This section contains papers written by members of the Statistics of Income Division of IRS and presented at the 1997 Joint Statistical Meetings of the American Statistical Association.

The views expressed in these papers are those of the authors and are not necessarily the official positions of the Internal Revenue Service.

Citations are included in the papers. For more information about a paper, please send us an email message.

All research papers are available as PDF files. A free Adobe Acrobat reader is available for download, if needed.

Papers

Federal Taxation of Inheritance and Wealth Transfers. PDF
Barry W. Johnson and Martha Britton Eller, Statistics of Income, IRS. March 2001.
For most of the 20th century and at key points throughout American history, the Federal government has relied on estate and inheritance taxes as sources of funding. Central to both historic and current debate over the role of inheritance in democratic society is the divergent characterization of inheritance as either a "right" or a "privilege." This paper provides an understanding of these arguments and of the history surrounding the development of the modern American transfer tax system, as well as a foundation for evaluating current debates and proposals for changes to that system.

Household and Individual Income Data from Tax Returns PDF
Peter Sailer and Michael Weber; Statistics of Income, IRS. April 1998.
This paper attempts to demonstrate some of the consequences of regrouping the traditional Statistics of Income file—either by aggregating the data by household, or by dis-aggregating them into data for individuals—and to hint at some of the analysis these regroupings will allow.

Partnerships in Data Sharing: The Internal Revenue Service and the Bureau of Economic Analysis PDF
Tom Petska: Statistics of Income, IRS. October 1998.
These are remarks given by the author in a Special Contributed Panel discussion at the 1997 Joint Statistical Meetings in Anaheim, CA entitled "Case Studies in Partnerships: How Administrative Agencies and Statistical Agencies Cooperate in the Use of Administrative Records for Statistical Purposes." They include a brief overview of the IRS's and Treasury Department's views on the potential benefits and costs associated with interagency data sharing and a summary of access to IRS tax information by the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) of the Commerce Department.

Taxes and Business Organizational Choice: Deja Vu All Over Again? PDF
Tom Petska; Statistics of Income, IRS. March 1998.
This paper examines business aggregate time series data, in light of the substantial changes to the Internal Revenue Code, which have affected incentives of shifting from one organizational form to another. Data from the major Statistics of Income (SOI) business programs are compiled and examined from 1985 through 1994, the most recent year for which complete data are available.


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