US had $106B budget surplus in April, thanks to tax receipts

The Treasury Department says the government posted a budget surplus in April, but the deficit so far for the 2016 year remains wider than it was in 2015.

The April surplus came in at $106.5 billion, down from a surplus a year earlier of $156.7 billion. Aprils are a good month for the budget: Thanks to annual tax receipts, April has registered a surplus in 48 of the past 62 years.

But seven months into the fiscal year, the deficit was $354.6 billion, up from $282.8 billion over the same period a year earlier.

The Congressional Budget foresees the deficit for the full 2016 budget year totaling $534 billion, an increase of 21.9 percent from the 2015 deficit of $439 billion, which had been the smallest deficit in eight years.