Why are there failures in the test_compatible_data tests?

[martinholmer]

Pull request #1614 was recently merged into the master branch and its test_compatible_data.py code has been revised in pull request #1822 to be more consistent with the new policy regime that has been in the current_law_policy.py file since the merge of pull request #1803.

Because of the complexity of test_compatible_data and the scale of changes in what is now current-law policy, there are 7 (out of 45 pre_release tests) failures after #1822. The 11 parameters that failed test_compatible_data are as follows:

taxcalc$ py.test -n4 -m compatible_data 2>&1 | grep ERROR: | grep -v errmsg | sort
ERROR: _ID_BenefitSurtax_Switch not False for cps
ERROR: _ID_Casualty_c not False for puf
ERROR: _ID_Casualty_frt not False for puf
ERROR: _ID_Miscellaneous_c not False for cps
ERROR: _ID_Miscellaneous_c not False for puf
ERROR: _ID_Miscellaneous_frt not False for cps
ERROR: _ID_Miscellaneous_frt not False for puf
ERROR: _ID_crt not False for cps
ERROR: _ID_crt not False for puf
ERROR: _ID_ps not False for cps
ERROR: _ID_ps not False for puf

As you can see, all eleven failing policy parameters have to do with itemized deductions, the rules for which have changed substantially with the passage of TCJA.

I'm not sure how to make these test failures go away. I don't know if the compatible_data field values in the current_law_policy.json file need to be changed or if the code in the test_compatible_data.py file needs to be changed or if there are other problems. Any help would be appreciated.

[MattHJensen]

It looks like these parameters are no longer "active" under the new current law. In order for the tests to pass, baseline changes have to be made here in order to activate these parameters.

For example, ID_Casualty_c isn't active anymore because ID_Casualty_hc is 1 in the new current law. ID_Casualty_hc needs to be below 1 for ID_Casualty_c influence the results, which is what the tests are checking for.

[martinholmer]

@MattHJensen said:

It looks like these parameters are no longer "active" under the new current law. In order for the tests to pass, baseline changes have to be made here in order to activate these parameters.

For example, ID_Casualty_c isn't active anymore because ID_Casualty_hc is 1 in the new current law. ID_Casualty_hc needs to be below 1 for ID_Casualty_c influence the results, which is what the tests are checking for.

Thanks for the explanation. Do you want to make those changes in a new pull request?

[MattHJensen]

Do you want to make those changes in a new pull request?

Coming soon.