Cash Flows: Gross Total Income vs Income Sources Total

Discover the comparison between total gross income and cashflows through an income sourcing table.

Last published on: October 15, 2025

For tax purposes, Gross Total Income includes all income from cash flows that can be used for spending and any passive income that is not necessarily available as a cash flow but is still potentially taxable. This second category includes undistributed dividends, interest, and capital gains from turnover (but not from withdrawals) in taxable investment accounts.

Typically, if you see a difference in a calendar year's Total Gross Income in tax views (such as in Tax Lab and in the Cashflows > Taxes graph and table) and the Total Income in other views, such as in Life Hub and in Cashflows > Income Sourcing, this is the source of those differences.
 


 

The Income Sourcing graph/table excludes income that is not a cash flow from an investment account or is otherwise available for spending. Therefore, any passive investment income within taxable accounts (like dividends and capital gains from turnover) is not included in this amount.


Though this distinction may at times be confusing, it reflects a focus in most parts of Income Lab on income and withdrawal flows as 'income', not on the more technical tax-based definition of income, which can include amounts never actually received by clients.