Financial reporting spans tax returns, balance sheets, income statements, and surveys of business finances. The latest corporate tax-return figures cover tax year 2022, while the most recent small-business financing measures come from the Federal Reserve’s 2024 survey of employer firms. Together, these sources show both the scale of reported business activity and the practical pressures behind the numbers.
Contents
- Corporate reporting volume and scale
- Balance-sheet reporting by asset size
- Income-statement reporting by industry
- Tax-return and small-business income reporting
- Reported financial challenges and debt
- Small-business financing outcomes
Corporate reporting volume and scale
The IRS estimated 6,845,719 active corporate income-tax returns for tax year 2022. Of those, 6,419,195 were filed electronically, an increase of 1.9% from 2021. About 5.3 million of the approximately 6.8 million active corporations were pass-through entities. These figures describe returns and entities in the IRS statistics; they are not a count of every operating business in the economy.
The same IRS report recorded $143.3 trillion in total assets for active corporations in 2022, up about 1.0% from 2021. Total receipts from operations and investments reached $45.3 trillion, an increase of 13.9%. Business receipts alone rose from $35.0 trillion in 2021 to $39.9 trillion in 2022, a 14.3% increase.
Profit and tax measures also increased between the two tax years. Corporate pretax profits, defined by the IRS as net income less deficit, reached $4.8 trillion in 2022, up 17.7% from 2021. Corporate income subject to tax increased from $2.4 trillion to $2.9 trillion, an 18.9% increase. Total corporate income tax before credits rose from $528.8 billion to $633.3 billion, while tax after credits increased from $371.4 billion to $448.7 billion. Those after-credit payments were up 20.8% from 2021.
Balance-sheet reporting by asset size
Asset-size groupings show why aggregate financial reporting can look very different from the experience of a typical small company. Corporations with $1 to under $500,000 in total assets accounted for 4,023,688 returns in 2022. That group reported 467,918,815 thousand dollars of total assets, 2,271,343,134 thousand dollars of total receipts, and 175,885,398 thousand dollars of net income less deficit.
The $1 million to under $5 million asset group accounted for 605,558 returns and reported 2,500,069,198 thousand dollars of total receipts. The IRS presents these amounts in thousands of dollars, so the unit is important when comparing groups or copying figures into a financial report.
At the other end of the distribution, corporations with $2.5 billion or more in total assets represented just 0.07% of returns but 84.5% of total assets in 2022. The 4,759 corporations in that group accounted for 57.2% of total receipts. This concentration is a central caveat for anyone using national corporate totals to understand a small business: a very small number of very large corporations strongly affects the aggregate balance sheet and receipts measures.
| 2022 asset group | Reported measure |
|---|---|
| $1 to under $500,000 | 4,023,688 returns |
| $1 million to under $5 million | 605,558 returns |
| $2.5 billion or more | 4,759 corporations |
| $2.5 billion or more | 84.5% of total assets |
| $2.5 billion or more | 57.2% of total receipts |
Income-statement reporting by industry
Industry results varied substantially in 2022. Mining corporations reported 106,619,705 thousand dollars of pretax profits, up 159.61% from 2021. Professional, scientific, and technical-services corporations reported 148,259,242 thousand dollars, up 103.50%. Information-sector corporations reported 441,724,203 thousand dollars, up 49.98%.
Manufacturing corporations reported 1,500,116,308 thousand dollars of pretax profits, a 35.42% increase. Wholesale-trade corporations reported 376,572,843 thousand dollars, up 30.53%, and construction corporations reported 143,698,570 thousand dollars, up 18.21%.
Other sectors recorded declines. Retail-trade corporations reported 284,273,978 thousand dollars of pretax profits, down 7.46%. Finance-and-insurance corporations reported 1,034,489,975 thousand dollars, down 6.42%, while educational-services corporations reported 4,152,111 thousand dollars, down 10.90%. Accommodation-and-food-services corporations reported 56,177,390 thousand dollars, up 6.73%.
| Industry | 2022 pretax profits (thousand dollars) | Change from 2021 |
|---|---|---|
| Manufacturing | 1,500,116,308 | +35.42% |
| Finance and insurance | 1,034,489,975 | -6.42% |
| Information | 441,724,203 | +49.98% |
| Wholesale trade | 376,572,843 | +30.53% |
| Retail trade | 284,273,978 | -7.46% |
| Construction | 143,698,570 | +18.21% |
| Professional, scientific, and technical services | 148,259,242 | +103.50% |
| Mining | 106,619,705 | +159.61% |
Tax-return and small-business income reporting
The IRS’s small-business individual-return statistics are older than the corporate figures. In tax year 2017, 42.3 million individual income-tax returns, nearly 28% of all returns, included small-business income or losses. Returns with small-business income or losses represented 27.5% of all individual returns in both 2015 and 2016.
Taxpayers in this group reported 47.1% of total adjusted gross income and paid 60.4% of total income tax in 2017. Average adjusted gross income was $122,414 for returns with small-business income or losses, compared with $72,006 for all returns. Salaries and wages represented 52.8% of adjusted gross income for the small-business group.
The composition of reported income included $1.1 trillion in net income less losses from Schedules C, E, and F, equal to 21.1% of adjusted gross income for those returns. Partnership and S-corporation income less losses supplied $680.3 billion, or 13.1% of adjusted gross income. The average tax rate was 18.7% for returns with small-business income or losses, compared with 14.6% across all individual income-tax returns.
These are tax-year 2017 measures and should not be read as current estimates. They remain useful for describing how commonly small-business income appeared on individual returns and how the IRS-defined group differed from all individual filers.
Source: Individual Income Tax Returns with Small Business Income and Losses, Tax Years 2015–2017.
Reported financial challenges and debt
The Federal Reserve’s 2024 Small Business Credit Survey asked employer firms about challenges during the prior 12 months. Rising costs of goods, services, or wages was the most frequently reported challenge, cited by 75% of employer firms. Paying operating expenses was reported by 56%, and uneven cash flow, including collecting receivables, by 51%. Weak sales was reported by 48%.
Debt and credit conditions were also material concerns. Making payments on debt or dealing with interest rates was reported by 35% of employer firms, while credit availability was reported by 28%. Only 6% reported no financial challenges in the prior 12 months.
The survey estimated that 71.4% of employer firms had outstanding debt, with a credibility interval of plus or minus 1.1 percentage points. Among employer firms with reported debt, 61% held $100,000 or less in outstanding debt, while 39% held more than $100,000. These figures are survey estimates, not administrative counts, and the credibility interval applies to the estimated share with outstanding debt.
Source: 2025 Report on Employer Firms: Findings from the 2024 Small Business Credit Survey.
Small-business financing outcomes
In the same 2024 survey, an estimated 36.8% of employer firms applied for a loan, line of credit, or merchant cash advance during the prior 12 months. The estimate has a credibility interval of plus or minus 1.6 percentage points. The estimated approval rate for those applications was 79.5%, with a credibility interval of plus or minus 2.7 percentage points.
Approval outcomes differed by lender type. Among applicants at small banks, 54% were fully approved, 22% partially approved, and 24% denied. At finance companies, 47% were fully approved, 27% partially approved, and 25% denied. Credit unions fully approved 47%, partially approved 31%, and denied 23% of applicants.
Large banks fully approved 45% of applicants, partially approved 34%, and denied 21%. Community development financial institutions fully approved 30%, partially approved 25%, and denied 45%. Online lenders fully approved 32%, partially approved 23%, and denied 45%.
| Lender type | Fully approved | Partially approved | Denied |
|---|---|---|---|
| Small banks | 54% | 22% | 24% |
| Finance companies | 47% | 27% | 25% |
| Credit unions | 47% | 31% | 23% |
| Large banks | 45% | 34% | 21% |
| Community development financial institutions | 30% | 25% | 45% |
| Online lenders | 32% | 23% | 45% |
The lender comparisons describe outcomes among 2024 survey applicants and use the survey’s categories. They do not establish that one lender type causes a particular outcome, because firms applying to different lender types may differ in size, needs, credit history, or financing request.
Source: 2025 Report on Employer Firms: Findings from the 2024 Small Business Credit Survey.