999999 = N.I.U. (Not in Universe).

Description

FEDRETIR reports the federal retirement payroll deduction of an individual filing federal income taxes. This variable may be relevant only for workers employed by the federal government and may refer to the year's total retirement contributions withheld from such an individual's pay, to help fund retirement benefits via programs such as Civil Service Retirement or Federal Employees Retirement Systems. Census Bureau documentation on this variable is particularly sparse; the IPUMS-CPS staff welcomes clarification of the meaning of this variable from users.

FEDRETIR, like other tax-related variables included in the ASEC CPS (ADJGINC, CAPGAIN, CAPLOSS, EITCRED, FEDTAX, FICA, FILESTAT, MARGTAX, STATETAX, TAXINC, and household level variable PROPTAX) was not determined by direct questioning of respondents. Rather, values for these variables come from the Census Bureau's tax model, which simulates individual tax returns to produce estimates of federal, state, and payroll taxes. The model incorporates information from non-CPS sources, such as the Internal Revenue Service's Statistics of Income series, the American Housing Survey, and the State Tax Handbook. For more information about the model, see Current Population Reports, Series P60-18RD.

Amounts for FEDRETIR are expressed in dollars of the given year, rather than in constant dollars adjusted for inflation. Users can adjust for inflation using Consumer Price Index adjustment factors.

Comparability

Apart from the effects of inflation, the comparability of FEDRETIR may be limited by changes in legislation affecting the payment and retirement benefits of federal workers or by changes in the Census Bureau's tax model. The Bureau implemented a new model to produce tax estimates in 2004, and the previous tax model was updated annually to account for changes in marginal tax rates. The IPUMS-CPS staff invites advice from users about the comparability of this variable over time.

Universe

Flags

Unharmonized Variables

• UH_FEDRET_A1
• UH_FEDRET_A2