PROPTAX and taxes paid for tenants

CPS
1

Some households who report sizable property tax payments (PROPTAX) also report rental income (INCRENT).

I am wondering if respondents reported in PROPTAX only the property taxes they paid for their self-occupied residence or if they included property taxes paid on behalf of tenants? (i.e. for property which they own but rent out as opposed to residing in it.)

Unfortunately, the questionnaire text is not available so I couldn’t clarify this question from the variable description.

Thanks a lot for any hints and answers on this!

2

Tax variables in the ASEC are modeled by the Census Bureau, not asked from respondents. You can find details on this process in this paper. Property taxes are only modeled for owner-occupied housing, so PROPTAX would not include property taxes paid for rental properties.

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3

Thanks Matthew!

I wasn’t aware that PROPTAX is imputed/modeled; it doesn’t say so in the variable description and it’s also not listed among the imputed tax variables CAPGAIN, CAPLOSS, EITCRED, FEDRETIR, FEDTAX, FICA, FILESTAT, MARGTAX, STATETAX, and TAXINC. (It starts in the same year as all those variables so I probably should have connected the dots…)

Might be helpful to update the variable info and list to clarify this?

4

Matt is currently out of the office, but I am happy to report that the IPUMS CPS team will be updating the documentation with this information in the near future.

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5

Thanks a lot for the follow up and the update!