(Getty Images/Doug Mills-pool)

(CNSNews.com) - The federal government collected record total tax revenues of $470,706,000,000 in October and November, the first two months of fiscal 2020, according to the Monthly Treasury Statement released today.

Despite collecting that record amount in taxes, however, the federal government still ran a deficit of $343,360,000,000 during October and November because it spent $814,012,000,000 in those two months.

That was the second-highest federal spending in the October-November period in the history of the United States. The only time the federal government spent more in the first two months of the fiscal year was in fiscal 2009 (October and November of 2008), when Congress enacted the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) to bailout insolvent banks.

That year the federal government spent $861,137,350,000 in constant November 2019 dollars. (Dollar values in this story were adjusted into constant November 2019 values using the Bureau of Labor Statistics inflation calculator.)

The record $470,706,000,000 that the federal government collected in taxes in the first two months of fiscal 2020 was up $2,644,750,000 from the $468,061,250,000 (in constant November 2019 dollars) that it spent in the first two months of fiscal 2019.

While total federal taxes set a record in October and November, individual income taxes did not. In October and November of this fiscal year, the Treasury collected $232,153,000,000 in individual income taxes. That was up from the $226,795,700,000 (in constant November 2019 dollars) that the Treasury collected last fiscal year (fiscal 2019). But it was down from the $236,213,770,000 (in November 2019) that the Treasury collected in the first two months of fiscal 2018.

Corporation income taxes, Social Security payroll taxes, and customs duties were all up in the first two months of this fiscal year compared to last fiscal year, but estate and gift taxes and unemployment insurance taxes were down.

Corporation income taxes rose from $6,668,030,000 (in constant November 2019 dollars) in the first two months of fiscal 2019 to $7,103,000,000 in the first two months of fiscal 2020.

Social Security payroll taxes rose from $176,629,330,000 in the first two months of fiscal 2019 to $180,325,000,000 in the first two months of fiscal 2020.

Customs duties rose from $12,077,770,000 in the first two months of fiscal 2019 to $14,698,000,000 in the first two months of fiscal 2020.

Estate and gift taxes fell from $3,427,900,000 in the first two months of fiscal 2019 to $2,929,000,000 in the first two months of fiscal 2020.

Unemployment insurance taxes fell from $5,705,690,000 to $5,353,000,000.

The business and economic reporting of CNSNews.com is funded in part with a gift made in memory of Dr. Keith C. Wold.

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