State tax receipts show gains in consumer, business spending

A resurgence in consumer and business spending has helped boost Arkansas tax collections 7% above the same fiscal period in 2009.

The Arkansas Department of Finance & Administration reported Tuesday (Nov. 2) that year-to-date (July-October) total revenues are $1.783 billion, up 7% over the same period in 2009.

Year-to-date gross receipts collections — primarily sales and use tax collections — total $723.2 million, up 7.7% above the 2009 period and up 1% above forecast.

“Growth continues to be driven by Gross Receipts tax (Sales and Use Tax), Corporate Income Tax, and the economically correlated category of withholding income tax. The Gross Receipts tax was up 7.7 percent over last year and the gain was from both consumer and business spending in the state economy,” noted the DF&A memo. “Withholding income tax derived from payrolls was up 6.3 percent in the year-to-date period over the same period a year ago. Overall collections growth was up 7.0 percent, reflecting rebound from weakness in year ago collections.”

Year-to-date individual income tax collections total $800.2 million, up 4% compared to 2009. Year-to-date corporate income tax collections were $120.2 million, up 49.9% from the 2009 period and up 10.3% above forecast.

The October report helped boost the year-to-date figures. October total revenue totals$434.1 million, up 10.7% above 2009. The October report marks the sixth consecutive month of year-over-year gains in total tax collections.

October gross receipts collections totaled $175.2 million, up 7.4% above 2009, and up 1.2% above the forecast.

“Gross collections were above forecast by $3.7 million or 0.9 percent, largely due to high growth in the two largest categories of individual income tax and gross receipts (sales and use tax),” DF& noted in the report.

Recent collection trends may reverse a two-year trend of declines.

Total state revenue of $5.43 billion in fiscal year 2010 was 2.4% below the previous fiscal year and marked the second consecutive year of revenue decline. In fiscal year 2010 (July 1, 2009 – June 30, 2010), total state revenue was down $130.7 million (2.4%), but $73.3 million above budget estimates. The biggest declines were with individual income tax collections and sales and use tax collections — both serving as decent gauges of consumer spending.