Arkansas YTD tax revenue up 2.4%

Year-to-date tax collection revenue in Arkansas was up 2.4%, with sales tax revenue essentially flat compared to the 2011 period. The driver of tax revenue continues to be individual income tax collections.

Figures released Tuesday (Dec. 4) by the Arkansas Department of Finance and Administration show that the gross tax collection for the first five months of the state’s fiscal year (July-November) is $2.308 billion, up 2.4%, or $54 million, over the 2011 period.

Year-to-date individual income tax collections total $1.087 billion, or 4.9% ahead of the 2011 period. Year-to-date (July 2012-Nov. 2012) gross receipts collections — primarily sales and use taxes — totaled $878.2 million, roughly $200,000 ahead of the 2011 period, and 0.1% below forecast.

November tax collections totaled $427.6 million, up 3.6% compared to November 2011, and 0.9% above the forecast. Individual income tax collections during October were down 3.3%.

“Results were mainly driven by Individual Income tax collections which grew 4.8 percent compared to last year. Sales and Use taxes, including automobile sales tax, were up compared to last year but slightly below forecast,” John Shelnutt, head of the Department of Finance and Administration’s Economic Analysis & Tax Research division, said in the report.

Sales and use tax collections totaled $173.2 million, up 3.8% in November compared to November 2011. The collections, which are a good measure of consumer spending, were 0.4% below forecast.

Year-to-date corporate income taxes totaled $128.7 million, down 6.2% from the 2011 year-to-date last year, and below forecast by 0.7%.

OTHER TAX COLLECTIONS
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

COLLECTIONS HISTORY
Fiscal year 2012 marked the second year of year-over-year gains. Arkansas tax collections reversed a negative two-year slide in the 2011 fiscal year, with collections up 4.5% in the July 2010-June 2011 period.

State tax collections for fiscal year 2011 totaled $5.673 billion, up 4.5% above the $5.43 billion in the 2010 period. 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.

The biggest declines in the 2009 and 2010 fiscal years were with individual income tax collections and sales and use tax collections.