Income Tax Growth Steadies State Revenues

Individual income taxes continue to support modest growth in Arkansas' overall state revenues, as sales tax collections remain almost flat compared to forecast.

In its November revenue report, Department of Finance and Administration officials noted that year-to-date net available general revenues totaled $1.97 billion, up 2.8% above last year's levels and 0.2% above forecast.

For the month of November, general revenues rose 2.3% above the previous year and 1.3% above forecast.

“Results were mainly driven by individual income tax collections which grew 4.8% compared to last year,” the report noted. “Sales and use taxes, including automobile sales tax, were up compared to last year but slightly below forecast.”

The rundown of key revenue categories for November include:

• November Individual Income Tax collections totaled $192.5 million. Collections increased by $8.8 million, or 4.8 percent compared to last year.  With respect to the forecast, collections are $4.9 million or 2.6 percent above forecast.
• November Sales and Use Tax Collections: November collections totaled $173.2 million, an increase of $6.3 million or 3.8 percent from last year. Collections were below monthly forecast levels by $0.6 million or -0.4 percent.
• November Corporate Income Tax collections totaled $10.6 million, an increase of $0.5 million or 4.7 percent above year earlier levels, but $0.9 million or -7.4 percent below forecast.

Other tax collections include:

Alcoholic beverage
July 2012 – Nov. 2012: $20.7 million
July 2011 – Nov. 2011: $20 million

Games of skill
July 2012 – Nov. 2012: $13.5 million
July 2011 – Nov. 2011: $9.7 million

Tobacco
July 2012 – Nov. 2012: $104.2 million
July 2011 – Nov. 2011: $97.2 million

Insurance
July 2012 – Nov. 2012: $42.5 million

July 2011 – Nov. 2011: $41.6 million