Arkansas Tax Revenues Jump In December On One-time Boost

December tax revenues in Arkansas saw a small spike from a one-time gain, which led to a 3.5% increase in overall collections at the halfway mark in the state’s fiscal year.

Year-to-date net available general revenues climbed to $2.52 billion, up $85.2 million or 3.5% above year ago levels. That figure is 1.3% above forecast.

In December, overall net revenues totaled $472.1 million, a 3.4% rise from a year ago and 0.6% above forecast.

“Results in December included an early deposit to general revenue of $5.7 million from securities fees relative to forecast and prior year experience, an otherwise small contributor to general revenue. This early deposit, recorded as Miscellaneous in the report, offset small variances below forecast in other revenue categories, including Individual Income, Corporate Income, and Sales tax,” said John Shelnutt, director of the Arkansas Department of Finance and Administration’s Economic Analysis & Tax Research Division.

“Individual Income tax receipts appear low relative to last year due to the impact of income tax strategy last year as reflected in the comparisons. We expect this adverse comparison to continue across the remainder of the fiscal year in a variety of individual income tax components,” Shelnutt added.

State forecasters have warned that due to tax breaks that ended in 2012 many taxpayers declared extra income before the end of that year, which was recorded in 2013 state tax collections. Revenue officials have predicted that there would not be a similar boost at the end of 2013 and therefore 2014 tax collections would not compare favorably.

Additional year-to-date figures included:

Year-to-date Individual Income Taxes: Year-to-date individual income tax collections total $1,360.9 million, $30.0 million or 2.3 percent above FY 2013 collections and $0.4 million or fractionally above forecast. Collections for individual withholding are up 0.8 percent from year ago levels.

Year-to-date Sales and Use Tax Collections: On a year-to-date basis, sales and use taxes total $1,100.8 million, an increase of $41.7 million or 3.9 percent from FY 2013 and $1.9 million or -0.2 percent below forecast.

Year-to-date Corporate Income Taxes: Year-to-date corporate revenues total $203.6 million, an increase of $12.2 million or 6.4 percent from year-to-date FY 2013. Corporate income is above forecast by $9.1 million or 4.7 percent.

You can access the full report here.