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IR-2014-69, IRS Statistics of Income Spring Bulletin
WASHINGTON — The Internal Revenue Service today announced the spring 2014 issue of the Statistics of Income Bulletin is now available, featuring information on high-income individual income tax returns filed for tax year 2011.
Taxpayers filed almost 5 million returns with adjusted gross incomes of $200,000 or more for 2011, up over 9 percent from the prior year. These high-income returns represent about 3 percent of all returns filed for the tax year.
The Statistics of Income (SOI) Division produces the SOI Bulletin on a quarterly basis. Articles included in the publication provide the most recent data available from various tax and information returns filed by U.S. taxpayers. This issue of the SOI Bulletin also includes articles on the following topics:
- Individual Income Tax Rates and Shares, 2011: Of the 145 million individual tax returns filed in tax year 2011, almost 92 million were classified as taxable returns or returns with a total income tax greater than $0. Adjusted gross income (AGI) for taxable returns was nearly $7.7 trillion, up 6 percent from the prior year. Total income tax was more than $1 trillion. To be included in the top 1 percent of returns for 2011 required an AGI of $388,905.
- Individual Noncash Contributions, 2011: For tax year 2011, there were more than 22 million individual taxpayers who reported a total of $43.6 billion in deductions for noncash charitable contributions. About a third (7.5 million) of these taxpayers reported nearly $39 billion in deductions for charitable contributions of $500 or more.
- Individual Foreign-Earned Income and Foreign Tax Credit, 2011: Nearly 450,000 U.S. taxpayers reported $54 billion of foreign-earned income for tax year 2011. This represented growth in real terms of over 32 percent since the last study in 2006.
The Statistics of Income Bulletin is available for download at IRS.gov/taxstats. Printed copies of the Statistics of Income Bulletin are available from the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office, P.O. Box 371954, Pittsburgh, PA 15250-7954. The annual subscription rate is $67 ($93.80 foreign); single issues cost $44 ($61.60 foreign).
For more information about these data, write to the Internal Revenue Service (RAS:S), Director, Statistics of Income, 1111 Constitution Ave. NW, (K-Room 4160), Washington, DC 20224-0002.
IR-2014-68, June 16 Deadline Nears for Taxpayers Living Abroad; June 4 IRS Webinar Can Help Those Reporting Foreign Accounts
WASHINGTON — Taxpayers abroad qualifying for an automatic two-month extension must file their 2013 federal income tax returns by Monday, June 16, according to the Internal Revenue Service.
The June 16 deadline applies to U.S. citizens and resident aliens living overseas, or serving in the military outside the U.S. on the regular April 15 due date. Eligible taxpayers get one additional day because the normal June 15 extended due date falls on Sunday this year. To use the two-month extension, taxpayers must attach a statement to their tax return explaining which of these two situations applies. See U.S. Citizens and Resident Aliens Abroad for more information.
Federal law requires U.S. citizens and resident aliens to report any worldwide income, including income from foreign trusts and foreign bank and securities accounts on their federal income tax return. Separately, U.S. persons with foreign accounts whose aggregate value exceeded $10,000 at any time during 2013 must file electronically with the Treasury Department a Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) Form 114, Report of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts (FBAR).
Form 114 replaces TD F 90-22.1, the FBAR form used in the past. It is due to the Treasury Department by Monday, June 30, must be filed electronically, and is only available online through the BSA E-Filing System website. This due date cannot be extended and tax extensions do not extend the FBAR filing due date. For details on FBAR requirements, see Report of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts (FBAR).
To help those with the obligation to report their foreign accounts comply with the FBAR filing requirement, the IRS will hold a free one-hour webinar on Wednesday, June 4, starting at 2 p.m. Eastern time. Those interested in participating in the webinar must register for this event. More information is available on IRS.gov.
Taxpayers abroad can now use IRS Free File to prepare and electronically file their returns for free. This means both U.S. citizens and resident aliens living abroad with adjusted gross incomes (AGI) of $58,000 or less can use brand-name software to prepare their returns and then e-file them for free. A second option, Free File Fillable Forms, the electronic version of IRS paper forms, has no income limit and is best suited to people who are comfortable preparing their own tax return. Check out the e-file link on IRS.gov to find out more about these and other electronic filing options. E-file and Free File will be available until Oct. 15, 2014.
Taxpayers who cannot meet the June 16 deadline can get an automatic extension until Oct. 15, 2014. This is an extension of time to file, not an extension of time to pay. Interest, currently at the rate of three percent per year compounded daily, applies to any payment made after April 15, 2014. In some cases, a late payment penalty, usually 0.5 percent per month, applies to payments made after June 16, 2014.
Taxpayers abroad, regardless of income, can use Free File to request a tax-filing extension. Alternatively, eligible taxpayers can download and file Form 4868, available on IRS.gov.
In some cases, an additional extension beyond Oct. 15 may be available. Details are in Publication 54, Tax Guide for U.S. Citizens and Resident Aliens Abroad. In addition, members of the military and others serving in Afghanistan and other combat zone localities normally have until at least 180 days after they leave the combat zone to file their returns and pay any taxes due. For details, see Extension of Deadlines in Publication 3, Armed Forces Tax Guide.
Any U.S. taxpayer here or abroad with tax questions can use the online IRS Tax Map and the International Tax Topic Index to get answers. These online tools assemble or group IRS forms, publications and web pages by subject and provide users with a single entry point to find tax information.