Income Tax Refunds Hurt February Overall Revenues
by March 2, 2012 4:29 pm 77 views
Arkansas’ February tax revenues netted $190.1 million for the month — down 11.2% from a year ago and 10.6% below forecast.
While gross receipts and individual income taxes were higher, income tax refunds were also higher offsetting potential gains.
“Business and consumer components of sales tax collection growth have been inconsistent over the year. Also, offsetting some of the positive factors is a large increase in corporate refunds earlier in the year and a surge in the number of individual refunds processed in February,” said the Department of Finance and Administration in a report released in conjunction with the monthly revenue figures.
For the month, individual income taxes rose to $193.8 million, an 8.8% increase from the previous year and 5.8% above forecast. But refunds totaled $153.2 million, $40.0 million above last year and also $33.6 million above forecast.
Corporate income taxes were just $4 million, a decrease of $1 million, down 20% from last year and 23.8% below forecast.
Gross receipts were higher in February, too. Total gross receipts collections were $167.9 million, an increase of $5.6 million or 3.4% from last year. Collections were above monthly forecast levels by $0.3 million, or 0.2%.
Year-to-date net available general revenues total $2.99 billion, $54.2 million or 1.8% above year ago levels. Eight months into the fiscal year, net available revenue is above forecast by $20.2 million, or 0.7%.
“Among major revenue categories, both individual and corporate income taxes are above forecast and sales tax collections (gross receipts) are down year-to-date relative to forecast,” said the Department of Finance and Administration report. “The key components of individual income tax are on forecast or ahead for the year, including withholding tax and estimated payments. The sales tax results improved slightly in February relative to forecast, but year-to-date results reflect a combination of generally weak retail sales earlier in the fiscal year and adverse one-time comparisons in business transactions in the first two months of the fiscal year.”