Taxpayers beware: Federal tax collections to hit record highs

There’s some fine print in President Obama’s budget plan presented Wednesday, and taxpayers beware: Collections are going to break records in the coming years.

The Washington Examiner reported that the Treasury projected business and individual collections at $2.71 trillion for this year — higher than the previous high $2.5 trillion collected in 2007.

That’s more than even the Congressional Budget Office projected. CBO estimated the 2013 collections at $2.07 trillion, The Washington Examiner reported. And it comes in the face of a stubbornly sluggish economy that has seen nearly half a million people in one month’s time — between February and March — drop from the labor force. The labor participation rate, which fell to 63.3 percent last month, is now the lowest since May 1979, The Associated Press reported.

But tax collections are doing well.

“We are projecting to see revenues double over the next decade. I think this year will be the highest revenue number ever in the history of the country. I think we have enough revenue in Washington,” said Rep. Dave Camp, chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, as quoted by The Washington Examiner.

Mr. Camp vowed to close loopholes and lower tax rates — while also pointing that the president’s projections include tax receipts that soar in the next few years, to $4 trillion by 2018, The Washington Examiner reported.