# I am trying to calculate the "spmfedtaxac" var (federal taxes after taking away tax credits) in the CPS SPM. **URL:** \ **Category:** CPS\ **Created:** [November 5, 2015, 5:53pm UTC](https://forum.ipums.org/t/i-am-trying-to-calculate-the-spmfedtaxac-var-federal-taxes-after-taking-away-tax-credits-in-the-cps-spm/1108 "2015-11-05T17:53:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 2\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![hdsper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/d78d45/32.png) [@hdsper](https://forum.ipums.org/u/hdsper)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2015, 5:53pm UTC](https://forum.ipums.org/t/i-am-trying-to-calculate-the-spmfedtaxac-var-federal-taxes-after-taking-away-tax-credits-in-the-cps-spm/1108/1 "2015-11-05T17:53:00Z")
smpfedtax is total federal tax liability after all tax credits have been accounted for. no matter what combination of vars I try, however, i cannot get the amounts listed. Below is an example: . list spmid spmfedtaxbc spmfedtaxac spmeitc spmsttax spmfica actccrd ctccrd if spmid == 10001, noobs spmid spmfedtaxbc spmfedtaxac spmeitc spmsttax spmfica actccrd ctccrd 10001 0 -1140 777 614 2456 363 1637 the amount of tax credits is (777+363+1637), or -2,777 in tax credits. Tax liabilities (fica) are $2,456 subtracting tax credits from fica I get federal taxes of -$321. I tried incoporating state taxes, but the math doesn’t work either. This is not a function of using old ASEC values; the data was downloaded after April 2014. Please advise. Thanks! ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_Moreland](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f1d935/32.png) [@Tim\_Moreland](https://forum.ipums.org/u/Tim_Moreland)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2015, 9:53pm UTC](https://forum.ipums.org/t/i-am-trying-to-calculate-the-spmfedtaxac-var-federal-taxes-after-taking-away-tax-credits-in-the-cps-spm/1108/2 "2015-11-11T21:53:00Z")
For the 2012-2014 ASEC samples, you should use [SPMEITC](https://cps.ipums.org/cps-action/variables/SPMEITC#description_section) and the sum of [ACTCCRD](https://cps.ipums.org/cps-action/variables/ACTCCRD#description_section) values within an [SPMFAMUNIT](https://cps.ipums.org/cps-action/variables/SPMFAMUNIT#description_section). Keep in mind that ACTCCRD values of 99999 should be recoded to zero. Subtracting SPMEITC and the sum of ACTCCRD from [SPMFEDTAXBC](https://cps.ipums.org/cps-action/variables/SPMFEDTAXBC#description_section) equals [SPMFEDTAXAC](https://cps.ipums.org/cps-action/variables/SPMFEDTAXAC#description_section) to within $1 for all respondents in these years. For the 2010-2011 ASEC samples, you need to also subtract the sum of [MWPVAL](https://cps.ipums.org/cps-action/variables/MWPVAL#description_section) within an SPMFAMUNIT. For these years, I am unable to match 2.4% of the sample to within $1 of SPMFEDTAXAC. The small number of cases that differ are either clustered around $400/$800 (maximum values of MWPVAL) or have children but were not assumed to have taken a child tax credit. Since the ACTCCRD and MWPVAL variables are not SPM variables, these discrepancies may be caused by the Census Bureau’s [update](https://cps.ipums.org/cps-action/variables/SPMFEDTAXAC#description_section) of SPMFEDTAXAC values. Hope this helps.