Financial State of the Union after COVID-19

On Thursday, April 15, formerly known as Tax Day, Truth in Accounting released its third annual Financial State of the Union (FSOU) report. In a normal year, you would owe your taxes today. But did you know you’re also on the hook for the government’s debt?

The report found that the United States government needs $123 trillion to pay its bills, which equates to a $796,000 Taxpayer Burden. This means in order to pay off the country’s debt each taxpayer would have to write a $796,000 check to the federal government.

The FSOU is an analysis of the 2020 Financial Report of the United States Government. The FSOU includes reported federal assets and liabilities, and promised Social Security and Medicare benefits. The report found that the financial condition of the United States worsened by almost $10 trillion from the previous year.

The government’s $129 trillion in liabilities is made up of Medicare benefits, Social Security benefits, publicly held debt, military and civilian retirement benefits, and other liabilities.

In 2020 the U.S. federal government spent $7.4 trillion on health and human services, defense and veterans affairs, Social Security, interest, education, and other expenses. The federal government received $3.6 trillion in revenue made up of individual income tax and withholding taxes, corporate taxes and excise, estate, gift taxes, as well as other revenue.

Overall, the FSOU report awarded the U.S. government an F grade and a Taxpayer Burden of $796,000. The Taxpayer Burden for the U.S. government worsened by $59,000 from the previous year. The U.S. government was already in a poor financial position going into the pandemic.

“Our federal government was not financially prepared for any crisis, much less one as serious as the coronavirus pandemic,” says Sheila Weinberg, founder and CEO of Truth in Accounting.

The FSOU presents the true financial condition of the federal government after the coronavirus crisis hit. The COVID-19 pandemic will continue to have an impact on federal finances for years to come. You can learn more about the state of the country's finances after the coronavirus pandemic and read the full report here.