Some made millions in economic downturn

Even in a bad year, some people can get very lucky.

A new report by the Internal Revenue Service shows that, for Americans as a group, total income fell at the fastest pace in decades in 2008, and that the number of tax returns reporting at least $1 million in income plunged by 22 percent as the Great Recession took hold.

But with all the bad news, there were still 13,480 tax returns that reported income of more than $10 million in the year.

Among them were 462 returns that reported some income from gambling. Their total income from that source was $2.6 billion, for an average of $5.6 million per return.

The report, based on a survey of tax returns for 2008, states that Americans reported $8.4 trillion in total income, down 4.6 percent from the previous year.

After considering inflation, the real decline was 8.4 percent, the sharpest in total American income since at least 1990.

That decline was largely caused by falls in investment income and sharp drops in capital gains. Despite the recession, total wage and salary income rose by 1.9 percent in 2008, the IRS said. But after adjusting for inflation, that became a decline of 1.9 percent.

The real decline in wage and salary incomes was also the largest since 1990, which was as far back as the IRS report covered.

For some Americans, that decline was partly offset by the availability of unemployment-insurance benefits. The number of tax returns reporting such benefits was 9.5 million, up 25 percent from the year before, and the total of reported unemployment benefits was $43.7 billion, up 48 percent.

Most of those benefits were reported on tax returns showing total income of less than $40,000 a year, and 90 percent of it was reported on returns that showed total income under $100,000.

The number of tax returns that reported at least $1 million in annual income fell by 22 percent, to 321,294, while the subset of that group reporting at least $10 million in income was 36 percent smaller.

While there were fewer returns reporting $1 million incomes, they collectively still reported income of $1.08 trillion. Those returns accounted for just 0.2 percent of the returns filed, but reported taking in 13 percent of all income.

That proportion was down from 16.1 percent in 2007, however, and was the lowest since 2004, reflecting the effect of the collapse in asset values on those who owned the most assets.

The IRS disclosure of combined tax-return information for the wealthiest taxpayers - those with annual incomes of $10 million or more - are glimpses into the lives of the super-rich.

Some of them, it turns out, know what it is like to stand in line at the unemployment office. Seventeen of those returns included income from unemployment benefits, averaging $5,765 each. The service had not broken out that detail in previous years.

Of those tax returns of $10 million or more, 20 reported receiving alimony, averaging about $5 million, while 455 reported paying alimony averaging $455,588.

Of the $400 billion in income reported on those 13,480 returns, only 19 percent of it was from wages and salaries, much less than from capital gains, even in such a bad year for stocks.