“The federal government ran a budget deficit of $413 billion for the first six months of fiscal year 2014, CBO estimates—$187 billion less than the shortfall recorded in the same span last year. Revenues were about 10 percent higher; and outlays, about 4 percent lower.  Total Receipts: Up by 10 Percent in the First Half of Fiscal Year 2014 Receipts for the first six months of fiscal year 2014 totaled $1,320 billion, CBO estimates—$123 billion more than receipts in the same period last year. The largest increases were the following:

• Individual income taxes and social insurance (payroll) taxes together rose by $92 billion, or 9 percent.
  • Increases in amounts withheld from workers’ paychecks—amounting to $73 billion (or 7 percent)—accounted for most of that gain. Besides growth in wages and salaries, changes in law contributed to the increases: In 2013, the tax rates in effect for October through December were higher than those in effect during those months in 2012 because of two changes that occurred in January 2013—namely, the expiration of the 2 percentage-point payroll tax cut and increases in tax rates for income above certain thresholds.
  • Nonwithheld receipts, mainly from payments of 2013 taxes, increased by $17 billion (or 15 percent).
  • Refunds declined by $1 billion (or 1 percent), further boosting net receipts.
  • All told, receipts from social insurance taxes rose by 14 percent, whereas receipts from individual income taxes were up by about 6 percent. About half the difference between those percentage increases resulted from quarterly adjustments made by the Treasury to the past allocations of revenues between the two sources.”