FAMILY-BASED STATISTICS OF INCOME

For many years the Utah State Tax Commission has produced detailed statistical reports based on federal tax returns filed by residents of the state. These reports have always been return-based, by which we mean that the primary unit of analysis was the tax return. One problem with this approach, for example, was that minors working part-time were not grouped with their families and thus, our statistics always showed a high number of returns in the low-income classes. Since 1993, we have also produced a Family-Based Statistics of Income

This report groups returns into larger units, such as households or families. What we have done is group returns that show the same last name, ZIP Code, and first part of the address into a unit, generally a family. What this will do is group minors with their parents, if they use the same name and address. It would also group a married couple living with the husband's parents (same last name). However, it would not group a married couple living with the wife's parents (different last names).

This publication reports for the State, for counties, for ZIP Codes, and for the first time, for cities, since many users have requested that data. We have also included a table reporting mean and median incomes (AGI) for cities, using both a return approach and a "family" approach.

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