The IRS has released its latest issue of its Statistics of Income (SOI) Bulletin. Highlights include data on high-income individual income tax returns for 2004 and noncash charitable contribution deductions taken by a broad range of income groups. These statistics represent the latest complete set available; preliminary data from the 2005 and 2006 tax years indicate similar trends.

High income individuals

For tax year 2004, more than three million individual income tax returns were filed with an expanded adjusted gross income (AGI) of $200,000 or more. More than 2,000 of these returns reported no income tax liability at all, including no alternative minimum tax (AMT). The numbers reveal that the alternative minimum tax still fails to ensure that all high-income taxpayers pay at least some income tax.

Noncash contributions

In tax year 2004, 25.3 million individuals who itemized deductions claimed $43.4 billion in deductions for noncash charitable contributions and 6.6 million individuals, little more than one-fourth of taxpayers reporting noncash contributions, made donations in excess of $500. This small group of 6.6 million individuals reported noncash contributions valued at almost $37.2 billion, nearly 86 percent of all noncash contributions. Securities and real estate topped this list.

The IRS is currently investigating noncash charitable contributions of real property interests as potentially abusive tax schemes. So far, the IRS has identified 48 tax exempt organizations that have received donations of real property interests from investors at overly inflated valuations, generating improper charitable deductions of approximately $271 million.

(IR-2007-119)