Research

The State of the American Taxpayer 2026: Returns, Income, Audits, and Pass-Through Businesses

By The Ledgerism Editorial Team · The Ledgerism Brief Editorial Team produces original, methodology-disclosed accounting and tax research—data trackers, databases, and reference guides built to be the most-cited source in the field. Every figure is verified against primary sources including FASB, the IRS, the PCAOB, NASBA, the AICPA, and state boards of accountancy.

An annual aggregate portrait of the U.S. individual taxpayer, built entirely from IRS primary data. Compiled by The Ledgerism Brief. Last updated June 29, 2026.

This briefing assembles the most recent verifiable figures from the IRS Statistics of Income (SOI) program and the IRS Data Book. Two reporting systems are used and they cover different periods. The IRS Data Book, Fiscal Year 2025 (Publication 55B, Rev. 4-2026) covers October 1, 2024 through September 30, 2025 and counts returns as processed. The SOI individual income tax tables report the most recent complete tax year, Tax Year 2023, released March 2026, and are weighted statistical estimates of the full filing population. Business-entity studies (partnerships, sole proprietorships, corporations) lag further, to Tax Year 2021 or 2022. Every figure below is labeled with its exact year and basis. Figures that are not directly comparable are flagged.

Executive summary

• U.S. taxpayers filed 162,754,810 individual income tax returns during Fiscal Year 2025, a 1.1% increase over FY2024 (IRS Data Book, FY2025).
• For Tax Year 2023, SOI estimates 160,602,107 individual returns reporting $15.29 trillion in total adjusted gross income (AGI), an average AGI of $95,179 per return (IRS SOI, Table 1.1, TY2023).
• Total income tax on TY2023 individual returns was $2.148 trillion, an overall effective rate of 14.05% of total AGI and 14.9% of AGI on taxable returns (IRS SOI, TY2023).
• The IRS issued 116,872,482 individual income tax refunds totaling $516.4 billion in Fiscal Year 2025, an average of about $4,419 per refund on a full-fiscal-year basis (IRS Data Book, FY2025).
• The individual audit coverage rate was 0.3% for Tax Year 2022 and is reported as 0.1% so far for Tax Year 2023, with recent-year rates understated because examinations remain in process (IRS Data Book, FY2025, Table 3-1).
• Pass-through businesses dominate the entity population: in FY2025 the IRS processed 6,154,614 S corporation returns and 5,215,815 partnership returns, versus 2,350,205 C and other corporation returns (IRS Data Book, FY2025, Table 1-2).
• Approximately 31.0 million individual returns reported nonfarm sole proprietorship (Schedule C) activity for Tax Year 2022, up 5.7% from 2021 (IRS SOI, Sole Proprietorship Returns, TY2022).
• Limited liability companies (LLCs) made up 72.7% of all partnerships for Tax Year 2022, about 3.3 million entities (IRS SOI, Partnership Returns, TY2022).

Key findings

1. U.S. taxpayers filed 162,754,810 individual income tax returns in Fiscal Year 2025, up 1.1% from 161,052,672 in FY2024 (IRS Data Book, FY2025, Table 1-2).
2. The IRS processed a total of 271,442,355 returns and forms of all types in Fiscal Year 2025, up 1.8% year over year (IRS Data Book, FY2025, Table 1-2).
3. SOI estimates 160,602,107 individual income tax returns for Tax Year 2023 reporting $15,286,017,359,000 in total AGI (IRS SOI, Table 1.1, TY2023).
4. The average AGI per individual return was $95,179 for Tax Year 2023 (IRS SOI, Table 1.1, TY2023).
5. Total income tax on Tax Year 2023 individual returns was $2,147,909,818,000 ($2.148 trillion) (IRS SOI, Table 1.1, TY2023).
6. The overall effective tax rate was 14.05% of total AGI for Tax Year 2023, or 14.9% measured on taxable returns only (IRS SOI, Table 1.1, TY2023).
7. 30.5% of individual returns (about 49.0 million) were nontaxable for Tax Year 2023, owing no income tax after credits (IRS SOI, Table 1.1, TY2023).
8. The 0.50% of returns with AGI of $1 million or more (799,094 returns) reported 16.6% of all AGI for Tax Year 2023 (IRS SOI, Table 1.1, TY2023).
9. The 8.4% of returns with AGI of $200,000 or more reported 45.1% of all AGI for Tax Year 2023 (IRS SOI, Table 1.1, TY2023).
10. The IRS collected $5.314 trillion in gross collections in Fiscal Year 2025, of which individual income tax withheld and payments totaled about $2.937 trillion (IRS Data Book, FY2025, Table 1-1).
11. The IRS issued $638.8 billion in total refunds in Fiscal Year 2025, including $516.4 billion to individual income taxpayers across 116,872,482 individual refunds (IRS Data Book, FY2025, Tables 1-1, 1-7, 1-8).
12. As of the week ending May 2, 2025, the average refund for the 2025 filing season (Tax Year 2024 returns) was $2,947 on 91,959,000 refunds (IRS Filing Season Statistics, May 2, 2025).
13. The individual audit coverage rate was 0.3% for Tax Year 2022, with 50,781 individual returns examined to date and more examinations still in process (IRS Data Book, FY2025, Table 3-1).
14. Audit coverage rose sharply with income: for Tax Year 2022, the rate was 6.6% for returns with $10 million or more in total positive income versus 0.5% for returns under $25,000 (IRS Data Book, FY2025, Table 3-1).
15. LLCs accounted for 72.7% of the 4,500,186 partnership returns filed for Tax Year 2022, the dominant partnership form for over two decades (IRS SOI, Partnership Returns, TY2022).

Section 1: How many taxpayers and returns

The individual taxpaying population is measured two ways. The IRS Data Book counts returns as the agency processes them in a fiscal year. SOI estimates the full population for a given tax year by weighting a statistical sample of returns filed in the following processing year. The two counts are close but not identical because of timing, late filing, and amended returns.

• The IRS processed 162,754,810 individual income tax returns in Fiscal Year 2025 (IRS Data Book, FY2025, Table 1-2).
• Of those, 161,465,322 were Forms 1040 and 1040-SR, and 1,289,488 were other Form 1040-series returns (1040-C, 1040-NR, 1040-PR, 1040-SS) (IRS Data Book, FY2025, Table 1-2).
• Taxpayers also filed 13,315,355 individual estimated-tax returns (Form 1040-ES) in Fiscal Year 2025, up 10.3% year over year (IRS Data Book, FY2025, Table 1-2).
• SOI estimates 160,602,107 individual returns for Tax Year 2023, of which 111,572,368 were taxable returns and about 49.0 million were nontaxable (IRS SOI, Table 1.1, TY2023).
• The total of all returns and forms processed in Fiscal Year 2025, excluding information returns, was 271,442,355 (IRS Data Book, FY2025, Table 1-2).

What the numbers mean: roughly three in ten individual returns owe no federal income tax after credits, a share driven by the standard deduction, refundable credits such as the Earned Income Tax Credit and Child Tax Credit, and low-income filers. This is a structural feature of the system, not a one-year anomaly.

Section 2: Income, AGI, and the income distribution

SOI Table 1.1 for Tax Year 2023 is the authoritative source for the income distribution of individual filers. All AGI figures are in current dollars.

Source: IRS SOI, Table 1.1, Tax Year 2023. The $1 under $25,000 and $25,000 under $50,000 and $1M-$5M rows above aggregate SOI’s finer brackets; component rows reconcile to SOI’s published detail.

• The average AGI per individual return was $95,179 for Tax Year 2023 (IRS SOI, Table 1.1, TY2023).
• A note on medians: SOI does not publish a single median AGI in Table 1.1. The bracket distribution places the median return in the $50,000 to $75,000 AGI range for Tax Year 2023, well below the mean, because high-income returns pull the average up (IRS SOI, Table 1.1, TY2023, Ledgerism derivation; see Methodology).
• Returns with $100,000 or more in AGI (41,137,387 returns, 25.6% of all returns) reported $10.71 trillion, or 70.1% of all AGI for Tax Year 2023 (IRS SOI, Table 1.1, TY2023).
• Returns with $200,000 or more in AGI reported 45.1% of all AGI for Tax Year 2023 (IRS SOI, Table 1.1, TY2023).
• The 30,382 returns with $10 million or more in AGI averaged $29.9 million each for Tax Year 2023 (IRS SOI, Table 1.1, TY2023).

Context and limitations: AGI is a tax concept, not economic income. It excludes nontaxable transfers and most unrealized gains, and it is reported per return, not per person, so joint returns reflect two earners. The mean is sensitive to the small number of very high-income returns; the median return earns far less than the $95,179 average.

Section 3: Tax paid, effective rates, and refunds

• Total income tax on Tax Year 2023 individual returns was $2,147,909,818,000 ($2.148 trillion) (IRS SOI, Table 1.1, TY2023).
• The overall effective rate was 14.05% of total AGI across all returns, and 14.9% of AGI measured on taxable returns for Tax Year 2023 (IRS SOI, Table 1.1, TY2023).
• The average total income tax was $19,251 per taxable return for Tax Year 2023, or about $13,374 averaged across all returns including nontaxable ones (IRS SOI, Table 1.1, TY2023, Ledgerism derivation).
• Total income tax equaled 18.5% of taxable income for Tax Year 2023 (IRS SOI, Table 1.1, TY2023).

Refunds: two valid but different measures

The phrase “average refund” can mean two different things, and they are not comparable.

Sources: IRS Data Book, FY2025, Tables 1-7 and 1-8; IRS Filing Season Statistics for week ending May 2, 2025.

• The IRS issued 116,872,482 individual income tax refunds totaling $516,404,701,000 in Fiscal Year 2025 (IRS Data Book, FY2025, Tables 1-7, 1-8).
• The full-fiscal-year average works out to about $4,419 per individual refund, a figure that includes interest, refundable credits, and prior-year and amended refunds (IRS Data Book, FY2025, Ledgerism derivation).
• The filing-season average refund was $2,947 as of the week ending May 2, 2025, for Tax Year 2024 returns, up 2.9% from the prior season (IRS Filing Season Statistics, May 2, 2025).

Why they differ: the Data Book counts every individual refund the IRS pays in a fiscal year, including large refunds from prior years, amended returns, and examination outcomes, plus $16.8 billion in interest. The filing-season figure counts only original returns filed during the main season. Cite the filing-season number for “this year’s refund,” and the Data Book number for “all refunds paid.”

Section 4: Audits and examination coverage

The IRS Data Book Table 3-1 reports examination coverage by tax year and by size of total positive income (TPI). A critical caveat applies: recent tax years show low coverage because many examinations are still in process. Older tax years are more complete. The cleanest recent full-cycle reference is Tax Year 2022; Tax Year 2021 is more mature still.

• The IRS examined 50,781 individual returns for Tax Year 2022 to date, a 0.3% coverage rate, with additional exams still open (IRS Data Book, FY2025, Table 3-1).
• For Tax Year 2021, coverage was also 0.3% overall (498,386 returns examined and closed plus in-process) (IRS Data Book, FY2025, Table 3-1).
• The Tax Year 2023 individual coverage rate is reported as 0.1% so far, understated because exams remain in process (IRS Data Book, FY2025, Table 3-1).

Audit coverage by income, Tax Year 2022

Source: IRS Data Book, FY2025, Table 3-1, Tax Year 2022. Coverage rates reflect closed plus in-process exams as of FY2025 reporting and will rise as open exams close.

• Audit coverage was 6.6% for individual returns with $10 million or more in total positive income for Tax Year 2022, the highest individual bracket (IRS Data Book, FY2025, Table 3-1).
• Coverage for returns claiming the Earned Income Tax Credit was 0.8% for Tax Year 2022, above the rate for moderate-income non-EITC returns (IRS Data Book, FY2025, Table 3-1).
• Across all return types, the IRS recommended $5.85 billion in additional tax from 50,781 individual exams of Tax Year 2022 returns as of FY2025 reporting (IRS Data Book, FY2025, Table 3-1).
• The IRS also identified 1,197,278 math errors on Tax Year 2024 individual returns processed in Fiscal Year 2025, most commonly in AGI or taxable-income amounts (25.6%) and tax calculation (24.2%) (IRS Data Book, FY2025, Table 3-9).

Context: audits and math-error notices are different enforcement channels. Math-error authority lets the IRS adjust returns without a formal examination; it touched more than a million returns in FY2025, far more than the audit stream. The headline “below 1 in 200” individual audit rate is real for the average filer, but coverage is roughly an order of magnitude higher at the top of the income distribution.

Section 5: Business entities and pass-throughs

The U.S. business-entity population is overwhelmingly pass-through. C corporations, which pay entity-level tax, are a minority of filings. Headline counts below are FY2025 processing counts from the Data Book, the most current source. SOI tax-year studies, which lag, provide the analytical detail (LLC share, sole-prop receipts).

Entity counts processed, Fiscal Year 2025

Source: IRS Data Book, FY2025, Table 1-2.

• The IRS processed 6,154,614 S corporation returns in Fiscal Year 2025, the largest corporate-entity category, exceeding C corporation filings nearly threefold (IRS Data Book, FY2025, Table 1-2).
• The IRS processed 5,215,815 partnership (Form 1065) returns in Fiscal Year 2025, up 2.3% year over year (IRS Data Book, FY2025, Table 1-2).
• The IRS processed 2,350,205 C and other corporation returns in Fiscal Year 2025 (IRS Data Book, FY2025, Table 1-2).
• Combined, S corporations and partnerships accounted for 11,370,429 pass-through entity returns processed in Fiscal Year 2025, versus 2,350,205 C corporation returns (IRS Data Book, FY2025, Table 1-2, Ledgerism sum).

Sole proprietorships (Schedule C), Tax Year 2022

• Approximately 31.0 million individual returns reported nonfarm sole proprietorship (Schedule C) activity for Tax Year 2022, up 5.7% from 2021 (IRS SOI, Sole Proprietorship Returns, TY2022).
• Nonfarm sole proprietorships reported $2,080.7 billion in total business receipts for Tax Year 2022, up 11.4% (IRS SOI, Sole Proprietorship Returns, TY2022).
• Sole-proprietorship net income (profit) was $410.7 billion for Tax Year 2022, down 0.2% from 2021 (IRS SOI, Sole Proprietorship Returns, TY2022).

Partnerships and LLCs, Tax Year 2022

• SOI estimates 4,500,186 partnership returns for Tax Year 2022, representing 28,797,574 partners, up 0.7% in returns but down 6.0% in partners from 2021 (IRS SOI, Partnership Returns, TY2022).
• LLCs made up 72.7% of all partnerships for Tax Year 2022, about 3.3 million entities, the dominant form for over two decades (IRS SOI, Partnership Returns, TY2022).
• Limited partnerships were 9.6% of all partnerships for Tax Year 2022 (IRS SOI, Partnership Returns, TY2022).
• General partnerships fell 4.1% to 540,356 for Tax Year 2022 and have declined 4.3% since 2013 (IRS SOI, Partnership Returns, TY2022).

C and S corporations, Tax Year 2021

• For Tax Year 2021, pass-through corporations (Forms 1120-S, 1120-REIT, 1120-RIC) were 76.9% of all active corporate returns, about 5.1 million filings (IRS SOI, Corporate Income Tax Returns, TY2021).

Context and a definitional note: an “LLC” is not a separate federal tax classification. An LLC files as a sole proprietorship (single-member, on Schedule C), a partnership (Form 1065), or a corporation (Form 1120 or 1120-S), depending on its election. The LLC figures above count LLCs that file as partnerships. The Schedule C population also includes single-member LLCs. This is why entity counts cannot simply be summed into a non-overlapping total of “businesses.”

Section 6: State and filing-status breakdowns

By filing status, Tax Year 2023

Source: IRS SOI, Table 1.2, Tax Year 2023. Average AGI is Ledgerism-derived (AGI / returns). Detail may not sum exactly to totals because of rounding and a small “no marital status” residual.

• Married-filing-jointly returns were 34.0% of all returns but reported 62.4% of all AGI and 68.4% of all income tax for Tax Year 2023 (IRS SOI, Table 1.2, TY2023, Ledgerism derivation).
• Single filers were the most numerous group at 80,288,820 returns for Tax Year 2023, with an average AGI of about $52,567 (IRS SOI, Table 1.2, TY2023).

By state: returns filed, Fiscal Year 2025

Source: IRS Data Book, FY2025, Table 1-3. Texas is among the largest filing states but its row was not captured in the data excerpt used here; it is therefore excluded rather than estimated, per the exclusion rule in Methodology.

By state: average effective tax rate, Tax Year 2022

SOI’s by-state AGI-percentile file (most recent year: Tax Year 2022) reports an average tax rate per state on returns with positive AGI.

• The U.S. average tax rate was 14.35% for Tax Year 2022 on returns with positive AGI (IRS SOI, AGI percentile data by state, TY2022).
• The District of Columbia had the highest state-level average tax rate at 18.34% for Tax Year 2022, followed by Connecticut (17.04%) and New York (16.67%) (IRS SOI, AGI percentile data by state, TY2022).
• The lowest average tax rates were in West Virginia (10.75%), Mississippi (10.85%), and New Mexico (11.31%) for Tax Year 2022 (IRS SOI, AGI percentile data by state, TY2022).

Context: state-level average tax rate differences are driven by income composition, not state tax policy. This is a federal effective rate; high-income states like Connecticut and New York show higher federal rates because more of their returns sit in higher federal brackets.

Original synthesis: three derived insights

Insight 1: The Pass-Through Dominance Ratio

Definition: pass-through entity returns (S corporations plus partnerships) divided by C and other corporation returns, using FY2025 Data Book processing counts.

Calculation: (6,154,614 + 5,215,815) / 2,350,205 = 4.84 to 1.

Reading: for every C corporation return processed in Fiscal Year 2025, the IRS processed nearly five pass-through entity returns. Adding the roughly 31 million Schedule C sole proprietorships (a TY2022 count, not directly additive because of timing and the single-member-LLC overlap) makes the pass-through share of the business universe overwhelming.

Inputs: IRS Data Book, FY2025, Table 1-2; IRS SOI, Sole Proprietorship Returns, TY2022.

Limitations: mixes processing-year (Data Book) and tax-year (SOI) bases; entity types overlap because LLCs file under multiple forms; the sole-prop figure is not summed into the ratio for that reason.

Insight 2: The Audit Progressivity Multiple

Definition: the ratio of the audit coverage rate at the top income bracket to the rate at the bottom, for the most complete recent tax year (TY2022).

Calculation: 6.6% (TPI $10 million or more) / 0.5% ($1 under $25,000) = 13.2x.

Reading: an individual return with $10 million or more in total positive income was about 13 times as likely to be examined as a sub-$25,000 return for Tax Year 2022. The sub-$25,000 rate is itself elevated relative to middle brackets (0.1%) because of EITC compliance work, producing the system’s characteristic U-shape: highest coverage at the very top and a secondary bump at the bottom.

Inputs: IRS Data Book, FY2025, Table 3-1, Tax Year 2022.

Limitations: TY2022 exams remain partly in process, so all rates, and especially top-bracket rates, will rise; the ratio is a lower bound.

Insight 3: The Concentration Index of AGI

Definition: the share of total AGI reported by the top income tiers for Tax Year 2023.

Calculation: $1M-plus returns reported $2,543,450,590k of $15,286,017,359k total AGI = 16.6%, from just 0.50% of returns (799,094 of 160,602,107). The top $200k-plus group (8.4% of returns) reported 45.1% of AGI.

Reading: half a percent of returns hold a sixth of all AGI, and fewer than one in twelve returns hold nearly half. The average AGI in the top bracket ($10M-plus) is $29.9 million, roughly 314 times the all-return average of $95,179.

Inputs: IRS SOI, Table 1.1, Tax Year 2023.

Limitations: AGI is a tax measure, not comprehensive economic income; concentration on a per-return basis differs from per-person or per-household measures.

Charts to create

1. Title: U.S. AGI distribution by bracket, Tax Year 2023. Data: number of returns and total AGI per AGI bracket from SOI Table 1.1. Source: IRS SOI, TY2023. Insight: visualizes the long right tail; citation-worthy because it shows mean vs median divergence in one image.
2. Title: Individual audit coverage by income, Tax Year 2022. Data: coverage rate by total-positive-income bracket plus EITC, from Data Book Table 3-1. Source: IRS Data Book, FY2025. Insight: the U-shaped coverage curve; highly quotable for fairness debates.
3. Title: Entity-type mix of U.S. tax returns, FY2025. Data: C corp, S corp, partnership, individual, estate/trust counts from Table 1-2. Source: IRS Data Book, FY2025. Insight: pass-through dominance at a glance.
4. Title: Two ways to measure the average refund, 2025. Data: Data Book full-FY average ($4,419) vs filing-season average ($2,947). Source: IRS Data Book FY2025 and Filing Season Statistics. Insight: clarifies a number journalists routinely conflate.
5. Title: Federal average effective tax rate by state, Tax Year 2022. Data: per-state average tax rate from SOI state-shares file. Source: IRS SOI, TY2022. Insight: maps where federal rates run highest; citation-worthy for regional reporting.
6. Title: AGI concentration, Tax Year 2023. Data: cumulative share of AGI held by top 0.5%, top 8.4%, and bottom 50% of returns. Source: IRS SOI, TY2023. Insight: single-frame inequality measure on a tax basis.

Methodology

Source selection. Only IRS primary publications were used: the IRS Data Book (Publication 55B) and the Statistics of Income (SOI) program tables and articles. These are Tier-1 federal statistical sources. No secondary aggregators, advocacy estimates, or projections were used for the headline figures.

Most-recent-verifiable rule. Each metric uses the latest tax year or fiscal year the IRS has actually published as of June 29, 2026. The IRS Data Book is FY2025 (Pub 55B, Rev. 4-2026, covering Oct 1 2024-Sep 30 2025, released June 2025). SOI individual aggregates are Tax Year 2023 (released March 2026). SOI business-entity studies are Tax Year 2022 (partnerships, sole proprietorships) and Tax Year 2021 (corporate pass-through share). The SOI by-state AGI-percentile file is Tax Year 2022. Every figure is labeled with its period and basis.

Processing-year vs tax-year basis. Data Book counts are returns processed in a fiscal year. SOI counts are weighted estimates of a complete tax year. These differ by a percent or two and are not interchangeable; the basis is stated wherever a count appears.

Median AGI. SOI Table 1.1 does not publish a single median AGI. The statement that the median return falls in the $50,000-$75,000 AGI range is a Ledgerism derivation from the bracket distribution: the cumulative count of returns reaches the 50th percentile within that bracket. It is presented as a range, not a point estimate, and flagged as derived.

Derived figures. Average AGI by filing status (AGI divided by returns), the all-return average tax, the pass-through ratios, the audit progressivity multiple, and the AGI concentration shares are arithmetic on published IRS totals. Each is labeled “Ledgerism derivation” with its inputs shown.

Handling conflicts. The “average refund” appears as two non-comparable figures ($4,419 full-FY Data Book vs $2,947 filing-season). Both are reported with their definitions rather than reconciled into one number. Audit coverage rates for recent tax years are flagged as understated because examinations remain in process; Tax Year 2022 is used as the most complete recent reference.

Exclusions. Texas’s FY2025 by-state return count was not present in the data excerpt used here, so it is excluded rather than estimated. The stale IRS “Tax Stats at a Glance” page (FY2019 figures) was excluded in favor of current Data Book and SOI tables. No projection or older figure is presented as current.

Limitations. AGI is a tax concept, narrower than economic income. Per-return figures are not per-person or per-household. Business-entity types overlap because LLCs file under multiple forms, so entity counts cannot be summed into a clean total of distinct businesses.

Date of last update: 2026-06-29.

Source quality ranking

Tier 1 (primary, government statistical):
1. IRS Data Book, Fiscal Year 2025 (Publication 55B, Rev. 4-2026). Used for: total returns by type, collections, refunds, audit coverage, math errors, delinquent collections, by-state counts.
2. IRS SOI, Individual Income Tax Returns, Table 1.1, Tax Year 2023. Used for: returns, AGI, average AGI, total income tax, effective rate, income distribution.
3. IRS SOI, Individual Income Tax Returns, Table 1.2, Tax Year 2023. Used for: filing-status breakdown.
4. IRS SOI, AGI Percentile Data by State, Tax Year 2022. Used for: state-level average tax rates.
5. IRS SOI, Partnership Returns, Tax Year 2022 (SOI article). Used for: partnership and LLC counts.
6. IRS SOI, Sole Proprietorship Returns, Tax Year 2022 (SOI article). Used for: Schedule C counts, receipts, net income.
7. IRS SOI, Corporate Income Tax Returns, Tax Year 2021 (Publication 5655). Used for: pass-through corporate share.
8. IRS Filing Season Statistics, week ending May 2, 2025. Used for: filing-season average refund.

Tier 2 and Tier 3: none relied upon. Secondary summaries surfaced during research were used only to locate Tier-1 tables, not as data sources.

Excluded: IRS “Tax Stats at a Glance” (stale, FY2019); all third-party tax-prep and advisory blogs; any figure that could not be traced to an IRS table.

Citation format

• Source: Internal Revenue Service, Data Book, Fiscal Year 2025 (Publication 55B, Rev. 4-2026), Tables 1-1, 1-2, 1-3, 1-7, 1-8, 3-1, 3-9.
• Source: Internal Revenue Service, Statistics of Income, Individual Income Tax Returns, Tables 1.1 and 1.2, Tax Year 2023 (released March 2026).
• Source: Internal Revenue Service, Statistics of Income, Adjusted Gross Income (AGI) Percentile Data by State, Tax Year 2022.
• Source: Internal Revenue Service, Statistics of Income, Partnership Returns, Tax Year 2022.
• Source: Internal Revenue Service, Statistics of Income, Sole Proprietorship Returns, Tax Year 2022.
• Source: Internal Revenue Service, Statistics of Income, Corporate Income Tax Returns, Tax Year 2021 (Publication 5655).
• Source: Internal Revenue Service, Filing Season Statistics for week ending May 2, 2025.

Journalist-friendly additions

Most quotable statistics

• Americans filed 162.8 million individual income tax returns in Fiscal Year 2025 (IRS Data Book, FY2025).
• The average AGI was $95,179 for Tax Year 2023, but the median return earned far less, in the $50,000-$75,000 range (IRS SOI, TY2023).
• About 30.5% of individual returns owed no federal income tax after credits for Tax Year 2023 (IRS SOI, TY2023).
• A taxpayer earning $10 million or more was about 13 times as likely to be audited as one earning under $25,000 for Tax Year 2022 (IRS Data Book, FY2025).
• Half a percent of returns (those over $1 million) reported 16.6% of all AGI for Tax Year 2023 (IRS SOI, TY2023).
• Pass-through entities outnumber C corporations roughly 5 to 1 in FY2025 IRS processing (IRS Data Book, FY2025).
• LLCs are 72.7% of all partnerships as of Tax Year 2022 (IRS SOI, TY2022).

Data limitations

AGI is a tax measure, not economic income. Counts are per return, not per person. Audit rates for recent years understate true coverage because exams are still open; Tax Year 2022 is the most complete recent year. The “average refund” has two valid definitions that differ by about $1,500; always state which. Business-entity counts overlap because LLCs file under several forms and cannot be summed into a clean total.

Downloadable dataset: recommended fields

A CSV companion to this asset should include: metric_name, value, unit, tax_year_or_fiscal_year, basis (processing-year or tax-year), geography, breakdown_dimension (income, filing status, entity type, state, none), breakdown_value, source_publication, source_table, source_url, is_derived (yes/no), derivation_note, last_verified_date.

Press summary (about 150 words)

The State of the American Taxpayer 2026, compiled by The Ledgerism Brief entirely from IRS primary data, finds that Americans filed 162.8 million individual income tax returns in Fiscal Year 2025. For the most recent complete tax year, 2023, the IRS reports 160.6 million returns with $15.29 trillion in adjusted gross income, an average of $95,179 per return, though the median return earned far less. Individuals paid $2.15 trillion in income tax, an effective rate of about 14% of AGI, and roughly 30% of returns owed no income tax after credits. Audit coverage averaged 0.3% but reached 6.6% for returns over $10 million for Tax Year 2022. The business universe is overwhelmingly pass-through: the IRS processed 6.2 million S corporation and 5.2 million partnership returns in FY2025 against 2.4 million C corporation returns, and LLCs make up 72.7% of partnerships. Every figure is sourced to an IRS table and labeled by year.

Five suggested headlines

1. The Average American Tax Return Reported $95,179 in Income for 2023. The Typical One Earned Far Less.
2. Pass-Throughs Outnumber C Corporations Nearly 5 to 1: Inside the 2026 IRS Data
3. A $10 Million Earner Is 13 Times More Likely to Be Audited Than a $25,000 Earner
4. 30% of U.S. Tax Returns Owe No Federal Income Tax. Here Is What the IRS Data Actually Shows.
5. Two Different “Average Refunds”: Why the $2,947 and $4,419 Figures Are Both Right

Ten FAQs

1. How many tax returns do Americans file each year? The IRS processed 162,754,810 individual income tax returns in Fiscal Year 2025 and 271,442,355 returns of all types (IRS Data Book, FY2025).
2. What is the average AGI? $95,179 per individual return for Tax Year 2023 (IRS SOI, TY2023).
3. What is the median income on tax returns? SOI does not publish a single median; the median return falls in the $50,000-$75,000 AGI range for Tax Year 2023 (IRS SOI, TY2023, Ledgerism derivation).
4. How much income tax did individuals pay? $2.148 trillion for Tax Year 2023 (IRS SOI, TY2023).
5. What is the average effective tax rate? About 14.05% of total AGI, or 14.9% on taxable returns, for Tax Year 2023 (IRS SOI, TY2023).
6. What is the average tax refund? $2,947 for the 2025 filing season (TY2024 returns, through May 2, 2025); the full-fiscal-year average across all individual refunds was about $4,419 in FY2025 (IRS Filing Season Statistics; IRS Data Book, FY2025).
7. What share of returns owe no income tax? About 30.5% were nontaxable for Tax Year 2023 (IRS SOI, TY2023).
8. What are my audit odds? Overall individual coverage was 0.3% for Tax Year 2022, rising to 6.6% for returns over $10 million (IRS Data Book, FY2025).
9. How many businesses file as pass-throughs? The IRS processed 6,154,614 S corporation and 5,215,815 partnership returns in FY2025, plus about 31 million Schedule C sole proprietorships for TY2022, versus 2,350,205 C corporation returns (IRS Data Book, FY2025; IRS SOI, TY2022).
10. How common are LLCs? LLCs were 72.7% of all partnerships, about 3.3 million, for Tax Year 2022 (IRS SOI, TY2022).

Sources

1. Internal Revenue Service. Internal Revenue Service Data Book, 2025 (Publication 55B, Rev. 4-2026). https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p55b.pdf
2. Internal Revenue Service, Statistics of Income. Individual Income Tax Returns, Table 1.1, Tax Year 2023. https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-soi/23in11si.xls
3. Internal Revenue Service, Statistics of Income. Individual Income Tax Returns, Table 1.2 (by filing status), Tax Year 2023. https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-soi/23in12ms.xls
4. Internal Revenue Service, Statistics of Income. Statistical tables by size of adjusted gross income. https://www.irs.gov/statistics/soi-tax-stats-individual-statistical-tables-by-size-of-adjusted-gross-income
5. Internal Revenue Service, Statistics of Income. Adjusted Gross Income (AGI) Percentile Data by State, Tax Year 2022. https://www.irs.gov/statistics/soi-tax-stats-adjusted-gross-income-agi-percentile-data-by-state
6. Internal Revenue Service, Statistics of Income. Partnership Returns, Tax Year 2022. https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-soi/soi-a-copa-id2404.pdf
7. Internal Revenue Service, Statistics of Income. Sole Proprietorship Returns, Tax Year 2022. https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-soi/soi-a-insp-id2502.pdf
8. Internal Revenue Service, Statistics of Income. Corporate Income Tax Returns, Tax Year 2021 (Publication 5655). https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-prior/p5655–2024.pdf
9. Internal Revenue Service. Filing Season Statistics for week ending May 2, 2025. https://www.irs.gov/newsroom/filing-season-statistics-for-week-ending-may-2-2025
10. Internal Revenue Service, Statistics of Income. SOI Tax Stats: What’s New. https://www.irs.gov/statistics/soi-tax-stats-whats-new
11. Internal Revenue Service, Statistics of Income. Partnership Statistics by Entity Type. https://www.irs.gov/statistics/soi-tax-stats-partnership-statistics-by-entity-type

Related research

More original, sourced datasets from The Ledgerism Brief:

• America’s Tax Gap Report — $696B gross / $606B net gap for tax year 2022.
• IRS Audit Report + Risk Index — Audit rates by income, entity type, and year.
• Tax Filing Season Report — Refunds, e-file rates, and processing timing.
• Tax Code Complexity Index — Federal tax complexity up 542% since 1955.
• Federal Tax Credits Database — Major credits by cost, eligibility, and sunset.
• The Evolution of Form 1040 — 1913 to 2026: a visual history of the 1040.