# Variables with similar info to deprecated PROPTAX in ASEC **URL:** \ **Category:** CPS\ **Created:** [January 22, 2021, 7:16pm UTC](https://forum.ipums.org/t/variables-with-similar-info-to-deprecated-proptax-in-asec/3939 "2021-01-22T19:16:44Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 3\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Max\_Ghenis](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex019/user_avatar/forum.ipums.org/max_ghenis/32/295_2.png) [@Max\_Ghenis](https://forum.ipums.org/u/Max_Ghenis)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2021, 7:16pm UTC](https://forum.ipums.org/t/variables-with-similar-info-to-deprecated-proptax-in-asec/3939/1 "2021-01-22T19:16:44Z")
The 2020 ASEC no longer contains the PROPTAX variable: [IPUMS CPS: descr: PROPTAX](https://cps.ipums.org/cps-action/variables/PROPTAX#availability_section) Given the importance of property taxes for calculating federal tax liability, is there another variable that contains similar information? ---
**Author:** ![Matthew\_Bombyk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/34f0e0/32.png) [@Matthew\_Bombyk](https://forum.ipums.org/u/Matthew_Bombyk)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2021, 10:01pm UTC](https://forum.ipums.org/t/variables-with-similar-info-to-deprecated-proptax-in-asec/3939/2 "2021-01-25T22:01:42Z")
I’m not aware of any variable with similar information. You might find [this document](https://www.census.gov/library/working-papers/2016/demo/wheaton-stevens-2016.html) helpful for comparisons of different tax calculators, though it doesn’t seem to have a lot of detail on property tax imputation. According to [this paper on the CPS tax model](https://www.census.gov/content/dam/Census/library/working-papers/2004/demo/oharataxmodel.pdf): > Property taxes on owner-occupied housing were simulated using a statistical match to the 1995 American Housing Survey (AHS). Property taxes are used in determining imputed home equity in one of the alternative income definitions. but I haven’t been able to locate more details on this. You may want to reach out to the [Census Bureau](https://www.census.gov/data/what-is-data-census-gov/contact.html) directly. ---
**Author:** ![Matthew\_Bombyk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/34f0e0/32.png) [@Matthew\_Bombyk](https://forum.ipums.org/u/Matthew_Bombyk)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2021, 5:03pm UTC](https://forum.ipums.org/t/variables-with-similar-info-to-deprecated-proptax-in-asec/3939/3 "2021-01-28T17:03:44Z")
I checked with the Census Bureau regarding this question. Here is the answer I received: > The new processing system used for the 2019 CPS ASEC (starting with a Bridge file in 2018 and full production in 2019) is no longer matching to the American Housing Survey (AHS) to pick up the variables needed to create PROP\_TAX on the CPS ASEC file. Under the earlier processing system, imputation for presence of a mortgage and property value-related questions was done with a match to the AHS using a cell hot deck approach. This was done to impute data from the AHS for questions not asked in the CPS ASEC. However, this resulted in a data lag where data from an earlier year’s AHS was used (AHS conducted biennially in odd-numbered years). Because of a redesign of the AHS in 2015, we had been matching to the 2013 AHS. This resulted in the variables needed from AHS to create PROP\_TAX being increasingly out-of-date. In order to remove the processing dependency on another survey and eliminate the lag that would be present in the imputed data, the CPS ASEC does not create PROP\_TAX any longer. They do not have a new model for property taxes using the CPS ASEC, but they shared some documentation for the old model. Page C-3 of [this report](https://www.census.gov/library/publications/1993/demo/p60-186rd.html) lists the procedure for estimating property taxes using the AHS.