Revenue from tariffs hit a record high of more than $16 billion in April, helping to reduce the pace of the U.S. budget deficit accumulation, the Treasury Department said on Monday.
Customs duties totaled $16.3 billion last month, nearly double the $8.2 billion brought in for March as President Donald Trump’s sweeping protective tariffs took effect. Trump slapped at least 10% on imports from certain countries and ramped up a trade war with China by hitting the communist nation with as much as 145% tariffs on goods.
Year-to-date revenue — from October 2024 through April 2025 — hit $59.2 billion and is up significantly from the $44.1 billion collected over the same period in FY 2024.
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The April receipts saw the federal government post a $258 billion budget surplus for April, up 23% from a year earlier – $850.2 billion in receipts and $591.8 billion in outlays.
The cumulative federal deficit for FY 2025 through April 30 was $1.049 trillion, which is 22.7% higher than the $855 billion deficit at the same point in FY 2024. While April’s record-high revenues from tariffs didn’t reduce the deficit, it helped ease the rate at which the deficit was accumulating.
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From October 2024 through April 2025, the federal government collected $3.11 trillion in revenue and outlays of $4.159 trillion which were both records, though the deficit itself was not.
The largest sources of revenue were individual income taxes ($1.681 trillion), social insurance and retirement contributions ($1.018 trillion), and corporate income taxes ($255.2 billion), followed by customs duties ($59.2 billion), excise taxes ($59.4 billion), estate and gift taxes ($16.6 billion), and miscellaneous receipts ($21.0 billion).
That new revenue, however, is likely to drop off. The U.S. and China over the weekend reached a deal to temporarily ease their steep tariffs on each other, with the U.S. cutting its 145% tariffs to 30% for the next 90 days, while Chinese duties on U.S. imports will fall to 10% from 125%.
In terms of interest on the public debt, the government paid $101.65 billion in gross interest expenses in April, and $684.1 billion in FY 2025 Year-to-Date.
Reuters contributed to this report.
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