- Massachusetts Department of Revenue
Thursday, January 5, 2012
Robert R. Bliss
blissr@dor.state.ma.us
617-626-2369
Monthly collection is $87 million under benchmark; income tax cash estimated payments are $93 million below benchmark; FY12 collection is $252 million ahead of a year ago and $49 million below benchmark
BOSTON – Thursday, January 5, 2012 – Massachusetts Department of Revenue Commissioner Amy Pitter today announced that preliminary revenue collections for December 2011 totaled $1.969 billion, down $103 million or 5.0 percent from last December.
Total tax collections were $87 million below the monthly benchmark based on the revised FY12 revenue estimate of $21.010 billion.
December is a significant month for tax collections, as withholding payments start to reflect year-end bonuses, final corporate/business estimated payments are due and some taxpayers begin to make their final individual income estimated payments for the year in December (the payments are due on January 17, but are paid by some taxpayers in December so that they can deduct the payments on the current year’s federal income tax returns), with other taxpayers not making these payments until January.
FY12 year-to-date (YTD) tax collections total $9.847 billion, up $252 million or 2.6 percent from the same period a year ago, and are $49 million below benchmark.
Income tax cash estimated payments were $93 million under benchmark, pushing December income tax collections overall to $95 million under benchmark. Sales tax collections for the month came in $27 million over benchmark, while corporate and business tax collections were $23 million under benchmark.
“At this point we do not know whether December’s cash estimated payments are affected by timing related factors which could lead to a jump in January collections. The postmark due date of December 31 fell on a weekend this year, and there were two fewer deposit days in December, so it is possible that may push some income tax cash estimated payments into January. We should have a more complete picture on income tax cash estimated payments later this month,” said Pitter.
December withholding collections totaled $930 million, up $36 million or 4.0 percent, $4 million above benchmark. FY12 YTD withholding collections total $4.771 billion, up $174 million or 3.8 percent from a year ago and are $58 million below the year-to-date (YTD) benchmark.
December income tax estimated payments totaled $192 million, down $90 million or 32.0 percent and $93 million below benchmark. Estimated payments are due on January 17, therefore, income tax estimated payments received in December and January should be considered together. YTD income tax estimated payments are $686 million, down $33 million or 4.6 percent from a year ago and $84 million below the YTD benchmark.
YTD overall income tax collections total $5.502 billion, up $215 million or 4.1 percent from a year ago, $118 million below benchmark
December sales tax collections totaled $426 million, up $24 million or 6.0 percent and $27 million above benchmark.
YTD sales tax collections total $2.532 billion, up $40 million or 1.6 percent from a year ago and are $30 million above benchmark. (A year ago at this time, the Commonwealth was collecting monthly sales tax on alcohol; the tax was repealed effective Jan. 1, 2011; thus, the baseline monthly sales tax collection is up 4.3 percent for the year.)
December 2011 corporate and business tax collections totaled $255 million, down $62 million or 19.5 percent and $23 million below benchmark.
YTD corporate and business tax collections total $898 million, down $35 million or 3.7 percent, and $20 million above benchmark.
FY2012 Year-to-Date Tax Revenue through December 31, 2011
December 2011 Tax Collection Summary (preliminary as of January 5, 2012)
