In 2022 (the last year in IRS county data reports), Los Angeles County contributed $72.6 billion in federal personal income tax revenue, amounting to 3.5 percent of all U.S. income tax revenue. This exceeded the entire income tax contribution of any one of 43 U.S. states and ranked ahead of every other U.S. county. That year, Los Angeles County’s income tax contribution funded the entire year's cost of operating the U.S. Navy's 11 nuclear-powered aircraft carriers and the Navy's entire attack and ballistic missile submarine fleet. It also funded the cost of the entire U.S. Marine Corps. If you rather considered the federal government's payroll, L.A. County’s contribution funded about 27 percent of the entire 2022 federal government civilian payroll. In 2026 terms, L.A. County's 2022 income tax revenue would have provided enough to fund 72 days of the U.S. war against Iran.
Photo from the L.A. Times Photographic Collection at UCLA Library.
1940. A crowd of taxpayers wait to file their income tax returns at an IRS office in Los Angeles. At the time, filing options were to mail-in your manually prepared return or visit an IRS office to file directly at the counter. Tax returns were simpler then than they are today. In 1940, the tax deadline was March 15, rather than April 15 as it has been since 1955. Another difference at the time was taxes weren’t withheld from paychecks (withholding did not begin until 1943). Taxpayers then had to pay the entire amount of tax due at the time of filing their return.
A number of Spanish names are well-known by Angelenos. So, who actually were the people behind these names?
