Income

• The U.S. government levies a progressive income tax rate of up to 35 percent on all corporate and personal income, including wages and salaries and corporate profits, as of April 2011. In addition, the federal government taxes capital gains, defined as profits from the sale of stocks, bonds and property, at regular income tax rates or special rates for individuals who hold on to assets for a year or longer. In total, income taxes accounted for 57 percent of federal tax revenues in the 2008 fiscal year, according to the Tax Policy Center.
  
  

Payroll

• Payroll taxes include monies remitted by an employer and paid by an employer and an employee to fund designated social welfare programs. These taxes accounted for 36 percent of federal revenue in 2008, according to the Tax Policy Center. The largest share of this revenue comes from Federal Insurance Contribution Act (FICA) taxes that fund Social Security and Medicare, programs that provide medical care and cash payments for the disabled, the elderly and spousal and child survivors of a deceased individual. Payroll taxes also include monies paid to fund the federal unemployment insurance program.
  
  

Excise

• Excise taxes include taxes added to the cost of tobacco products, alcoholic beverages, diesel fuel, gasoline, coal, weapons, telephone service, cable and satellite television, air travel, tires and hundreds of other products and services. Estate and gift taxes require the recipients of large gifts or a decedent's estate to pay a set percentage of tax in excess of an annual exclusion amount for gifts or a single exclusion amount for an entire estate. As of 2008, these types of taxes only account for roughly 3 percent of federal revenue.
  
  

Other

• All other forms of federal taxation and fees totaled almost 4 percent of federal revenues in the 2008 fiscal year. These include customs taxes levied by the U.S. Customs and Border Patrol, which vary in size depending upon the product and the country of origin. While not labeled as taxes, the government collects fees from individuals in occupations that require federal licensing and for public park use, as well as from businesses that lease federal land for forestry or mining purposes.