Quarterly Summary of State and Local Government Tax Revenue

The Quarterly Summary of State and Local Government Tax Revenue provides quarterly estimates of state and local government tax revenue at a national level, as well as detailed tax revenue data for individual states.  The information contained in this survey is the most current information available on a nationwide basis for government tax collections. 

While the state data records are ultimately from state government sources, the classification of taxes among the different categories is entirely the responsibility of the Census Bureau. Therefore, tax classification might not reflect the actual classification or presentation as requested by the various state government respondents.

Title 13, United States Code, Sections 161 and 182, authorize the Census Bureau to conduct this collection and to request your voluntary assistance.  These data are subject to provisions of Title 13, United States Code, Section 9(b) exempting data that are customarily provided in public records from rules of confidentiality.

The U.S. Congress, federal agencies, state and local governments, educational and research organizations, and the general public utilize these data for the following purposes:  development of gross domestic product estimates, development of the national income and product accounts, and tax policy research.

Key statistics Produced

The summary provides quarterly estimates of property tax revenue and non-property tax revenue for local governments in the United States as well as quarterly estimates of tax revenue for state governments in the United States.

Frequency of Data Products

Data have been collected quarterly since 1962, however information was not released for the 3rd quarter 1992 through the 2nd quarter 1993, Historical aggregate data covering the unpublished quarters are available in the 3rd quarter 1993 publication in Tables 1-3.

Geographic Detail

The files and tables produced by the Quarterly Summary of State and Local Government Tax Revenue contain statistics for state and local governments at the national and state level. 

Publication Level of Detail

Government tax authorities report tax revenues by type of tax. Most local governments report only property tax collections and some report significant non-property revenues such as income and sales taxes. State governments report data for more than 25 types of taxes including personal income, sales, corporate income, motor fuel sales, motor vehicle license, and severance taxes.

In this survey, "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 collection are data on the unemployment compensation "taxes" imposed by each of the state governments. However, all receipts from licenses and compulsory fees, including those that are imposed for regulatory purposes, as well as those designated to provide revenue are included.

Tax revenue is defined to include related penalties. Tax revenue excludes protested amounts, special assessments for public improvements, 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.

Data Dissemination

Viewable and downloadable tables for national totals of state and local government tax revenue, national totals of state government tax revenue, and state government tax collections by state.