Monday, March 26, 2012

IRS Tax Stats-2011

IRS just released the IRS Data Book and updated corporate research credit statistics; no doubt there will be plenty of analysis (and spin) coming out on both of these.  I took a quick look at the corporate research credit stats and came up with this chart, which shows dramatic increases over the last twenty years, with only a slight drop off during the financial crisis:

Annual Percentage Changes in Corporate Research Credit Claims for Tax Years 1990-2009, in millions; source: IRS Statistics of Income (2012).

That's a lot of credits...a.k.a. tax expenditures.  Where is the chart that shows the economic growth attributable to these credits?  (Only kidding.  We know there is no such chart.)

Here's the raw data from the IRS website (Figure A: Annual Percentage Changes in Research Credit Claimants and Amounts for Tax Years 1990-2009):


Year Number of Credit Claimants Percentage Change Credits Claimed (in milliions of dollars) Percentage Change
2009  12,359 -3.0%  7,774 -6.4%
2008  12,736 1.5%  8,303 0.5%
2007  12,548 16.3%  8,260 13.0%
2006  10,788 -4.4%  7,311 14.9%
2005  11,290 10.2%  6,363 14.6%
2004  10,244 -1.2%  5,554 1.2%
2003  10,369 1.1%  5,488 -3.0%
2002  10,254 -1.3%  5,656 -11.0%
2001  10,389 -1.0%  6,356 -10.2%
2000  10,495 4.7%  7,079 34.0%
1999  10,020 1.7%  5,281 1.4%
1998  9,849 -7.7%  5,208 18.4%
1997  10,668 9.9%  4,398 106.1%
1996  9,709 23.3%  2,134 50.1%
1995  7,877 -13.9%  1,422 -41.3%
1994  9,150 -7.9%  2,423 30.5%
1993  9,933 28.2%  1,857 22.5%
1992  7,750 -13.9%  1,515 -4.4%
1991  9,001 3.5%  1,585 2.4%
1990  8,699  1,547




Check out the percentage change from 96 to 97 (orange highlight)!

2 comments:

  1. Whoa. What happened in 96 that caused the jump? And unlike the number of claimants, it hasn't really come back down.

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  2. in a word...CLINTON!! I am sure someone out there has written extensively on this very topic, but I've not read it. Martin Sullivan, in a February tax notes column, said "During his two terms as president, Bill Clinton never pursued tax reform. Tax complexity didn’t concern him. The subtle benefits of tax neutrality were too bland to capture his interest. Besides, that would have required spending political capital. No, instead of working for the tax system, Clinton put the tax system to work for him. Instead of expanding government spending that Republicans would fight tooth and nail, Clinton expanded tax expenditures that Republicans
    viewed as tax cuts." Sullivan refers to a 2005 book by Gene Sperling, a Clinton advisor. You can find the column at http://taxprof.typepad.com/files/134tn0631.pdf.

    As for why it hasn't come down, in a word: Norquist.

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