The Annual Survey of State Government Tax Collections (STC) provides a summary of taxes collected by the fifty state governments, as well as all dependent state-level governmental entities, for 5 broad tax categories and up to 25 tax subcategories. The tables and data files produced, present the details on tax collections by type of tax imposed and collected by state governments.

While the 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.

Legal Authority and Confidentiality

Title 13, United States Code, Sections 161 and 182, authorizes 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.

Primary Customers and Users

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.

Products

Key Statistics Produced

The survey provides a summary of taxes collected for state governments in the United States and is the only comprehensive source of details on tax collections by type of tax imposed and collected by state governments in the United States.

Frequency of Data Products

Data for taxes collected for state governments are available on an annual basis, going back to 1939. The statistics reflect state government fiscal years that end on June 30, except for four states with other ending dates: Alabama and Michigan (September 30), New York (March 31), and Texas (August 31).

Geographic Detail

The files and tables produced by the Annual Survey of State Government Tax collections contain annual statistics for state governments only. They should not be interpreted as state-area data (state government plus local government tax collections combined).

Publication Level of Detail

Statistics on the State Government Tax Collections Survey include measurement of tax by category: Property Tax, Sales and Gross Receipts Taxes, License Taxes, Income Taxes, and Other Taxes. Each tax category is broken down into sub-categories (e.g., motor fuel sales, alcoholic beverage sales, motor vehicle licenses, alcoholic beverage licenses, and so on). There are currently 25 different tax codes that state tax revenue may fall into.

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 further defined to include related penalty and interest receipts of a government, but to exclude protested amounts 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.

For further information on what is measured and how data are classified please consult Chapter 4 of the Government Finance and Employment Classification Manual.

Data Dissemination

Downloadable spreadsheet of the U.S. and state summary tables and a flat data file providing detailed tax item data for each of the 50 state governments is produced in the Spring of each year for the prior fiscal year.