Preliminary Research for Replacing or Supplementing the Self-Employment Income Question on the American Community Survey with Administrative Records

• Activity Number: 508 - Administrative Records and Record Linkage
• Type: Contributed
• Date/Time: Wednesday, August 2, 2017 : 10:30 AM to 12:20 PM
• Sponsor: Government Statistics Section
• Author(s): Jessica Majercik*
• Companies: U.S. Census Bureau
• Keywords: Administrative Records ; Self-Employment ; Income ; Survey Burden ; Tax

Abstract

As detailed in the report, "Agility in Action: A Snapshot of Enhancements to the American Community Survey" (Census Bureau, 2015), the Census Bureau is investigating ways to reduce the difficulty and length of the American Community Survey (ACS) using administrative records to address the burden survey participation places on respondents. This presentation explores three major topics: the linkage of tax year 2014 Internal Revenue Service (IRS) 1040 individual income tax returns to the 2014 ACS sample, the presence of comparable IRS data for the ACS self-employment income question, and the agreement of these IRS data with ACS self-reported and imputed responses.