What does it cost the IRS to collect taxes?

Is the IRS efficient? We will leave that for you to decide, but you may or may not be surprised by the agency’s operating costs. It’s reduced the cost per dollar collected in recent years while collecting more revenue. Here are the numbers.

It cost the IRS 53 cents to collect $100 in 2010. By 2023, that cost fell to 34 cents, a 36% improvement.
In 2023, the IRS’s 82,990 employees collected nearly $4.7 trillion in taxes, up 26% over the previous decade. This included:
- $4.1 trillion from individual income taxes and other individual payroll contributions
- $457 billion from corporate income taxes
- $74 billion from excise taxes
- $35 billion from estate and gift taxes
The IRS spent $16.1 billion on operating expenses. Sixty-five percent of that was for salaries and benefits, while 35% was for infrastructure, technology, and other operational costs.
After adjusting for inflation, IRS operating costs have fluctuated between just under $14 billion to just over $17 billion since the 1990s. Its 2023 costs were the highest since 2011.

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What does the US produce?

What does made in America mean these days? It often means its service sector — think finance, real estate, and healthcare services. In fact, services contributed over four times more to the nation’s GDP in 2024 than goods.

In 2024, the US produced $29.2 trillion in goods and services, with $24.3 trillion (83.3%) coming from services and $4.9 trillion (16.7%) from goods.
These financial figures are called “value added,” aka what these sectors contribute to the economy. (Read the article for more on how value added is calculated.)
Finance, insurance, real estate, rental, and leasing accounted for $6.2 trillion (or 25.5%) of all service-based value. Professional and business services followed ($3.8 trillion), followed by educational services, healthcare, and social assistance ($2.5 trillion).
Goods production is, of course, still crucial to the economy. The nation’s goods-producing industries are agriculture, mining, construction, and manufacturing. Manufacturing alone accounted for 59.8% of all US-produced goods, generating $2.9 trillion.
The top goods by value added were chemical products ranked first at $575.2 billion, then food, beverage, and tobacco products ($350.1 billion). Computer and electronic products ($308.3 billion) were third.

Value added by goods and services in 2024

The US produced about seven times more goods and services than it imported in 2024 — $29.2 trillion compared to $4.1 trillion. In other words, for every $1 of value in imports, we produced a little over $7.

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Data behind the news

The United States military bombed three Iranian nuclear facilities over the weekend to destroy the nation's nuclear enrichment capacity. We’ve recently updated this article on how many people are in the US military, plus the data on how many nuclear weapons the US has.

Chicken fettuccine alfredo products are being recalled due to a listeria outbreak that’s killed at least three people and led to one pregnancy loss. Listeria is one of the most common types of foodborne illness.

States (plus four US territories and Washington, DC) have agreed to a $7.4 billion settlement with Purdue Pharma over thousands of opioid deaths and addictions. Track overall opioid deaths in the US and compare them to other types of drug overdoses.

Acing the weekly fact quiz is not for the casual fact fan. But it’s good to have big goals, right?

One last fact

In 2022, people ages 30 to 49 comprised over half the teaching workforce. Teachers in their 40s made up the largest share of educators at 26.1%, followed by those in their 30s, at 25.4%.