Federal, State, and Local Governments State Government Tax Collections Technical Documentation |
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The State Government Tax Collections files and tables contain annual statistics on the fiscal year tax collections of all 50 state governments in the Nation. The statistics are for state governments only. They should not be interpreted as state area data (state plus local government tax collections combined). This technical documentation contains information on the files and tables available for fiscal years 1992 - 1995, as well as the revised file formats for fiscal years 1996 - present. |
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Contents
In this survey and for all Census Bureau surveys on state and local government tax collections, "taxes" are defined as all compulsory contributions exacted by a government for public purposes, except employer and employee assessments for retirement and social insurance purposes, which are classified as insurance trust revenue. Outside the scope of this report, accordingly, are collections for the unemployment compensation "taxes" imposed by each of the state governments and the District of Columbia. Included, however, are all receipts from licenses and compulsory fees, including those that are imposed for regulatory purposes, as well as those designated to provide revenue. Tax revenue is further defined to include related penalty and interest receipts of a government, but to exclude protested amounts and refunds. The deduction from gross collections of amounts refunded is particularly significant with respect to motor fuel sales taxes ("gasoline" taxes) and individual income taxes. The general nature of the several major kinds of taxes shown separately in this report is suggested by their headings. More detailed definitions are contained in the Government Finance and Employment Classification Manual, which can be found on the Governments Division Internet web site. Sources of Data and Limitations Most of the data in this report were gathered by a mail canvass of appropriate state government offices that are directly involved with state-administered taxes. In some instances, data were compiled by trained representatives of the Bureau of the Census from official state government records. In either case, the classification of taxes among the different categories shown here is entirely the responsibility of the Census Bureau, and might not reflect the actual classification or presentation used by the various state government respondents. The statistics are subject to possible inaccuracies in classification, response, and processing. Every effort is made to keep such errors to a minimum through care in examining, editing, and tabulating the data. The tax figures shown are net of refunds. They include amounts of State-imposed taxes collected or received by the state and subsequently distributed to local governments. Locally collected and retained tax amounts are not included in this survey. The tax revenue data pertain to state fiscal years that end on June 30 in all but four states. Amounts shown for these four states reflect the different timing of their respective fiscal years, which were the 12-month periods ending on March 31 for New York, August 31 for Texas, and September 30 for Alabama and Michigan. [In the 1992 - 1995 data files, the fiscal year ending date for the District of Columbia was September 30.] Data have been included in this report for the District of Columbia for the 1992 - 1995 series, even though it is classified as a municipality for Census Bureau survey purposes. These data, displayed on an exhibit basis only, were provided for convenient reference in relation to corresponding data for individual state governments. District of Columbia amounts, if presented, are excluded from national totals of state government tax collections.
The State Government Tax Collections data are available as viewable files, as well spreadsheets and rectangular, fixed format, ASCII text files. Filenames: Viewable Tables: YY##**TAX.html Where:
The population data for each state have been added to the information. The populations are as of July 1 of the survey year. These are taken from the series Estimates of the Population of States: Annual Time Series.(Source: Population Estimates Program, Population Division, U.S. Bureau of the Census, Washington, DC 20233)
The files and tables contain nearly identical content. The data and amount of detail are identical. Variation among them pertains to the descriptions and or the format of the file. For the spreadsheet files, the records are self-explanatory, since they contain descriptive text within the spreadsheet. The same is true of the viewable tables, which can be downloaded as ASCII text files. Users can download these files and import them into any application.
Below are the finance tax codes and population reference with their corresponding description. Further definitions for each code are found in the Government Finance and Employment Classification Manual which may be accessed from the Governments Division Internet web site.
Many users want to manipulate the statistics in accordance with their own
needs. When using the basic data flat file for this survey, it is useful
to know how the item codes were tabulated to arrive at the totals and
subtotals shown in the viewable tables on the website. The individual
item codes that comprise these various aggregates are shown below. They
apply to all survey years.
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