Americans in 2018 drastically cut back on the amount of money they gave voluntarily to the IRS to help reduce the national debt.
In fiscal year 2018, people shelled out just $775,654 to help reduce the debt, the lowest amount seen over the last 14 years, and the first time less than $1 million was donated since 2004.
It’s a significant drop from the $2.6 million donated last year, and the $5.1 million gifted to the IRS in 2014.
The peak of gift-giving to the IRS was in 2012, when $7.7 million was given.
2018 saw very low gift totals throughout the year. In October, the IRS collected $192,610, and that’s as high as it got. The IRS received less than $50,000 a month for the last five months.
Regardless of the highs and the lows of the gift-giving, the gifts are just a drop in the ocean next to the size of the national debt, which is $21.7 trillion.
Even if $10 million were gifted to the IRS in a single year, that would handle less than one two-millionth of the total debt.
