Question

A random telephone survey of 1,021 adults (aged 18 and older) was conducted by an online tax preparation and e-filing service. The survey results showed that 644 of those surveyed planned to file their taxes electronically. (Round your answers to the nearest whole number.)

Required:
a. Develop a descriptive statistic that can be used to estimate the percentage of all taxpayers who file electronically.
b. The survey reported that the most frequently used method for preparing the tax retumis to hire an accountant or professional tax preparer. If 60 of the people surveyed had their tax return prepared this way, how many people used an accountant or professional tax preparer?
c. Other methods that the person filing the retum often used include manual preparation, use of an online tax service, and use of a software tax program. Would the data for the method for preparing the tax return be considered categorical or quantitative?

Answer 1

a. Percentage of all taxpayers who file electronically = 63%

b. The number of people who hire an accountant or professional tax preparer is:

= 613

c. The data for the method of preparing the tax return would be considered CATEGORICAL.

Step-by-step explanation:

Sample of adults aged > 18 = 1,021

Those who planned to file their taxes electronically = 644

This number represents 63% (644/1,021) of the population.

a. We can estimate that percentage of all taxpayers who file electronically as 63%.

b. If 60% of the people surveyed had their tax return prepared by hiring accountants or professional tax preparers, the number of people who did this = 60% of 1,021 = 613

c. Methods for filing tax returns:

Electronic filing

Manual preparation

Online tax service

Software tax program

d. There are four categories here. Data is categorical when the variables take on category or label values. On the other hand, quantitative data take numerical values and can be measured. In this tax filing example, method of tax filing is a categorical variable because a taxpayer can only use one method or be put in one category.