WASHINGTON, May 12 (Reuters) – The U.S. government posted a $215 billion budget surplus in April, down $43 billion, or 17%, from a $258 billion surplus in the year-earlier period, due in part to bigger tax refunds this year and rising outlays, including higher interest costs and military spending on the war in Iran, the Treasury Department said on Tuesday.
Budget results in April typically show surpluses due to the mid-month filing deadline for tax returns.
Individual refunds this year totaled $101 billion, up $14 billion, or 17%, from April 2025 because of new tax breaks on tips, payments from the Social Security retirement program, overtime premium pay and domestic car loan interest. Corporate tax receipts for April also fell $8 billion, or 8%, from a year earlier to $89 billion, while corporate refunds roughly doubled to $6 billion.
The increase in refunds accounted for more than the $13 billion drop last month in receipts, which were down 2% from last year to $837 billion. Outlays in April rose $31 billion, or 5%, to $622 billion.
Net customs receipts totaled $22.1 billion in April, about even with March 2026 and below monthly peaks in the low $30 billion range late last year. But the figure was still up from the $15.6 billion reported in April 2025, the first month of Trump’s “Liberation Day” emergency global tariffs that were later annulled by the U.S. Supreme Court.
Those figures include $2 billion in customs refunds for April, a number that is expected to grow in the budget results for May as court-ordered refund payments from the Customs and Border Protection agency began to flow on Tuesday. Some $166 billion in tariff payments are subject to potential refunds.
The Treasury said the deficit for the first seven months of fiscal 2026, which ends on September 30, fell $95 billion, or 9%, from the year-earlier period to $954 billion. Year-to-date receipts were up $210 billion, or 7%, to $3.320 trillion, while outlays were up $114 billion, or 3%, to $4.274 trillion.
(Reporting by David Lawder; Editing by Paul Simao)
