Studies of tax incidence usually present estimates based on annual dat
a and then simply note that estimates based on lifetime information wo
uld be preferable but are precluded by data limitations. This article
presents estimates of property tax incidence in both an annual and a l
ife-cycle framework. Under various shifting assumptions, the property
tax appears less regressive in a lifetime sense than an annual one. It
also appears that transitory influences on measured income may be mor
e important than life-cycle issues in causing annual and lifetime tax
incidence profiles to differ