U.S. surplus swells to $182B in April
Deadline change lifts figure; deficit expected to shrink 4.6% at fiscal year’s end
WASHINGTON — The federal government ran the second-highest monthly surplus on record this April as tax revenue was pushed higher by a change in the deadline for corporate tax payments.
In its monthly budget report, the Treasury Department said Wednesday that the surplus for April totaled $182.4 billion, the second-largest surplus after a record $189.8 billion surplus set in April 2001.
The government generally runs surpluses in April reflecting the annual tax deadlines. This year’s surplus was inflated because of a deadline change that allowed corporations until April to make their final tax payments for last year. The deadline had previously been March.
Overall, through the first seven months of the current federal budget year, which began Oct. 1, the government is running a deficit of $344.4 billion, down 2.4 percent from the same period a year ago.
The Congressional Budget Office is projecting that the federal deficit for the full budget year, which ends on Sept. 30, will decline 4.6 percent to $559 billion. That would compare with a 2016 deficit of $586.6 billion.
Accumulating budget deficits add to the overall federal debt, which totals more than $19.85 trillion as of Tuesday. That figure includes more than $5 trillion the government owes itself, mostly from borrowing from the Social Security Trust Fund.
The budget office’s deficit estimate is based on current law remaining unchanged. President Donald Trump has called for a program of tax cuts for individuals and businesses, and increased government spending in such areas as the military and repairing the nation’s aging infrastructure.
For the first seven months of this year, federal revenue totaled $1.93 trillion, up 0.6 percent from the same period a year ago. Spending totaled $2.27 trillion, up 0.2 percent from the same period last year.