An interesting update from the IRS
Nope, they haven’t agreed to write off my debt to them in exchange for my analysis of their numbers (Damn It)
Anyway, I get this email about an hour ago.
IRS Fall 2009 Statistics of Income Bulletin Now Available
WASHINGTON — The Internal Revenue Service today announced the release of the fall 2009 issue of the Statistics of Income Bulletin, featuring data on 143 million individual income tax returns filed for tax year 2007.
Adjusted gross income (AGI) less deficit (losses) reported for 2007 totaled $8.7 trillion, an 8 percent increase from 2006. The number of returns filed in 2007 represents an increase of 3 percent since 2006.
Several income items increased appreciably between 2006 and 2007, including taxable interest, ordinary dividends, taxable Individual Retirement Arrangement distributions and net capital gains (less loss), which increased 20 percent, 19 percent, 19 percent, and 16 percent, respectively.
Wow, I’m all excited as they updated the 2008 records, then I notice that its 2007 and I say what the heck, they have already released the 2007 databook that you can view by clicking here
My previous analysis using the 2007 databook can be found by clicking here
Now I’m beginning to think I’m losing it with all the stress, so I keep digging and I eventually find where I got the previous figures at and you can view it by clicking here
So I’m thinking it says statistical tables so that means they are probably samples and now you see why I consider samples to be GARBAGE when it comes to stuff like this.
If that is the case, does that mean that the report released today is the official completed report?
For now, I’m going to republish the charts with the new numbers.
I do have some concerns about the accuracy of the numbers because as you have seen in my analysis of the BEA numbers for the GDP, the private investment (meaning businesses) has declined dramatically around 2007, but for now we will run with it.
Click to zoom in
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Lets see how even the figures are for this year
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That shows how the dollars are broken up, now lets see how the quantity of people in America is broken down too.
Click to zoom in
ain’t that interesting.
The dollars are different, but the population breakdown is exactly the same as what I wrote in the previous article showing the totals.
Imagine that.
Yet the dollars are different.
Wonder if Obama forced this update?
Reader Comments
The release of the Statistics of Income Bulletin IRS report has to do with a schedule established by the IRS on a quarterly bases dating back many years. Look on page 298 of the report at this link you will see that it is published different times through the year incorporating different data Public Release of SOI Information see pg 298
http://www.irs.gov/taxstats/article/0,,id=215634,00.html
But why the differences between the figures.
Anytime I find a discrepancy between two sets of figures for the same time I begin to suspect both of them as being garbage.
You might want to contact them to find this out…I noticed each of the reports have phone numbers listed. I did notice that each report appears to include different data and serves different purposes…so you may want to find out from them what each reports purpose is and the bases of the data to better determine which ones of a mulitude of reports they issue throughout the year best serve your needs for the anaylsis you intend to do.
I have in the past and the answer I got was that their work is based on samples so I will continue to use this space to DEMAND accurate verifiable data that we can take to the bank and not samples.
Doubt very seriously if they listen, but I want you to think about something.
The government, including the health care department releases numbers every day that effect your and my jobs and everybody’s elses, yet the data is incomplete and inaccurate and based on samples or phone samples or other such garbage.
As we are hired, we submit a W-4 which tells them we are working.
As we are fired, a report is submitted.
As they issue us a pay check, a report is submitted.
There is absolutely no reason that they cannot have accurate, verifiable data other then red tape and turf wars and I am not willing to accept that and I will continue to work toward changing the status quo because it needs to be changed if we really want to steer this ship called America.
I am sure they could make improvements – there is always room for improvement – in their data and reports. But we do live in a far more complex world. Think about all the veriables involved in just collecting data as it relates to taxes…there a mulitple deadlines and filing dates, indvidual returns due by April 15th, then extension filing dates and corporate fiscal year end reprots and filing dates which vary and so forth…it can take several years for all the contributing factors to finally be accumulated just to reflect the results for a certain year, for 2007 for example…I would think that an analyist would need to accurately identify which report to use depending on the objectives of their analysis.