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tax expenditures, it does not capture the potential interactions among tax expenditures if any single one is changed or repealed.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: 2000-20072001-20082002-20092003-20102004-20112005-20122006-20132007-20142008-20152009-20162010-2017

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

	2008	2009	2010	2011	2012	2013	2014	2015
Agriculture
Treasury	1,460	1,020	880	1,020	1,300	1,320	1,170	1,340
JCT	400*	100*	300*	300*	300*	300*	300*	300*
Commerce and housing
Treasury	312,380	384,735	365,230	403,640	425,360	406,150	437,950	509,180
JCT	413,200*	377,700*	360,300*	419,000*	385,600*	380,800*	345,900*	392,800*
Community and regional development
Treasury	430	2,850	2,520	3,080	2,910	2,860	3,170	3,330
JCT	7,100*	6,200*	5,300*	4,300*	5,700*	5,700*	5,900*	5,900*
Education, training, employment, and social services
Treasury	97,370	108,510	141,190	131,478	107,840	110,580	100,230	104,720
JCT	154,300*	151,200*	154,700*	167,500*	171,500*	145,900*	143,500*	149,600*
Energy
Treasury	5,720	5,220	8,990	12,430	9,050	8,890	8,670	8,490
JCT	8,000*	12,900*	8,700*	10,600*	8,400*	6,700*	7,100*	6,900*
General purpose fiscal assistance
Treasury	60,250	68,100	57,330	67,250	62,260	82,470	99,750	107,420
JCT	74,400	75,400	57,500	72,800	63,500	83,300	92,400	95,900
General science, space, and technology
Treasury	12,620	11,830	9,450	9,560	9,480	9,300	9,570	9,610
JCT	8,200	8,000	8,700	10,300	8,900	8,700	9,000	9,300
Health
Treasury	154,120	168,112	187,830	187,465	198,090	211,130	224,360	237,300
JCT	149,000*	132,500*	142,300*	144,500*	168,100*	192,700*	240,400*	283,900*
Income security
Treasury	137,050	130,336	143,330	134,662	154,358	184,985	198,865	211,423
JCT	267,800*	168,500*	208,200*	198,700*	173,000*	187,900*	221,500*	236,800*
Interest
Treasury	1,310	1,270	1,180	1,190	1,200	1,250	1,330	1,340
JCT	1,200	1,200	1,300	1,400	1,400	1,500	1,500	1,500
International affairs
Treasury	45,300	45,810	50,910	57,320	54,410	52,460	53,140	55,090
JCT	24,600*	26,500*	28,100	36,300	36,400	32,800	34,100	35,600
Medicare
Treasury	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
JCT	42,100	51,700	55,000	58,100	61,700	73,400	76,200	79,300
National Defense
Treasury	11,190	11,930	12,740	13,250	14,270	14,900	15,380	12,960
JCT	5,200*	5,300	5,800	5,400	5,900	6,500	6,900	7,100
Natural resources and environment
Treasury	2,040	1,850	2,120	2,020	2,130	2,280	2,430	2,570
JCT	1,700*	2,000*	2,400*	2,000*	2,100*	2,200*	2,300*	2,400*
Social Security
Treasury	28,690	31,120	32,330	37,760	38,470	37,740	40,130	42,730
JCT	24,200	24,000	26,800	31,000	32,000	39,200	42,600	44,100
Transportation
Treasury	3,680	3,690	3,860	4,050	4,130	4,180	4,310	4,460
JCT	4,200*	4,500*	5,400*	6,000*	6,200*	6,600*	6,800*	7,200*
Veterans benefits and services
Treasury	4,340	4,410	4,810	6,260	7,220	7,200	7,740	7,980
JCT	4,200*	4,700*	5,500*	6,700*	7,100*	7,000*	7,200*	7,500*

* 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.