SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

The Census Bureau produces state government tax estimates via three programs: the Annual Survey of State Tax Collections, the Annual Survey of State Government Finances, and the Quarterly Summary of State & Local Tax Revenue. The data from these surveys serves a wide variety of data users and meets a wide variety of needs from federal agencies to researchers and academia. The Census Bureau is focused on removing redundancies with the sunsetting of the Annual Survey of State Tax Collections and focusing on data quality of the remaining two programs.

The Annual Survey of State Tax Collections was collected under the authority of Title 13 U.S.C. 182. Section 182 authorizes surveys when “deemed necessary to furnish annual or other interim current data on the subjects covered by the censuses provided for in this title.” Therefore, surveys collected under Section 182 are discretionary, and no current regulations require this survey. Because the Census Bureau can produce estimates of the same quality and content without imposing an additional survey burden, the Annual Survey of State Tax Collections is no longer “necessary to furnish annual or other interim current data” on state taxes.

Determining to eliminate a survey is always a difficult task since there are users of all the data. The Census Bureau has made every effort to determine how data would be impacted and will be mitigating impacts through the programs still produced.

All state tax estimates (5 broad tax categories and up to 25 tax subcategories) currently produced as a part of the Annual Survey of State Tax Collections will still be published as a part of the larger Annual Survey of State Government Finances with no change to current structure. However, this data will be published approximately 9 months later than the traditional STC release, due to the longer processing time for the Annual Survey of State Government Finances. Due to this timing, the Census Bureau will also start producing annualized state government tax estimates as a part of the Quarterly Summary of State & Local Tax Revenue in 2027. These estimates will be produced approximately 1-4 months earlier than currently produced from the Annual Survey of State Tax Collections and will be created to follow the same fiscal year reporting covered by the sunset program and used as input into state government finance data processing. With this change, all annual tax estimates will be retained and released to the public sooner with a reduction in respondent burden exemplifying the commitment of the Census Bureau to identifying efficiencies while continuing to produce quality data that highlights the public sector.

Paperwork Reduction Act

Notwithstanding any other provision of law, no person is required to respond to, nor shall a person be subject to a penalty for failure to comply with a collection of information subject to the requirements of the Paperwork Reduction Act (PRA) unless that collection of information displays a currently valid Office of Management and Budget (OMB) control number. In accordance with the PRA, 44 U.S.C., Chapter 45, OMB approved the STC under the OMB control number 0607-0585.

91 FR 57537