After-tax money income estimates of households: 1983
Nelson, C.T.
Current population reports. Series P-20, Population characteristics 1985(143): 1-53
1985
ISSN/ISBN: 0363-6836 PMID: 12314091 Document Number: 418502
This report provides an improved measure of year to year changes in household purchasing power and of differences in purchasing power between subgroups of the US population. 4 types of taxes are simulated and subsequently deducted from the total money income received by households in order to estimate after tax income: 1) federal individual income taxes; 2) state individual income taxes; 3) FICA and Federal retirement payroll taxes; and 4) property taxes on owner occupied housing. Results show that: 1) mean household income after taxes was $20,000 in 1983, up by 2.4% over the 1982 figure after accounting for the 3.2% rise in consumer prices; 2) this mean household income before taxes ($25,400) increased between 1982 and 1983 by 1.2%; 3) taxes absorbed about 21% of the total money income received by households, down slightly from 22% in 1982; 4) households paid an average of $5890 in taxes in 1983, about $170 lower than paid in 1982; 5) the mean after tax income of households increased in 1983 in the Northeast, South, and West regions, but in the Midwest region no significant increase was observed; 6) married couples with children recorded a real increase of 2.6% in mean after tax income, yet married couples without children had after tax incomes that were 3.3% higher in 1983; and 7) the mean income after taxes for households with a householder age 65 years and over showed no significant increase in 1983. The payment of the 4 types of taxes simulated in this study reduced the income available to households by about $463 billion in 1983. 92% of US households paid 1 or more of the taxes covered in this study in 1983. The combination of Internal Revenue Service (IRS) tax return statistics with the March Current Population Survey (CPS) income data may affect these estimates to a small degree because the IRS returns include these units which are not contained in the CPS universe: 1) prior year delinquent returns; 2) returns of Armed Forces members living overseas or on base without families; and 3) returns of decedents.