The federal budget deficit totaled $475 billion in the first five months of the 2022 fiscal year, the Congressional Budget Office said Tuesday in its monthly budget review.
Total receipts between the beginning of the fiscal year in October 2021 and February 2022 came to $1.8 trillion, CBO estimated, while total outlays came to nearly $2.3 trillion.
Receipts are up by $371 billion this year compared to the same period last year, driven in large part by higher individual income and payroll taxes, which rose by $313 billion. Corporate tax receipts were also higher, by $28 billion, as were customs duties and excise taxes. Total outlays are down by $201 billion on a year-over-year basis, driven in part by a $139 billion decrease in unemployment compensation.
Spending on servicing the debt increased by $31 billion, or 22%, as the Treasury paid more in interest on inflation-protected securities.
Overall, the deficit so far this year is considerably smaller than the one recorded in the pandemic-scarred years of 2020 and 2021. Last year, the deficit was a bit over $1 trillion in the first five months of the fiscal year, or about twice as large, while in 2020 the deficit came to $624 billion by this point.
