US budget surplus rises 23% to $258 billion in April, customs revenue surges

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(Reuters) – The U.S. government posted a $258 billion budget surplus for April, up 23%, or about $49 billion, from a year earlier, reflecting strong tax receipts in the final month of the tax season and surging collections of import duties, the Treasury Department said on Monday.

Treasury reported that net customs duties in April totaled $16 billion, about a $9 billion increase from the year-earlier period. The increase occurred during a month in which President Donald Trump boosted tariffs on Chinese goods to as much as 145% while slapping at least 10% levies on imports of goods from other countries.

The budget results indicate the U.S. collected just over $500 million a day from tariffs in April. Trump last month said the collections were about $2 billion a day.

For the first seven months of the fiscal year, net customs duties totaled $63 billion, compared with $48 billion in the same period a year earlier.

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%.

Treasury reported a $1.049 trillion budget deficit for the first seven months of fiscal 2025, which started Oct. 1, up 23%, or $194 billion, from a year earlier. Fiscal year-to-date receipts of $3.110 trillion and outlays of $4.159 trillion were both records for the month of April, though the deficit itself was not, a Treasury official said.

After accounting for calendar differences that exaggerated outlays recorded in 2024 and $85 billion in deferred tax receipts from California that had boosted fiscal-year 2024 receipts, the deficit would have been 4% higher, according to the official.

(Reporting by Ann Saphir; Editing by Paul Simao)