“The federal government’s budget deficit was $181 billion for the first two months of fiscal year 2015, $45 billion less than the shortfall recorded in October and November of last year, CBO estimates. That outcome was affected by shifts in the timing of certain payments. Without those shifts, the deficit would have declined by just $9 billion. Total Receipts: Up by 6 Percent in the First Two Months of Fiscal Year 2015 – Receipts through November totaled $403 billion, CBO estimates—$22 billion more than the amount collected in the same period last year. The largest increases were in the following categories:

• Individual income taxes and payroll (social insurance) taxes together rose by $15 billion (or 5 percent).
  • The amounts withheld from workers’ paychecks rose by $13 billion (or 4 percent), which accounted for most of that gain. Growth in wages and salaries probably explains the increase in withheld receipts.
  • Nonwithheld receipts—mainly from 2013 income tax returns for people who had received filing extensions—rose by $4 billion (or 18 percent). That increase was partially offset by an increase in income tax refunds, which were $1 billion higher, and by a decline in receipts from unemployment insurance taxes, which were $1 billion lower than in the year before.
• Receipts from corporate income taxes, which generally are small in the first two months of the fiscal year, rose from a total of $7 billion in October and November of last year to $13 billion in the current fiscal year. For most corporations, this fiscal year’s first quarterly estimated payment is due December 15.”