Subsidyscope

Pew's Tax Expenditure Database

Pew's Tax Expenditure Database includes federal income tax expenditure estimates from the Department of the Treasury and the Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT). To begin exploring the database, click any sector header below to see a breakdown of the tax expenditures contained within that sector. Where possible, Subsidyscope has paired JCT estimates with corresponding Treasury estimates so users can easily make side-by-side comparisons. Click on a specific tax expenditure to view detailed information on how those Treasury and JCT projections have varied over time.

Users should note that while summing tax expenditures often provides a reasonably good estimate for the total cost of groups of tax expenditures, it does not capture the potential interactions among tax expenditures if any single one is changed or repealed. For more information, see the Methodology. In addition to the downloadable CSVs on each database page, Subsidyscope has created CSVs that contain the Treasury and JCT data presented here, broken out by budget year. To access these, see the Datasets page.

Download data as CSV file

Display estimates for: Corporations & IndividualsCorporationsIndividuals Show fiscal years: 2000-20072001-20082002-20092003-20102004-20112005-20122006-20132007-20142008-20152009-2016

Summary of Tax Expenditures for Corporations & Individualsby Fiscal Year ($ millions)1

	2007	2008	2009	2010	2011	2012	2013	2014
Agriculture
Treasury	1,280	1,460	1,020	880	930	980	1,070	1,150
JCT	400*	400*	100*	300*	300*	300*	300*	300*
Commerce and housing
Treasury	315,100	312,380	384,735	365,230	382,000	385,210	436,620	493,200
JCT	382,000*	413,300*	377,700*	360,300*	349,900*	326,000*	351,000*	375,400*
Community and regional development
Treasury	3,530	430	2,850	2,520	2,280	2,490	2,690	2,760
JCT	4,000*	6,400*	6,200*	5,300*	5,200*	5,900*	5,500*	5,600*
Education, training, employment, and social services
Treasury	96,930	97,370	108,510	141,190	124,490	89,850	94,310	98,450
JCT	144,100*	154,300*	151,200*	154,700*	135,800*	129,400*	134,900*	142,500*
Energy
Treasury	7,060	5,720	5,220	8,990	11,940	9,850	7,760	5,400
JCT	9,300*	8,000*	12,900*	8,700*	8,100*	6,800*	6,800*	6,500*
General purpose fiscal assistance
Treasury	61,040	60,250	68,100	57,330	68,980	85,600	97,750	106,650
JCT	61,700	74,400	75,400	57,500	74,000	82,700	89,300	95,400
General science, space, and technology
Treasury	15,510	12,620	11,830	9,450	8,460	8,850	9,190	8,930
JCT	6,400*	8,200	8,000	8,700	7,600	7,000*	7,900*	8,100*
Health
Treasury	151,490	154,120	168,112	187,830	203,955	217,400	231,280	250,100
JCT	136,000*	149,000*	132,500*	142,300*	157,500*	172,500*	196,200*	234,900*
Income security
Treasury	132,190	137,050	130,336	143,330	157,770	171,320	177,930	185,900
JCT	193,500*	267,800*	168,500*	208,200*	166,100*	179,400*	201,600*	201,300*
Interest
Treasury	1,290	1,310	1,270	1,180	1,220	1,300	1,320	1,330
JCT	1,100	1,200	1,200	1,300	1,400	1,400	1,500	1,500
International affairs
Treasury	20,270	45,300	45,810	50,910	50,890	51,630	52,160	52,820
JCT	18,900	24,600*	26,500*	28,100	27,800	29,300	30,500	31,900
Medicare
Treasury	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
JCT	40,900	42,100	51,700	55,000	64,100	67,500	73,000	77,600
National Defense
Treasury	3,220	11,190	11,930	12,740	13,290	13,710	12,200	12,680
JCT	3,100*	5,200*	5,300	5,800	6,000	6,100	6,300	7,000
Natural resources and environment
Treasury	1,650	2,040	1,850	2,120	2,210	2,290	2,400	2,530
JCT	1,800*	1,700*	2,000*	2,400*	1,900*	2,000*	2,100*	2,200*
Social Security
Treasury	26,010	28,690	31,120	32,330	30,640	32,610	34,490	36,540
JCT	22,400	24,200	24,000	26,800	33,400	36,000	37,400	39,700
Transportation
Treasury	3,440	3,680	3,690	3,860	3,860	3,990	4,140	4,290
JCT	4,900*	4,200*	4,500*	5,400*	6,000*	6,200*	6,700*	7,000*
Veterans benefits and services
Treasury	4,220	4,340	4,410	4,810	5,570	6,340	7,080	7,830
JCT	3,600*	4,200*	4,700*	5,500*	7,000*	6,800*	7,100*	7,300*

* Contains tax expenditures estimated to be between -$50 million and $50 million. When aggregated, the sum of these estimates are unknown and thus are rounded to zero. For more information, see the methodology.

Estimate years, presented along the horizontal axis (varying across the columns), correspond to the years of estimates within a specific budget or document. The estimate presented is an aggregation of the most recent estimates made for that year, and includes estimates from different budget documents. Thus, every estimate accounts for specific assumptions about tax law and economic conditions used by the government in the budget document in which it was found. All estimates are reported by fiscal year; Subsidyscope has not adjusted the estimates for inflation. Click on specific sectors for more information and data.

1. Summing tax expenditures often provides a reasonably good estimate for the total cost of groups of tax expenditures, though it does not capture the potential interactions among tax expenditures if any single one is changed or repealed.