- Massachusetts Department of Revenue
May 1, 2002
Tim Connolly
(617) 626-2369
Revenue Commissioner Alan LeBovidge today announced revenue collections for April totaled $1.35 billion, a decrease of $206 million or 13.3 percent less than last April. Year-to-date revenue collections totaled $12.03 billion, down $1.37 billion or 10.2 percent below last year.
Adjusting for income tax processing delays, collections for fiscal year 2002 are $11 million below the midpoint of the benchmark estimate range, $14.750 billion.
"Delays in processing income tax returns greatly effected the April numbers," LeBovidge said. "That includes checks we normally would have deposited by now and refunds that would have already been in the mail. We expect to catch up over the next few months.''
Faced with a $13 million cut in its fiscal 2002 budget, DOR did not rehire 250 seasonal workers who three shifts a day to process most of about 2 million paper tax returns. Full-time workers redeployed from other DOR divisions have been pitching in, but the processing has fallen several months behind schedule.
Gov. Jane Swift filed a supplemental budget with the support Senate President Thomas F. Birmingham and House Speaker Thomas M. Finneran that included $1 million for DOR so part-time workers could be hired to process returns. That bill is before the Legislature.
Income tax collections for April totaled $886 million, a decrease of $250 million or 22.0 percent. Withholding tax collections totaled $538 million, a decrease of $40 million or 6.9 percent. Sales and use tax collections were $310 million, up $30 million or 10.9 percent. Corporate receipts for April were $38.6 million, up $9.6 million, or 33.3 percent.\
Year-to-date income tax collections total $6.88 billion, a decrease of $1.028 billion or 13.0 percent. Income withholding collections total $6.1 billion, a decrease of $533 million or 8.0 percent. Total sales and use tax collections are $3.07 billion, a decrease of $6.87 million or 0.2 percent. Corporate collections total $454 million, a decrease of $305 million or 40.2 percent.
- Monthly Revenue Report (PDF) (through April 30, 2002)
Monthly revenue, fiscal year-to-date revenue and actual tax collections.
