 parts:

Individual Statistics Branch studies include data related to the Form 1040 Individual income tax return series, as well as data on sales of capital assets and an extensive program that connects income tax returns with information documents filed by third parties.

The Corporation Statistics Branch studies focus on data collected from the Form 1120 series and SOI’s Partnership program.

Special Studies Branch programs include data collected for Estate and Gift Taxes, Tax-exempt Organizations, and Tax-Exempt Bonds, as well as information collected for international filers.

Each tax form included in the SOI program is represented in this volume. Due to resource constraints, data from certain forms and schedules are collected periodically, rather than annually. For this reason, the contents of this document will vary somewhat from year to year. The information collected for each SOI project is developed in close collaboration with data users both inside and outside of the government. Most SOI programs are based on stratified samples of returns for which data are collected prior to IRS audits; therefore the data represent information as originally reported by taxpayers.
Returns for the most recent Tax Year available are filed primarily during the prior calendar year, although returns for fiscal-year filers or filers for whom filing extensions have been granted may not be received by the IRS until the calendar year following. Consequently, data collected by SOI for a specific Tax Year will generally be made available to the public, in the form of tables and summary analyses, during the following two calendar years.

State and County Migration Data, 2013–2014

The State- and county-level migration data for 2013-2014 for the United States are now available on Tax Stats. These data show the migration between both States and counties in separate datasets. These datasets use the methodological improvements made to SOI’s United States population migration data and are not comparable with prior years. The data include migration flows at the State level, by size of adjusted gross income and age of the primary taxpayer.

Migration data are based on year-to-year address changes reported on individual income tax returns filed with the IRS. The data present migration patterns by State or county for the entire United States and are available for inflows (the number of new residents who moved to a State or county and where they migrated from) and outflows (the number of residents leaving a State or county and where they moved to).

Taxpayer ID Theft: Use IRS.gov to Verify Your Identity

The IRS stops and flags suspicious or duplicate federal tax returns that falsely represent your identity, such as your name or social security number. If the IRS suspects tax ID theft, the agency will send a 5071C letter to your home address. If you receive this letter, verify your identity at idverify.irs.gov or call the toll-free number listed in the letter. 


If you are a victim of state tax ID theft, contact your state's taxation department or comptroller's office about the next steps you need to take. 

Individual Income Tax Statistics - ZIP Code Data

From the IRS 

ZIP Code data show selected income and tax items classified by State, ZIP Code, and size of adjusted gross income. Data are based on individual income tax returns filed with the IRS and are available for Tax Years 1998, 2001, 2004 through 2012. The data include items, such as:

• Number of returns, which approximates the number of households
• Number of personal exemptions, which approximates the population
• Adjusted gross income 
• Wages and salaries
• Dividends before exclusion
• Interest received  

ZIP Code Data

2011  2012

ZIP Code Data 1998–2010

1998  2001  2004  2005  2006  2007  2008  2009  2010

2010-2011 Migration Data and 2010 Controlled Foreign Corporations

The trends data page for the Cornell Program on Applied Demographics now includes data from the latest IRS release, HERE.

Within the section on IRS migration flows, there are two sub sections that you can expand by clicking. One concentrates on moves between NY counties (empty for NY state as a whole), the other is an attempt to create “rates” that are comparable over time and between counties.

This shows some maps that can be made using this data.

Teaching Kids About Taxes: What Are They and Why Do We Pay Them

It’s that time of year when adults are getting paperwork organized and talking about taxes. Kids may be wondering what all the fuss is about. Here is a lesson plan for grades 3 - 5 that can be used to explain what income, property, and sales taxes are and why we pay them.

The IRS has a comprehensive website for teachers and students from middle school through college.

Federal, State & Local Governments - A Closer Look

A part of the IRS, FSLG is responsible for ensuring federal tax compliance by federal, quasi-governmental and state agencies; city, county, and other units of local government; and governmental entities in American Samoa, Guam, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. The office coordinates activities with other IRS offices such as Customer Account Services, Counsel, Government Liaison & Disclosure, Employee Plans and Excise Tax. Additionally, Federal, State and Local Governments works with the Taxpayer Advocate Service to resolve tax problems.

FSLG delivers various services through partnership with government associations, practitioner associations, IRS Counsel, and other IRS offices. Individualized service is available to you on a voluntary basis. Specially trained IRS staff can address tax topics - unique to government entities - that may relate to, for example, governments as employers, and issues of payments to outside contractors.

To read the January 2013 edition of the FSLG Newsletter, please visit the Current Edition in the Government Entities section of the IRS.gov website.

The Internal Revenue Service 2011 Data Book

Letter from the Commissioner

The 2011 Internal Revenue Service Data Book [PDF] details IRS activities for Fiscal Year 2011 (October 1, 2010, through September 30, 2011). This annual report catalogs the many ways in which our dedicated employees serve the American taxpayer.

During Fiscal Year 2011, the IRS processed more than 234 million returns, including individual income, corporate income, and employment income tax returns. We provided nearly $416 billion in refunds to these taxpayers and collected $2.4 trillion in Federal revenue.
We provided taxpayer assistance through 319 million visits to IRS.gov and assisted nearly 83 million taxpayers via our toll-free telephone helpline or at walk-in sites. Of the more than 143 million individual income tax returns processed, 77 percent were filed electronically.

County-to-county migration

IRS county-to-county migration data is derived from matched tax returns (one year to the next) and gives very detailed information on the origin and destination of DOMESTIC migration.

IRS list of organizations that have automatically had their federal tax exempt status revoked

The IRS has published the first Automatic Revocation of Exemption List. It indicates approximately 275,000 nonprofits whose tax-exempt status has been revoked because they failed to file a Form 990, 990-N, 990-EZ, or 990-PF for three consecutive years; the list is available for downloading in both Excel and PDF form. Here's the PDF of the New York State list.

As GuideStar notes, if an organization appears on the list, it must now must file a federal income tax return and pay federal income taxes. If it previously could accept tax-deductible contributions, it no longer can do so. "If your organization is not on the list, technically you don't have to do anything. This a good time, however, to reach out to your donors, funders, and other constituents and assure them that you are in good standing with the IRS. You may also wish to suggest that your supporters consult the list to ensure that the other nonprofits they give to are still exempt."

IRS Tax Stats - SOI Bulletin: Winter 2011

Includes Individual Income Tax Returns, Preliminary Data, 2009 and much more HERE.

Small Nonprofits in Danger of Losing Their Tax-Exempt Status

From Guidestar:

"Time is running out for small nonprofits facing loss of tax-exempt status because they have not filed Form 990-N or Form 990-EZ for three consecutive years. The deadline for the IRS's one-time filing relief program is October 15, 2010. After that, nonprofits that (1) are required to file a 990 and (2) whose filings are at least three years in arrears will automatically lose their exemptions. To regain tax-exempt status, they will have to apply to the IRS all over again, a process that can take several months and requires payment of fees."

IRS Publishes List of Nonprofits at Risk of Losing Tax-Exempt Status

I belong to GuideStar, an entity that "gather[s] and publicize[s] information about nonprofit organizations." They have been writing about smaller nonprofits facing automatic revocation of tax-exempt status. They inform the readers that there is a list of nonprofits at risk on the IRS Web site.

You might want to check your favorite charities. The more curious could search the PDFs by location or partial ZIP Code, or perhaps save and manipulate the downloadable Excel files.

IRS Tax Statistics

From hillsearch.org:

Spend a little time on the IRS web site checking out the tax data available for businesses, individuals, and nonprofits.

Business tax statistics include access to popular financial ratios for many industries, from cost of goods sold, expenditures, net income, assets, and more - typically organized by the North American Industrial Classification System and separated out by type of business structure (corporation, partnership, sole proprietorship, for instance).

You can even obtain individual income tax data by ZIP code--but the cost for this is $25 per state or $500 for the entire U.S.

And don't forget the nonprofit sector - in addition to statistics, here you can also download a "master list" of all tax-exempt organizations (nonprofits) in the US, or within a particular state.

New Tax Guide Features Recovery Tax Breaks; Helps People Save on their 2009 Taxes

Taxpayers can get the most out of new recovery tax breaks and get a jump on preparing their 2009 federal income tax returns by consulting a newly revised comprehensive tax guide now available on IRS.gov.

IRS migration data

The IRS has released a new year of state and county level migration flows based on tracking tax returns between 2007 and 2008. As usual, the Missouri Census Data Center has obtained these data and made them available in its public data archive, as well as via its interactive web application that displays a migration profile for any selected county in the U.S.

MDCD used to have to purchase these data on CD-ROM/DVD, but starting this year, the IRS has decided to make the raw files available via a free download site.

You can access the MCDC irsmig data collection, which lets you access the migration profiles menu page.

IRS Releases 2008 Data Book

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) announced the release of the 2008 IRS Data Book (PDF), which is an annual snapshot of IRS activities for a given fiscal year.

The report describes activities conducted by the IRS from Oct. 1, 2007, to Sept. 30, 2008, and includes information about returns filed, tax collections, enforcement and taxpayer assistance, as well as the IRS budget and workforce.

During fiscal year 2008, the IRS collected more than $2.3 trillion in taxes (net of refunds) and processed more than 250 million returns. More than 101 million returns, including 58 percent of individual income tax returns, were filed electronically.

More than 118 million individual income tax return filers received tax refunds that totaled almost $270.4 billion. Filers also received more than $95.7 billion in economic stimulus payments. In fiscal year 2008, IRS spent an average of 41 cents to collect each $100 of tax revenue.

Tax Statistics

Produced by the Statistics of Income Division and Other Areas of the Internal Revenue Service, categories include business tax statistics, individual tax statistics, IRS operations/budget/compliance, statistics of income, charitable and exempt organization statistics, products/publications/papers, statistics by tax form, and more. The What’s New page points to the most recent information added to the site and also to the most popular items.