Q:

What is the impact of deleted answers on tag badge progression?

I know that deleting a downvoted answer gives back the reputation lost, but I wonder if the votes still impact the progression of tag badges. E.g. gold badge, has the following description:

Gold tag badge
You must have a total score of 1000 in at least 200 non-community wiki
  answers to achieve this badge

Do deleted answers count in the "total score" needed to get the badge?

A:

The answer simply stops counting.
From the List of all badges with full descriptions, the Tag Badges section:

A tag score is basically the combined total of all the upvotes (+1) and downvotes (-1) you've accumulated on answers under that specific tag (votes on questions do not count). As well, posts which are in community wiki status or that have been deleted do not count towards your tag score. Tag scores are only recalculated once daily, at 03:00 UTC.

Emphasis is my own. In other words, any votes on any answers that are deleted will not count toward your score. If you had a score of 50 on an answer, and it gets deleted, that score is removed from your progress. Likewise, if you have a score of -5 on an answer, and it gets deleted, your progress goes back up 5.
Note that tag badges, unlike other badges, can be lost. This means if an answer is deleted and it puts you under the criteria for the tag badge, you lose that badge.
Basically, it's like the answer never even existed.

