Inactive

BEA provides many economic measurements as part of the National Income and Product Accounts (NIPAs) and Input-Output Accounts (I-O). The NIPAs and I-O are used for a variety of purposes in setting nat... BEA provides many economic measurements as part of the National Income and Product Accounts (NIPAs) and Input-Output Accounts (I-O). The NIPAs and I-O are used for a variety of purposes in setting national economic policy and in forecasting and interpreting macroeconomic and industry level activity. As the nation’s accountant and one of the world’s leading statistical agencies, BEA collects source data, conducts research and analysis, develops and implements estimation methodologies and disseminates statistics to the public. Attaining preliminary tax data will allow for the most precise estimates for the advance and second estimates, reduce manual processing, and reduce the magnitude of revisions for the monthly Government national accounts and Personal Income and Outlay release. BEA requires preliminary tax data for three series: general sales tax, personal income tax, and corporate income tax. The timing of this data should coincide with the second estimate and it is replaced by Census Quarterly Summary of State and Local Taxes (QTax) data during the third estimate. The primary source data for state taxes during the Current Estimate is the QTax data. Due to the timing of the survey release, however, this data is only available during the third estimate. During the advance and second estimates, many tax series are extrapolated using moving average trends. For the major sources of state tax revenue, general sales tax, individual income tax, corporate income tax and severance tax, a collection of monthly state revenue reports is utilized during the advance and second estimates. Currently, the preliminary tax data BEA wants to purchase is primarily used to validate the state revenue report data and to fill in any missing state data to increase sample coverage rates and reduce revisions for subsequent data releases.