CBO: The Distribution Of Household Income And Federal Taxes, 2013

Congressional Budget Office, The Distribution of Household Income and Federal Taxes, 2013:

In 2013, according to the Congressional Budget Office’s estimates, average household market income— a comprehensive income measure that consists of labor income, business income, capital income (including capital gains), and retirement income—was approximately $86,000. Government transfers, which include benefits from programs such as Social Security, Medicare, and unemployment insurance, averaged approximately $14,000 per household. The sum of those two amounts, which equals before-tax income, was about $100,000, on average. In this report, CBO analyzed the distribution of four types of federal taxes: individual income taxes, payroll (or social insurance) taxes, corporate income taxes, and excise taxes. Taken together, those taxes amounted to about $20,000 per household, on average, in 2013.1 Thus, average after-tax income—which equals market income plus government transfers minus federal taxes— was about $80,000, and the average federal tax rate (federal taxes divided by before-tax income) was about 20 percent.