Which income groups pay most of the taxes that fund SNAP benefits and corporate tax expenditures?

1. How federal programs like SNAP are funded — the big revenue buckets

Federal benefit programs are paid from general federal revenues, which come mostly from individual income taxes, payroll (social insurance) taxes, and corporate income taxes; individual and corporate income tax receipts are major inputs into the federal coffers that fund programs and also are the base against which tax expenditures are measured ^{[5] [6]}. The Congressional Budget Office and related budget documents show tax expenditures themselves equal a very large share of GDP — about $2.3 trillion in 2025 — meaning forgone revenue from the tax code is comparable in scale to major spending programs ^[1].

2. Who “pays” into that pot — which income groups bear the tax burden

Budget documents and revenue breakdowns identify individual income taxes and payroll taxes as dominant revenue sources; payroll taxes are collected mainly on wages (affecting workers broadly) while the individual income tax is progressive so higher earners pay a larger share of those receipts in dollar terms ^{[5] [6]}. Available sources do not provide a single, definitive breakdown in these results that says “X% of revenues that fund SNAP come from Y income group,” so precise attribution between income groups and specific program funding flows is not shown in current reporting (not found in current reporting).

3. Who benefits from tax expenditures — concentration by income

Tax‑expenditure reports and analyses show that many of the largest tax expenditures are individual provisions (e.g., exclusions, deductions, credits) and the largest tax breaks in dollar terms often go disproportionately to higher‑income households—while some refundable credits target low‑ and moderate‑income households. The Tax Policy Center and JCT/Treasury work indicate individual tax expenditures (such as the child tax credit, mortgage interest deduction categories, and preferential capital gains treatment) are among the biggest items, and their incidence varies: some are concentrated at the top, others benefit lower‑income households via refundable credits ^{[3] [4] [2]}.

4. Corporate tax expenditures — size and ultimate beneficiaries

Corporate tax expenditures (special rules that lower corporate tax liability) are substantial but, by many measures, smaller than the sum of individual tax breaks. Treasury and JCT reporting note that corporate tax preferences can benefit shareholders, employees, customers, or providers of capital depending on market responses — i.e., businesses don’t always “keep” the benefit; it may be transmitted economically to owners or workers ^{[7] [8]}. The Joint Committee on Taxation and Treasury rank major corporate tax expenditures by receipt effect, but those reports caution that the distributional endpoint (who ultimately gains) depends on economic incidence and is not a simple mapping in the data ^{[7] [4]}.

5. What the large $2.3 trillion tax‑expenditure number means for distribution

The CBO and tax‑expenditure tallies show roughly $2.3 trillion in tax expenditures in 2025 — an amount that reduces receipts and thereby affects the resources available for programs like SNAP unless offset by other revenues or spending cuts ^[1]. Because many large tax expenditures shift revenue away from the Treasury, critics argue those breaks effectively reallocate funding away from direct spending; defenders argue they achieve policy aims through the tax code. Both perspectives appear in the reporting and technical documents ^{[1] [2]}.

6. What reporting does and does not show — limits and competing interpretations

Available federal reports quantify total revenues, payroll and income tax receipts, and the dollar size of tax expenditures, and they describe the kinds of beneficiaries; they do not, however, produce a single, granular mapping that says “income group A pays B% of the taxes that fund SNAP and corporate tax breaks.” Estimates of who benefits from specific tax expenditures exist in JCT and Treasury incidence work but require modeling and assumptions, and different agencies or analysts can produce different rankings ^{[4] [3]}. That ambiguity is why policy debates cite both aggregate revenue shares and distributional incidence studies when arguing for or against particular tax changes ^{[9] [2]}.

7. Bottom line for the original question

Available sources make two clear points: ^[10] individual income and payroll taxes are the major revenue sources that fund federal programs (including SNAP) and ^[11] tax expenditures are large (about $2.3 trillion in 2025) and many of the biggest individual tax breaks concentrate gains among higher‑income households while some refundable credits help lower‑income households ^{[5] [1] [3]}. A single-source, dollar‑for‑dollar attribution of which specific income groups “pay most of the taxes that fund SNAP benefits and corporate tax expenditures” is not presented in the cited reporting (not found in current reporting).