How to Read the Census Quarterly Summary of State and Local Tax Revenue — Property, Income and Sales Tax Categories, Adjusted and Unadjusted

As of 29 October 2026 (KST); most recently published quarter: Quarterly Summary of State & Local Tax Revenue, second quarter 2026, from the U.S. Census Bureau. The program page says: "The Second Quarter 2026 data were released on September 10, 2026." The table files are posted at quarter-specific addresses. Primary source: https://www2.census.gov/programs-surveys/qtax/tables/2026/q2t1.xlsx^[1][3][4]

Comparison basis: Table 1 is in millions of dollars and this page shows levels rounded to $0.1 billion; percentage changes are the published figures, which the workbook stores as fractions and this page shows rounded to one decimal. The first five rows are seasonally adjusted and the last two are not. Sales is the category label of Table 1; Table 2, for state governments, splits it into general and gross receipts taxes and selective taxes such as motor fuels, tobacco products and alcoholic beverages. The table notes: "Details may not add to the total due to independent rounding." Tables 1 and 2, the table page and the program pages are all from the Census Bureau and count as one source.^[1][2]

In three lines

1. The quarterly survey estimates tax revenue collected by U.S. state and local governments, nationally and by type of tax, with detail for each state.
2. As published on September 10, 2026, seasonally adjusted state and local tax revenue was $578.7 billion in the second quarter of 2026, up 1.8% from the first quarter and 5.8% from a year earlier.
3. Unadjusted figures swing widely by quarter, so the adjusted and unadjusted rows should not be mixed.^[1][4]

"The Quarterly Summary of State and Local Government Tax Revenue provides quarterly estimates of state and local government tax revenue at a national level, as well as detailed tax revenue data for individual states." "Tax revenue excludes protested amounts, special assessments for public improvements, and refunds."^[5]

Classification. The state figures come from state government sources, but the Census Bureau assigns the tax categories: "Therefore, tax classification might not reflect the actual classification or presentation as requested by the various state government respondents." "The state government tax data presented by the Census Bureau may differ from data published by state governments because the Census Bureau may be using a different definition of which organizations are covered under the term, "state government.""^[5][6]

Local governments. "Most local governments report only property tax collections and some report significant non-property revenues such as income and sales taxes."^[5]

Seasonally adjusted vs not adjusted. Without seasonal adjustment, property tax revenue fell 23.9% from the first quarter and individual income tax revenue rose 37.0%; after adjustment the changes were +0.8% and +3.5% (Table 1). Year-over-year changes are close in both versions, for example +3.6% and +4.0% for property tax. Quarter-to-quarter changes should be read from the adjusted rows.^[1]

State vs local. Table 2 shows state governments collected $6.5 billion of property tax in the second quarter of 2026, not seasonally adjusted, out of $153.5 billion for state and local governments combined in Table 1, about 4.3% when computed from the unrounded millions (6,531 ÷ 153,522.59; this page's calculation). On this page's reading, the remainder is collected by local governments, which fits the program's note that most local governments report only property tax collections.^[1][2][5]

Complete count vs sample. "The survey to obtain tax information from the state governments is a complete enumeration of all state government imposers and as such does not have any sampling error." "The survey of local property tax is a probability sample, and as such, is subject to sampling error." Table 1 gives a coefficient of variation of 1.96% for second-quarter property tax. "Estimated measures of sampling variability are based on estimates not adjusted for seasonal variation, trading day differences, or moving holidays."^[1][6]

Latest quarter vs earlier quarters. Total quantity response rates in Table 1 are lower for the newest quarter: 77.15% for sales tax against 92.43% for the first quarter, and 86.17% for individual income tax against 97.15%. "Imputation is the process of filling in missing or invalid data with reasonable values in order to have a complete data set for analytical purposes." "Data are subject to revisions for up to 7 prior quarters." The table does not say how much the newest quarter will be revised.^[1][6]