I get pretty excited about tax return data. You may recall my really tactful idea earlier this year of asking a blind date for their 1040. It hasn’t really picked up social acceptance yet, but I’m still hopeful, because they can tell you so much about a person. How much do they earn? What kind of home do they own? Do they have children? Are they generous with charitable contributions? It’s enough to fill a Jane Austen novel. (If you’re new to this IRS data, I suggest a read of the earlier blog post.)
So, naturally, I’m excited that we now have an additional year of tax data from the IRS, for 2013. And even more excited to report some new goodies that will make all the data even more useful.
The first thing we have is 11 new groups of indicators. Each group has data on the number of returns with the credit/deduction/tax/etc., percent of all returns with it, total amount of it in the area (for example, total amount of charitable contributions in a zip code), and average amount of the thing in the area.
Here are the new topics:
- Additional Medicare Tax (part of the Affordable Healthcare Act)
- Net Investments Tax (also part of the ACA)
- Self-employment tax
- Total income
- IRA payments
- Self-employment health insurance deductions
- Student loan interest deductions
- Tuition and fees deductions
- Non-refundable education credits (such as the lifetime learning credit and the American Opportunity Credit)
- Refundable education credits (an additional portion of the American Opportunity Credit)
- Retirement savings contribution credits
If you are attending APLU this year, we hope you’ll stop by the exhibits to find out why a growing number of universities are subscribing to PolicyMap for university administration, faculty and staff research, and student projects. Please visit us at the APLU exhibits – Booth #19 to see a live demonstration of PolicyMap.
